Wells Fargo, First Republic and Pfizer fall premarket; Seagen and Boeing rise

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Monday, March 13th. Please refresh for updates.

• Banking stocks fell sharply amid contagion worries, with Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) down 3.3%, JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) off 1.2% and Citigroup (NYSE: C) down 2.2%. The regional banks were hit harder, and First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC) dropped over 65%, PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ: PACW) fell over 35% and Western Alliance (NYSE: WAL) slumped over 55%.

• Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) stock rose 2%, with the cryptocurrency exchange platform boosted by the surge in digital currencies after federal action to bail out one of the biggest regulated banks providing services to the sector removed a major immediate threat to it.

• Seagen (NASDAQ: SGEN) stock rose 18% after Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), down 1.9%, announced plans to acquire the biotech company in a deal valued at $43 billion including debt to expand its portfolio of cancer treatments.

• Boeing (NYSE: BA) stock rose 0.7% after Taiwan's Eva Airways (TW:2618) said it would purchase five of the aircraft manufacturer's 787 widebody planes worth $1.78B at list prices.

• Under Armour (NYSE: UA) stock fell 1.78% after JPMorgan downgraded the sports clothing retailer to 'neutral' from 'overweight', citing a prolonged period for the company to work through "inventory overhang."

• United Natural Foods (NYSE: UNFI) stock fell 0.5% after UBS downgraded the organic food company to 'neutral' from 'buy' after the company reported lower earnings and disappointing guidance last week.

• Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock fell 2% after Wolfe Research downgraded its stance on the electric vehicle manufacturer to 'peer perform' from 'outperform', saying the deteriorating macro environment.

• Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) stock rose 0.9% with the chipmaker heading to Europe's second top court seeking to overturn a €242 million (€1 = $1.0660) EU antitrust fine.

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