Apple, Beyond Meat Rise Premarket; Weibo, GameStop, AMC Entertainment Fall By Investing.com

By Peter Nurse 

Investing.com — Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Tuesday, December 14th. Please refresh for updates.

• Apple (NASDAQ:) stock rose 0.7%, set to continue gains after the iPhone maker recorded an all-time high on Monday, equating to a market cap of $2.98 trillion. Already the most valuable company in the world, Apple could become the first to have a $3 trillion market cap. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:) and Evercore have both raised their target prices on the stock this week, as has JPMorgan (NYSE:).

• GameStop (NYSE:) stock fell 3.4% and AMC Entertainment (NYSE:) stock dropped 6.2%, meme stocks in general continuing Monday’s selloff as retail investors free up some cash ahead of the expensive festive period.

• Terminix (NYSE:) stock rose 24% after the pest control company agreed to be bought by U.K.-based Rentokil for $6.7 billion in a cash and stock transaction.

• Merck (NYSE:) stock fell 1.2% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has placed clinical holds on trials testing the company’s HIV drug islatravir.

• Pfizer (NYSE:) stock fell 0.7% despite final analysis of the drugmaker’s antiviral Covid-19 pill that still showed near 90% efficacy in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients. 

• MGM Resorts (NYSE:) stock fell 0.5% after the casino operator agreed to sell the operations of the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas to Hard Rock International for about $1.08 billion in cash.

• Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:) stock rose 5.6% after Piper Sandler upgraded its investment stance to ‘neutral’ from ‘underweight’, saying a nationwide launch at McDonald’s (NYSE:) could happen in the first quarter of next year.

• Weibo (NASDAQ:) stock fell 4.6% after the Chinese social media platform received a 3 million yuan ($470,000) fine from China’s internet regulator for repeatedly publishing illegal information.

• Ralph Lauren (NYSE:) stock fell 4.3% after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) downgraded its investment stance on the fashion company all the way to ‘sell’ from ‘buy’, saying  brand momentum indicators are fading.