Stocks Moving Premarket: UnitedHealth Jumps on a Raised Outlook, JPMorgan Rises Despite an EPS Miss and Chip Stocks Slide Again
UnitedHealth rose about 3% after beating estimates and lifting its profit outlook, JPMorgan edged up despite missing on earnings, and memory chipmakers fell again as South Korea's Kospi dropped 5.5%. Plus Wednesday's CPI and the rest of this week's calendar.
U.S. stock futures were mixed Tuesday, Oct. 13, as the big banks began reporting third-quarter earnings. Premarket, Dow futures were up roughly 0.1% to 0.6%, S&P 500 futures were close to flat and Nasdaq 100 futures were down about 0.5% to 0.6%, depending on the source and the time of the reading. UnitedHealth led the gainers after raising its 2026 profit outlook, JPMorgan edged higher even though its earnings per share missed, and chip stocks fell for a second day after a sharp drop in Seoul. Wednesday's September CPI report is the next big test.
Economic calendar: today and this week
The Fed raised its target range by 25 basis points to 3.75% to 4.00% on Sept. 16, its first hike since July 2023, and the median projection points to one more quarter-point hike in 2026. As of early October, CME FedWatch pricing showed about a 20% chance of a hike at the Oct. 27 to 28 meeting and about an 81% chance of at least one hike by December, according to Admiral Markets. Those odds move with every data release. All times are Eastern, and "—" means the sources did not give a time.
| Day | Time | Event |
|---|---|---|
| Tue, Oct. 13 | Before the open | Earnings: JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Johnson & Johnson, Domino's (UnitedHealth reported earlier) |
| Tue, Oct. 13 | — | September existing-home sales; Fed officials Christopher Waller, Tom Barkin and Susan Collins scheduled to speak |
| Wed, Oct. 14 | 8:30 AM | Consumer Price Index (September). Headline expected near 3.7% year over year and core near 2.5%, per TradingKey; the Cleveland Fed nowcast points to 3.6% and 2.4%. August was 3.4% and 2.4% |
| Wed, Oct. 14 | 2:00 PM | Fed Beige Book; Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock earnings |
| Thu, Oct. 15 | 8:30 AM | Producer Price Index (August was +0.4% month over month and +5.4% year over year), retail sales and weekly jobless claims; Empire State and Philadelphia Fed manufacturing surveys |
| Thu, Oct. 15 | — | Earnings: Taiwan Semiconductor, Charles Schwab, PNC, U.S. Bancorp |
| Fri, Oct. 16 | 8:30 AM / 9:15 AM | Import and export prices; industrial production and capacity utilization; monthly options expiration (third Friday); Travelers and Truist earnings |
Consensus figures come from third-party previews and can change. Sources did not give consensus numbers for PPI or retail sales.
Notable premarket moves
| Company | Ticker | Premarket | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| UnitedHealth | UNH | +2.8% | Third-quarter adjusted EPS of $4.69 beat the $4.14 estimate and it raised its 2026 adjusted EPS floor to at least $20.50; shares near $389 |
| VF Corp | VFC | +3.9% | Piper Sandler and Truist upgraded the stock, citing signs of stabilization at Vans; both set $20 targets |
| JPMorgan Chase | JPM | +1.9% | EPS of $5.57 missed estimates (about $5.90); excluding a $658 million investment-securities loss it earned $5.75. Sources put the gain between about 1% and 2% |
| Wells Fargo | WFC | -1.5% | EPS of $1.87 beat the $1.85 estimate, but revenue of $21.87 billion missed the $22.31 billion FactSet consensus |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | -2.9% | Revenue and adjusted EPS beat, but medtech sales rose only 2.5%, which the company partly blamed on geopolitical issues |
| Domino's Pizza | DPZ | -3.1% | EPS of $4.60 and revenue of $1.185 billion beat, but U.S. same-store sales growth slowed to 0.3% |
| Western Digital | WDC | -3.6% | UBS cut its target to $470 from $525 and kept a Neutral rating; also hit by the memory selloff. Another source had it down nearly 5% |
| Micron | MU | -2.3% | Second day of memory-chip selling after China's CXMT flagged progress on a new DRAM design; other sources put the drop near 3% |
| Marvell Technology | MRVL | -2%+ | Part of the broader chip selloff |
Goldman Sachs also reported before the open, with third-quarter EPS of $17.01 on net revenue of $18.68 billion; we could not confirm its premarket move. Citigroup's results were due the same morning and are not covered here. Elsewhere in chips, Broadcom, AMD and Nvidia were down about 1% each. Premarket quotes can change sharply by the open, and the sources do not always agree on the size of a move.
Futures, chips and oil
Readings differ by source. Investing.com at 5:50 a.m. ET had Dow futures up 0.61%, S&P 500 futures up 0.03% and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.51%. Yahoo Finance's ticker showed the Dow up 0.66%, the S&P 500 down 0.02%, the Nasdaq 100 down 0.54% and Russell 2000 futures up 0.41%. BNN Bloomberg reported S&P 500 down 0.1%, Dow up 0.1% and Nasdaq down 0.6%.
The chip weakness started in Asia, where South Korea's Kospi fell 5.5%, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix down roughly 7% to 10% depending on the report. Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.8% and Taiwan's Taiex 2%. West Texas Intermediate crude fell about 2% to near $91.80 and Brent about 2% to near $104.50 after the administration temporarily eased restrictions on Russian diesel supplies, according to TheStreet. The 10-year Treasury yield was near 5.24% on Yahoo Finance's ticker, and gold was near $4,210 an ounce.
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