U.S. Equity Futures Mixed, Tech Stocks Underperform
In the opening hour of the evening session, U.S. equity futures are mixed, with S&P e-minis flat, Dow Industrials up a decimal, and Nasdaq 100 down 0.2%. In commodities, WTI Crude Oil has come off Thursday's multi-week lows lows but remains below $58 per barrel. Meanwhile, metals are holding on to gains, with Gold futures above $4,300, and Silver just shy of $64 per ounce.Materials and Financials were the best performing sectors in the S&P 500 on Thursday - the former benefiting from surging precious and base metals prices and the latter responding to widening out yield spreads as "less hawkish than feared" post-Fed reaction saw rates come in by a wider margin on shorter-end durations. Tech and Communication Services were weak however - Oracletraded off its post-earnings lows but still declined over 10%, dampening AI-related sentiment. Also of note, Alphabetshares were down by over 2% after the release of GPT-5.2 by OpenAI that made strides from the 5.1 iteration and dented the perception of momentum behind Google's Gemini AI engine.Check out this evening's top movers from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.HIGHER AFTER EARNINGS -Quanex Building Productsup 24.7%Mitek Systemsup 20.5%Lululemonup 10.2%RHup 7.6%Evommuneup 1.7%DOWN AFTER EARNINGS -Comtech Telecommunicationsdown 10.2%Kestra Medical Technologiesdown 7.1%Netskopedown 6.6%Broadcomdown 4.4%Costcodown 0.7%
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Significant Friday Options Trading: NKE, ALAB, NX
Astera Labs Options Activity: Astera Labs Inc (ALAB) has seen a significant options volume of 35,512 contracts today, equating to about 3.6 million underlying shares, which is 53.7% of its average daily trading volume over the past month.
High Volume Call Option for ALAB: The $180 strike call option expiring on December 19, 2025, has particularly high activity, with 1,172 contracts traded, representing approximately 117,200 underlying shares.
Quanex Building Products Options Activity: Quanex Building Products Corp (NX) has recorded an options volume of 4,029 contracts today, representing around 402,900 underlying shares, or 51.9% of its average daily trading volume.
High Volume Call Option for NX: The $15 strike call option expiring on December 19, 2025, has seen notable trading with 2,258 contracts, which corresponds to approximately 225,800 underlying shares.

Building Stock Set for Its Strongest Day Since 2009 as Shares Rise 24%.
Company Performance: Quanex Building Products reported a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter, marking a significant turnaround for the small-cap manufacturing company.
Stock Market Reaction: Following the positive earnings report, shares of Quanex Building Products experienced their largest same-day percentage increase in nearly 17 years.






