See the companies making headlines before the market opens. Paramount Global – The media conglomerate’s shares fell nearly 5% after Edgar Bronfman Jr. withdrew his bid for the media company, clearing the way for Skydance Media to take over Shari Redstone’s media empire. Paramount expects the deal with Skydance to close in the first half of 2025. Cava Group – The restaurant company’s shares fell more than 8% after several company insiders and a major shareholder said in filings that they would sell some of their shares. JD.com – The Chinese e-commerce company’s shares rose about 3% after the company announced a $5 billion buyback program that will run between September 2024 and August 2027. Hershey – The chocolate maker slipped 1.7% after Citi downgraded its rating to sell from neutral. The company said volume issues and cocoa inflation could weigh on earnings. Trip.com – Shares of the China-based travel company rose more than 9% on better-than-expected second-quarter results. The company reported revenue of 12.77 billion yuan on adjusted EBITDA of 4.44 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast revenue of 12.76 billion yuan on EBITDA of 4.02 billion. Packaged tour revenue rose 42% year-on-year. Apple – Shares of the iPhone maker fell 0.3% after the company said Kevan Parekh will replace Luca Maestri as chief financial officer starting Jan. 1. Eli Lilly – Shares fell 1% after the drugmaker released a new, cheaper version of its weight-loss drug Zepbound to improve availability. Heico – The aerospace and defense company’s stock fell about 0.6% on mixed results in its fiscal third quarter. The aircraft parts maker beat earnings estimates but fell short of Wall Street’s revenue expectations. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Hakyung Kim and Yun Li contributed to reporting
