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Shares of videogame publishers Electronic Arts Inc. , Activision Blizzard Inc. , Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. , and Ubisoft Entertainment all gained in Friday morning trade after analysts commented on recent third-party sales data from market-research firm NPD Group. Electronic Arts’s stock rose 1.3% after NPD reported weak performance for new launches “Need for Speed: Payback” and “Star Wars Battlefront II,” as well as strong sales for “FIFA” and “Madden,” according to BMO analyst Gerrick Johnson. Activision’s “Call of Duty: WWII” outsold its predecessor by 73% in November, and its stock rose 2%. Take-Two has “the lightest holiday slate,” wrote Johnson, but its “NBA 2K18” title performed well in November. Take-Two shares rose 2%. Ubisoft gained 0.6% after its “Assassins Creed” posted a strong showing, according to Piper Jaffray’s Michael Olson. The S&P 500 Index is up 0.4%.

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Wholesale inventories in the U.S. fell 0.5% in October, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Companies were not able to keep up with production owing to a combination of growing demand and supply disruptions caused by hurricanes in the prior month. Inventories are up 3.9% year over year, however. Wholesale sales jumped 0.7% in October. At October’s sales pace, the inventory-to-sales ratio slipped to 1.25 from 1.26. One caveat: If inventories don’t recover in the November and December, it would dampen fourth-quarter GDP.

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Micron Technology Inc. shares rose 1.6% in Friday morning trade after analysts at Susquehanna raised their price target on the stock to $60 from $54. The analysts, led by Medhi Hosseini, wrote that “Micron’s narrative is changing from a company with single-digit earnings power to one that could potentially do double digits ($10+) by the turn of the decade if it were to execute.” Hosseini increased his earnings estimates due to better DRAM price trends and the company’s debt restructuring. Micron reports November-quarter earnings on Dec. 19 after market close. Micron shares have soared 97% so far in 2017, compared with an 18% gain for the S&P 500 .

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U.S. stock-market indexes opened higher on Friday, boosted by a stronger-than-expected monthly jobs report for November. The U.S. economy added 228,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%. The hourly average earnings rose 0.2%. The S&P 500 opened 8 points, or 0.3, higher at 2,645. The index is on track to finish the week slightly higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 68 points, or 0.3%, to 24,279. The blue-chip index also looked set to book modest weekly gains. The Nasdaq Composite index advanced by 48 points, or 0.7%, to 6,861 at the open. The tech-heavy index is on track to finish the week little changed.

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Shares of touch-pad developer Synaptics Inc. rose 4.9% in premarket trade Friday after analysts at Oppenheimer upgraded the stock to perform from underperform. “We maintain a fundamental negative view of Synaptics’ market position and mobile opportunities but recognize solid execution can offset those temporary headwinds,” the analysts, led by Andrew Uerkwitz, wrote. He believes that Synaptics’ share price reflects “the majority of the downside,” including a slowly declining market for fingerprint sensors. Synaptics shares have fallen 32% so far in 2017, compared with an 18% gain for the S&P 500 .

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Food services company Sysco Corp. said Friday it has ordered 50 of Tesla Inc.’s new, fully electric Semi tractors. Tesla unveiled the Semi to much fanfare in November, touting its ability to drive up to 500 miles on a single charge and reduce the cost of cargo transport. Other companies that have already put in orders for the vehicle include Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and JB Hunt Transport Services Inc. . Tesla shares were up about 1% premarket, and have gained 46% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.

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Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp. said Friday it will raise its quarterly dividend by 14.3%, as the vacation-ownership company said it continues to focus on returning excess capital to shareholders. The new cash dividend of 40 cents a share, up from 35 cents a share, will be payable Jan. 4 to shareholders of record on Dec. 21. Based on Thursday’s stock closing price of $134.42, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 1.19%, compared with the implied S&P 500 dividend yield of 1.91%, according to FactSet. Marriott Vacations’ shares, which were still inactive in premarket trade, have soared 58.4% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 17.8%.

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Movie theater chain Studio Movie Grill said that it’s seen record attendance numbers for its cinemas in 2017, and it says that’s thanks, in part, to its partnership with movie-theater subscription service MoviePass. Studio Movie Grill said in a news release late Thursday that while the industry sounds the alarm on poor box office performance, its theaters have experienced increases in off-peak attendance and attendance for smaller films. Studio Movie Grill started its strategic partnership with MoviePass in 2016, before the company in August of 2017 slashed the cost of its membership to $10 per month from as much as $50. “Studio Movie Grill was amazed to learn that in some cases, as with Lady Bird, MoviePass generated a double digit percentage of total attendance,” said Studio Movie Grill Chief Executive Brian Schultz. The company’s Chief Financial Officer Ted Croft said MoviePass’s subscription-based model has the potential to be the future of the film exhibition business. Earlier this week, Cinemark Holdings Inc. introduced its own subscription-based movie-going service. Shares of MoviePass owner Helios & Matheson Analytics Inc. have gained close to 152% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 index is up nearly 18% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up almost 23%.

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Blank-check company GigCapital Inc. said it has priced its initial public offering at $10 a share. A blank-check company is one that has no assets, but plans to use the proceeds of the deal to acquire them. The company sold 12.5 million units to raise $125 million. The units will start trading later Friday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GIG.U”. Each unit is equal to one share of common stock. “Although the Company’s efforts to identify a target business are not limited to a particular industry or geographic region, the Company intends to focus on opportunities in the middle market technology media and telecommunications (“TMT”) sectors,” the company said in a statement.

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Apple Inc. shares gained 0.5% in Friday morning trading after an analyst at Drexel Hamilton penned an upbeat note on the Apple supply chain. Drexel’s Brian White wrote that sales for his “Apple Monitor,” a basket of Apple suppliers, rose 7% in November, ahead of the season average of 6%. White is also optimistic that Apple will have a good holiday season and benefit from the iPhone X over the long term. “We believe this is a durable iPhone cycle that will pay dividends for years to come given that the iPhone X pushes Apple deep into the ultra-luxury smartphone market with the highest-priced iPhone in the company’s history,” he wrote. Apple shares have gained 46% so far in 2017, compared with a 23% gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

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