Stocks have been down for three straight weeks so far in 2022, but Monday didn't make it look as though the fourth week would get off to any better of a start. Investors remain concerned about all the factors that have weighed on sentiment lately, including the ongoing pandemic, the potential for geopolitical conflict in Ukraine, and inflationary pressures and their impact on monetary policy. As of 8:15 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.48%) futures were down 159 points to 33,998. S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.37%) futures had dropped 34 points to 4,357, while Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.34%) futures had declined 175 points to 14,251.
Among stocks trading in the premarket session Monday morning, Kohl's (KSS 2.42%) stood out for its big gains as the story of the department store retailer got a lot more interesting. Meanwhile, Halliburton (HAL 2.67%) reported earnings that gave a hint as to conditions in the oil patch, and even though its stock didn't make a huge move, the report bodes well for how the industry is adjusting to oil's higher prices.
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Kohl's is in demand
Shares of Kohl's rocketed higher by 34% on Monday morning. Over the weekend, the department store retailer received interest from not one but two different potential acquirers.
Late Friday, reports surfaced that Kohl's had gotten a buyout bid worth $9 billion from an investor group backed by the hedge fund Starboard Value. The move came after several activist investors had insisted that Kohl's needed either to put itself up for bid or make major strategic changes in order to avoid the same fate that some failed retailers have suffered in recent years. The price works out to $64 per share.
Then, on Sunday, Kohl's reportedly got a second takeover offer from private equity company Sycamore Partners. Those early reports didn't discover any price that Sycamore might have been willing to pay for Kohl's, but it nevertheless raised at least the possibility of a bidding war for the retailer.
Some have questioned activist investors' motives for suggesting changes in Kohl's operations, merely suggesting that a quick boost in the stock price is their primary aim. If that's the case, then those activists got their wish on Monday morning. Whatever actions they take from here on out will reveal their true intentions regarding the company.
Feeling the energy
Meanwhile, shares of Halliburton were down more than 2%. The move came despite solid performance from the oil services provider in its fourth-quarter results.
Halliburton reported a 32% rise in revenue from year-ago levels, with total sales coming in at $4.28 billion. A massive tax-related gain of more than half a billion dollars boosted earnings dramatically, but even after accounting for that benefit, adjusted net income of $320 million was 29% higher year over year. Adjusted earnings of $0.36 per share showed similar gains from year-earlier results.
Growth in Halliburton's business was steady across its two major segments, with completion and production sales climbing 30% and drilling and evaluation posting a 35% rise. Gains were also evenly split geographically across its North American and international segments, with the biggest regional bump coming from the Middle East and Asia.
CEO Jeff Miller pointed to better times ahead, asserting his excitement about what he called "the accelerating multi-year upcycle" for the energy industry. That confidence also led Halliburton to boost its dividend from $0.045 per share quarterly to $0.12 for the first quarter of 2022, pleasing income and growth investors alike.
