Tech behemoth Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) was a stock in focus before the bell as news emerged that it had now chosen its two locations for its new headquarters.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the new headquarters will be in northern Virginia and New York City.
This is a long-running and closely followed saga and follows news last week that the firm will now have two smaller HQs rather than one large one.
The New York City base will reportedly be in Long Island City, while the Virginian headquarters is to be in Arlington, in the Crystal City district.
As yet it is now clear how the new 50,000 highly paid jobs at HQ2 will be distributed between the two sites.
Amazon shares are up 1.2% in pre-market at $1,656.25 having dropped 4.41% in yesterday's regular session.
Also trending in pre-market is home improvement chain Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which added 2.9% before the bell to $184.50 as it issued its third-quarter earnings, which beat analyst estimates.
The DIY chain in the three months reported net income of $2.87 billion, up 32%. Meanwhile, EPS (earnings per share) totaled $2.51 up from $1.84. Wall Street had expected EPS of $2.26 per share.
Meanwhile, net sales increased 5.1% to $26.3 billion, while consensus was for a figure of $26.26 billion.
In other news, Advance Autoparts Inc (NYSE:AAP) saw shares accelerate 4.8% to stand at $167.06 in pre-market deals. It came after the company beat third-quarter estimates and raised its guidance for the full year.
Net income for the three months was $115.8 million, or $1.56 a share, up from $95.9 million, or $1.30 a share, a year earlier.
Adjusted EPS (earnings per share) came to $1.89, which was ahead of consensus of $1.76. Sales rose 4.3% to $2.3 billion. Consensus had $2.2 billion.
Due to demand, the firm is now expecting sales to be in a range from between $9.55 billion and $9.6 billion, which is up from the previous guidance of between $9.3 billion and $9.5 billion.
The wildfires in California, the US's most populous state, were of course big news Friday.
The death toll from the Camp fire is now at 45, surpassing the Griffith Park disaster in 1933, which claimed 31 lives.
More than 300,000 locals have been forced to flee their homes across the state.
Yesterday Pacific Gas & Electric Company (NYSE:PCG) (PG&E Corp ) shares tanked 17% as it emerged that regulators in California are investigating whether the utilities company's facilities were involved at the start of the blazes.
Shares in PCG are down 0.58% in pre-market deals.