Check out the companies making headlines before the market opens. Paramount Global — Shares of the media conglomerate fell nearly 5% after Edgar Bronfman Jr. withdrew his bid for Paramount Global. This clears the way for Skydance Media to take over Shari Redstone’s media empire. Paramount expects the Skydance deal to close in the first half of 2025. above. JD.com (JD.com) — Shares of the Chinese e-commerce stock rose about 3% after the company announced a $5 billion buyback plan between September 2024 and August 2027. ) – Citi downgraded the stock to neutral sell. The company said volume challenges and cocoa inflation could impact profits. Trip.com – The Chinese travel company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results, sending its shares up more than 9%. The company reported revenue of 12.77 billion yuan and adjusted EBITDA of 4.44 billion yuan. Analysts polled by FactSet expected revenue of 12.76 billion yuan and EBITDA of 4.02 billion yuan. Revenue from package tours increased by 42% compared with the same period last year. Apple Inc. – Shares of Apple fell 0.3% after the iPhone maker announced that Kevan Parekh will replace Luca Maestri as chief financial officer effective January 1. Eli Lilly — Shares of Eli Lilly fell 1% after the drugmaker released a new, cheaper version of its weight-loss drug Zepbound to improve access. Heico — Aerospace and defense stocks fell about 0.6% on mixed third-quarter earnings. The aircraft parts maker’s profit topped expectations but missed Wall Street’s revenue forecasts. —CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Hakyung Kim and Yun Li contributed reporting
