S&P 500 is flat to start the week as traders look ahead to Fed decision, inflation data:

GameStop shares slipped 1% in volatile trading Monday even after the meme stock had jumped in premarket trading.

The video game company said it was selling additional 75 million shares but Wedbush is skeptical that new cash raised from the stock sale could result in any meaning step in its effort to turn around its struggling business.

“We cannot see how GameStop adds any value by operating any new businesses, particularly not now after its entire C-suite was either terminated or chose to depart,” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said in a note.

Pachter noted that GameStop’s prior strategy to be like Amazon was “an abject failure” as three former Amazon executives it hired to pursue the strategy left the company. Then its plan to sell NFTs fell apart after it partnered with the now defunct FTX, he added.

The analyst believes that the boost GameStop got from meme stock leader Keith Gill could turn out to be short-lived.

“We suspect that today’s live stream from influencer Keith Gill (Roaring Kitty) will keep shares elevated long enough to the company to complete its ATM, but with no clear strategy, we suspect the share price will once again begin to descend and approach our new price target,” Pachter said.

— Yun Li

Natural gas prices have broken above $3 per thousand cubic feet to trade at the highest level since January.

Lower gas production in June combined with a summer heat wave “have conspired to chip away” at the huge storage surplus, according to Bob Yawger, executive director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities.

Natural gas prices have rebounded from a dramatic pull back earlier in the year and are now up up 22% in 2024 and 36% year over year.

However, Yawger cautioned that natural gas is in overbought territory: “Beware of a pullback in coming days,” he said.

— Spencer Kimball

Check out the companies making headlines in premarket trading.

• KKR, CrowdStrike, GoDaddy — Shares of KKR climbed more than 8% while CrowdStrike and GoDaddy added 6% and 3%, respectively. All three companies will join the S&P 500 on June 24, as part of the index’s quarterly rebalance. The three stocks leaving the index are Robert Half, Comerica and Illumina, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Friday. Those stocks were all lower in premarket trading. Shares of Dell Technologies and Palantir Technologies fell 1% and 3%, respectively, amid disappointment that the two stocks weren’t added to the index.
• AMD — Stock in the chipmaker slipped more than 2% following a downgrade from Morgan Stanley, with analyst Joseph Moore saying that Wall Street’s expectations for artificial intelligence benefits may be out of reach.
• DraftKings — The sports betting stock added 1.8% after Morgan Stanley reiterated its overweight rating and said shares were once again worthy of a top pick designation. Morgan Stanley said the stock can rally despite concerns around Illinois’ legalization of a sports betting tax.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

May’s jobs report came in stronger than expected, reducing concerns among investors that the U.S. economy is beginning to slow down.

According to Bank of America, strong macroeconomic fundamentals ultimately mean good things for stocks, even if inflation lingers at higher levels for longer.

“If macro starts to improve, equities should be able to withstand higher levels of inflation. If NFP was just a head-fake and macro slows, inflation would have to come down to support stocks, and it likely will,” the bank wrote.

— Lisa Kailai Han

GameStop shares climbed nearly 8% in premarket trading Monday, set for a rebound from Friday’s big sell-off.

The meme stock had a roller-coaster week, which surged first after Keith Gill, the trader who inspired 2021’s epic mania, shared screenshots of his portfolio holding massive positions in the video game retailer.

GameStop tanked Friday, however, as investors responded to the company’s earlier announcement that sales dropped significantly in the first quarter and that it was selling more stock.

Meanwhile, Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty” on X and YouTube hosted his first livestream in a few years Friday. He revealed that he didn’t have any institutional backers and the GameStop positions he had shared in screenshots were his only bets. Gill also reiterated his previous investing thesis and offered little new reasoning behind his large stake.

The stock plunged nearly 40% Friday, but still posted a 22% gain last week.

JPMorgan upgraded Walmart to overweight and said the shares can rally 23% over the next year and a half to $81, saying it was time to get defensive amid a softening consumer environment.

The firm also gave a macroeconomic reason behind the call.

The upgrade was partly due to “our desire to add more defensiveness to our ratings given signs of softening discretionary spending while we also we stare down a very uncertain backhalf that includes the presidential election cycle, holiday calendar blues with five fewer days/Christmas on a Wednesday, and an unclear outlook on rate cuts,” stated JPMorgan.

Walmart shares were 1% higher in premarket trading.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about the call here.

Nvidia slipped 0.4% Monday, the first day for the stock reflecting a 10-for-1 split. Shares have been on fire this year, surging more than 144%.

— Fred Imbert

European stocks were under pressure Monday as concerns grew over right-leaning politicians gaining traction in the region.

The Stoxx 600 index, which includes a broad swath of European stocks, fell 0.8%. France’s CAC 40 dropped 2.2% after French President Emmanuel Macron called snap parliamentary elections to be held later this month following a big loss in initial EU Parliament election results.

Germany’s Dax index lost nearly 1%.

— Fred Imbert

Investors are looking ahead to May’s consumer price index that’s set to release Wednesday.

Economists polled by Dow Jones anticipate a rise of 3.4% from the year-ago period, and a 0.1% increase on a monthly basis. That’s compared to increases of 3.4% and 0.3%, respectively, in the prior reading.

Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is expected to show an increase of 3.5% year over year, and a 0.3% gain on the month. Previously, it gained 3.6% and 0.3%, respectively.

— Sarah Min

Stock futures opened little changed Sunday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose by 13 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were flat.

— Sarah Min