Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Crypto Stocks – Stocks linked to the price of Bitcoin rose as cryptocurrencies inched higher on Tuesday. Bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy rose nearly 5%, while cryptocurrency service provider Coinbase rose more than 2%. Miners Mara Holdings and Riot Platforms also rose more than 2% each. VeriSign – The Internet stock soared more than 3% in premarket trading after regulatory filings revealed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought more shares in the company. The conglomerate has added 76,487 VeriSign shares in the past three business days, bringing the total to 15.6 million. The company also bought stock last week. Sangamo Therapeutics – Shares of Sangamo Therapeutics plunged more than 54% after the company announced that its partner Pfizer had terminated a co-development agreement for its hemophilia A gene therapy, delaying prospects for bringing the development to market. Sangamo currently owns the rights to the product and said it will consider options to move forward with its development. Meanwhile, Pfizer stock rose 0.3%. EQT – The energy company posted a daily profit of less than 1% after announcing the termination of its midstream joint venture with Blackstone Credit & Insurance. EQT received a net $3.5 billion in non-controlling common equity from Blackstone in the new business, which the energy company used to repay a portion of its outstanding debt. Stocks tumbled this quarter after rising more than 27% as natural gas prices soared. Tesla – The electric car stock soared 1.7%, rekindling its year-end bull run after three straight sessions of declines. Despite the recent pullback, Tesla shares rose nearly 21% in December, bringing the tech giant’s annual gain to about 68%. Super Microcomputer – Shares rose more than 1% and fell about 4% after closing the previous session as the worst performer in the S&P 500. The stock is still up about 8% so far this year, but has fallen toward the end of the year and is down 6% since the beginning of the month. Nvidia – The chipmaker rose nearly 1%, adding to gains seen in the previous session. On Monday, Nvidia was the only stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to finish in the green, rising about 0.4%. —CNBC’s Alex Harring, Yun Li, Pia Singh and Lisa Kailai Han contributed reporting.
