U.S. stock futures edged up Tuesday, suggesting that gains in technology stocks will help send the S&P 500 to an all-time high. Here’s what we’re watching ahead of the opening bell.

  • Palo Alto Networks jumped 13% in premarket trading after the cybersecurity company said it expects record revenue this year and released guidance for profit above Wall Street’s forecasts.

Shares of Palo Alto Networks surged premarket on Tuesday.

Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News

  • Crowdstrike Holdings, another cybersecurity company, rose 4.7% premarket after Nasdaq said it will add the stock to its Nasdaq-100 index on Thursday.
  • Tesla edged up 0.7%. CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the car company’s self-driving software, dubbed FSD Beta 9.2, wasn’t great but Tesla’s Autopilot/AI team was working to improve it as fast as possible. Nine hours later, he posted “Just drove FSD Beta 9.3 from Pasadena to LAX. Much improved!”
  • Best Buy rose 4.7% premarket after it posted earnings per share well above estimates and raised its guidance for same-store sales.
  • Medical device company Medtronic rose 1.4% after reporting earnings that beat analysts’ estimates from a rise in elective procedures.
  • U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies rose following a strong day for Hong Kong technology stocks. E-commerce platform Pinduoduo rose more than 11% and JD.com jumped 8.9%. Video-sharing firm Bilibili climbed 7%, search provider Baidu rose 4.7% and gaming giant NetEase added 5.3%.
  • Zscaler shares rose 2.9% premarket. The cybersecurity company’s shares have also risen for the past four consecutive trading sessions.
  • Nordson, a manufacturer of precision technologies, added 3.9% after it announced it will acquire NDC Technologies from Spectris for $180 million in cash. NDC designs, develops and produces process measurement and control instrumentation for the food, bulk and tobacco industries.
  • Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, home builder Toll Brothers and financial software developer Intuit are slated to report their results after markets close.
Chart of the Day
  • Prices for municipal bonds surged as comments by President Biden ignited tax-increase fears and local governments weather the Covid-19 pandemic better than expected.

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