Netflix, Fox and Tesla fall premarket; Baker Hughes, Western Alliance rise

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Wednesday, April 19th. Please refresh for updates.

• Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) stock fell 2.5% after the major lender's first-quarter profit fell as its investment banking business remained under pressure due to a prolonged slump in dealmaking.
• Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock fell 1.3% after the streaming giant’s guidance fell short of expectations even after the launch of its ad-supported tier, and added 1.75 million users in the first quarter, below the expected 2 million.

• Fox (NASDAQ:FOX) stock fell 0.7% after the media giant settled its defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, the largest ever settlement struck by an American media company.

• Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock fell 1.9% ahead of its quarterly earnings as the electric vehicle manufacturer cut prices for some of its Model Y and Model 3 electric vehicles in the United States, the sixth time it has lowered U.S. prices this year.

• United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) stock rose 0.9% after the carrier reported better than expected first quarter results and forecast a profitable second quarter on a surge in travel demand.
• Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR) stock rose 2.5% after the oilfield technology firm beat first quarter profit estimates, boosted by higher demand for its services from oil and natural gas producers.

• Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) stock fell 0.6% after Bloomberg reported that the mass media and entertainment company plans to start cutting thousands of jobs next week, including about 15% of the staff in its entertainment division.

• Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock fell 0.8% after the e-commerce giant announced additional layoffs in its advertising unit on Tuesday, as part of its plan to rein in costs.

• ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) stock fell 0.9% after crude prices adjusted sharply lower Wednesday. However, UBS has upgraded the oil major to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ ahead of its first-quarter earnings report next week, calling it the “leader of the pack”.

• Western Alliance (NYSE:WAL) stock soared 21.5% after the regional lender posted stronger-than-expected earnings and said its deposits had stabilized after the March banking crisis.

• Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) stock fell 1.7% after RBC Capital downgraded the electric vehicle manufacturer to ‘sector perform’ from ‘outperform’, seeing “limited catalysts” ahead.