S&P 500 opens little changed after benchmark touches record high: Live updates

Ahead of quarterly Apple’s earnings report on Jan. 30, Goldman Sachs maintained its buy rating despite its recent stock weakness.

Shares are currently down 11% in 2025, on track for their worst month since Dec. 2022.

“In our view, the underperformance in 2025 is driven by a post-holiday inventory digestion ahead of weak seasonal period for the stock (January April), which coincides with seasonally negative supply chain data points,” analyst Michael Ng wrote in a Thursday note.

Meanwhile, Ng inched down his price target on shares to $280 from $286.

Ng forecasts the soft start to the year to reverse by mid-2025 with the launches of new Mac, iPad and iPhone SE products in the spring, as well as potentially new product features in the iPhone 17 launch in the fall.

“Competition has intensified within the Chinese smartphone market, but we’re encouraged by the potential for accelerating iPhone growth in F2026 driven by new product innovation for iPhone 17/18 and the continued rollout of Apple Intelligence to new markets with a more robust feature set,” Ng added.

— Hakyung Kim

Goldman Sachs is confident the Walt Disney Company can beat earnings expectations when it reports results next month, driven by strong performance in its movie and sports businesses.

Analyst Michael Ng reiterated a buy rating on the media and entertainment conglomerate, saying that it is a “high quality EPS compounder” with an “undemanding valuation.” He sees a pathway for Disney to outperform over the next three years.

“We expect DIS to deliver an EPS beat in F1Q25 with EPS of $1.57 (v. Visible Alpha consensus of $1.45) with EBIT of $4.69 bn (v. $4.49 bn consensus),” Ng wrote Wednesday. “By segment, we forecast Experiences EBIT of $2.89 bn (v. $2.98 bn consensus), Entertainment EBIT of $1.66 bn (v. $1.49 bn consensus), and Sports EBIT of $151 mn (v. $17 mn consensus).”

His 12-month price target of $139, raised slightly from $137 previously, implies greater than 27% upside for the stock from Wednesday’s close. Disney shares are down more than 2% this year.

— Sarah Min

Initial unemployment insurance claims edged higher last week while continuing claims hit their highest level in more than three years.

First-time benefits filings totaled a seasonally adjusted 223,000 for the week ending Jan. 18, up 6,000 from the previous week and close to the Dow Jones estimate for 221,000.

However, ongoing claims, which run a week behind, rose to just shy of 1.9 million, an increase of 46,000 that took them to their highest level since Nov. 13, 2021. The continuing claims data reinforces a trend in which layoffs have stayed low but appear to be lasting longer.

—Jeff Cox

Check out some of the companies making headlines in premarket trading:

• American Airlines  — Shares sank 8% after the airline forecast an adjusted loss of 20 cents to 40 cents per share for the first quarter. That’s wider than the 2 cent loss expected by analysts LSEG polled. However, American reported an earnings and revenue beat for the fourth quarter. 
• GE Aerospace — Shares gained more than 9% after fourth-quarter results surpassed analyst estimates on the top and bottom line. GE Aerospace reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.32 on revenue of $9.88 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG forecast earnings of $1.04 per share and $9.51 billion in revenue.
• Alaska Air Group — The airline stock advanced about 2% on the heels of better-than-expected quarterly results. Alaska Air also expects a smaller-than-expected loss per share of 70 cents to 50 cents in the current quarter, while analysts polled by FactSet were expecting a loss of 75 cents.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Shares of American Airlines shed more than 7% in the premarket after the airline issued first-quarter guidance that disappointed investors.

The company expects to lose between 20 cents per share and 40 cents per share for the first three months of 2025. Analysts expected a loss of 4 cents per share, according to LSEG.

— Fred Imbert

Earnings reports were driving notable after hours stock moves on Wednesday.

Knight-Swift Transportation — Shares of the transport company gained more than 5% after fourth-quarter results showed improved operating margins. Knight-Swift reported an adjusted 36 cents in earnings per share, above the 33 cents expected by analysts, according to LSEG. 

Alaska Air — The airline stock rose 3% after fourth-quarter results topped estimates on the top and bottom lines. Alaska reported positive net income of $71 million for the quarter after booking a loss a year ago.

Check out more movers here.

— Jesse Pound

Even a strong earnings season will have some negative outliers, and Electronic Arts may be one of those for this cycle.

The video game publisher cut its net bookings guidance for the most recent quarter and its full fiscal year, which ends March 31. EA cited weakness in its Global Football franchise as a reason for the guidance change.

Shares of the company were down more than 10% in extended trading.

— Jesse Pound

Stock futures were little changed at 6 p.m. in New York. Nasdaq 100 futures were down about 0.1%, while futures for the S&P 500 and Dow were both near the flatline.

— Jesse Pound