Check out the companies making headlines before the bell: Applied Materials — Shares tumbled more than 8% after the semiconductor equipment manufacturer offered weak revenue guidance for the current quarter. Applied Materials said it forecasts $7.15 billion in the first fiscal quarter, under the estimate of $7.224 billion from analysts polled by LSEG. The company also reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results and provided a strong outlook for adjusted earnings per share. Alibaba — S hares jumped more than 3% after the Chinese e-commerce giant beat profit expectations in its fiscal second quarter , although its sales disappointed as the company continues to grapple with weaker consumer spending in China. Alibaba’s net income rose 58% year on year, on the back of its equity investment performance. Its revenue of 236.5 billion yuan came out 5% higher year on year but below analysts’ expectations of 238.9 billion yuan, according to LSEG data. Moderna — The biotech company’s shares fell 1.8%, continuing its decline from Thursday following the news that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, was announced as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Domino’s Pizza , Pool Corp. — Shares of the pizza chain jumped about 6% after Warren Buffett ‘s Berkshire Hathaway announced a new stake in Domino’s in a regulatory filing. Berkshire Hathaway bought more than 1.2 million shares, making the investment worth around $550 million at the end of September. Pool Corp. also gained 6% as the conglomerate purchased around 404,000 shares of the swimming pool supplier, worth $152 million at the end of the period. Ulta Beauty — Shares slipped 5% after Berkshire Hathaway revealed in a regulatory filing that it had nearly dissolved its position in the beauty retailer, selling around 97% of its shares. Ulta was a new bet for Berkshire, which had just bought the stock in the second quarter. Palantir — The defense tech stock rose more than 2% after saying it was moving its listing to the Nasdaq Global Select Market from the New York Stock Exchange. The company said it expects to be eligible to join the Nasdaq-100 Index once it makes the switch. — CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Lisa Kailai Han and Pia Singh contributed reporting.
