Check out the companies making headlines before the bell.

PacWest — Shares plunged 20% after the regional bank stock said deposits fell 9.5% for the week ended May 5. If necessary, PacWest said it has access to $15 billion of available liquidity. Other regional banks stocks moved lower on the news, with Western Alliance and First Horizon down 7.3% and 3.2%, respectively.

Disney — The media stock slumped more than 5%. Disney posted a decline in streaming subscribers even as losses for the business improved. The company also reported revenue and profit that was roughly in line with Wall Street’s expectations.

Robinhood — Shares climbed more than 4% after the retail brokerage reported a revenue beat, with $441 million in the first quarter against analyst estimates of $425 million, according to Refinitiv. Robinhood also showed growth in monthly users, which hit 11.8 million.

Unity Software — Shares popped more than 9% after the video game software developer topped revenue expectations for the recent quarter and raised its full-year revenue outlook.

Sonos — Shares shed nearly 24% after the home sound systems maker reporter a wider-than-expected loss for the recent quarter and cut its outlook for the second half of the 2023 fiscal year amid a softening demand environment.

Tapestry — Tapestry soared 10% after exceeding analysts’ third-quarter expectations. The American luxury fashion company behind Coach and Kate Spade reported adjusted earnings of 78 cents per share, topping consensus estimates of 60 cents per share, according to FactSet. It posted revenue of $1.51 billion, which was higher than calls for $1.44 billion. In addition, Tapestry raised its full-year guidance, which was also better than what analysts expected.

AppLovin — Shares soared more than 16% in premarket trading following the company’s first-quarter revenue and-second quarter guidance beat after the bell Wednesday. Revenue came in at $715.4 million, versus the $694.8 million expected from analysts polled by StreetAccount. AppLovin guided for $710 million-$730 million for the second quarter, topping the $695.7 million expected.

Beyond Meat — Shares of the alternative meat manufacturer fell more than 2% even after the company’s better-than-expected quarterly report. Beyond Meat reported a loss of 92 cents per share and $92.2 million in revenue. Analysts had anticipated a loss of $1.01 per share on revenue of $90.8 million, according to Refinitiv.

JD.com – Shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant advanced more than 3% after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue for the first quarter of the year, according to FactSet. JD also announced some leadership changes: CEO Lei Xu is stepping down and will be replaced by chief financial officer Sandy Ran Xu.

Alcoa — Alcoa shares added 1.4% before the bell as Credit Suisse upgraded the aluminum producer to outperform. Analysts cited a recovery in aluminum prices and a move beyond Alcoa’s operational problems as reason for the upgrade.

Norfolk Southern — The transportation stock rose nearly 2% in premarket trading as JPMorgan upgraded shares to overweight. The Wall Street firm noted that Norfolk Southern shares trade at a discount to some peers, and that operations should improve as the company moves past its recent derailment issues.

— CNBC’s Yun Li, Tanaya Macheel, Brian Evans, Sarah Min and Michelle Fox contributed reporting

LONDON — Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey on Thursday defended an about-turn in the bank’s U.K. growth forecast, saying its “biggest upgrade” ever reflected the rapidly shifting economic landscape.

At its policy meeting earlier Thursday, the central bank said it no longer expects the U.K. to enter into recession this year.

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Months earlier, it had predicted the county would face its longest-ever recession, which it then said would likely be shallower that initially thought.

The bank said Thursday that U.K. GDP was expected to be flat over the first half of this year, growing 0.9% by the middle of 2024 and 0.7% by mid-2025. At its prior meeting in February, it said U.K. GDP was projected to decline by around 0.75% over the second half of 2022.

“It may be the biggest upgrade we’ve ever done,” Bailey told CNBC’s Joumanna Bercetche.

Still, he insisted that the overall forecast remained weak.

“The level is still quite low though, let’s be honest,” he added.

The bank has been criticized for failing to provide accurate growth forecasts, which could stymy its efforts to combat still high inflation.

However, Bailey said the forecasts were based on conditional data, which is subject to frequent and significant fluctuations.

“They are conditional on financial market prices, they’re conditional on commodity prices, they’re conditional on government policies. So, as those conditions change, we change our forecasts,” he said.

“We have deal with all these things, which is why our forecasts do change and do evolve,” he said.

The governor also acknowledged that the bank should do a better job at communicating. It follows an earlier faux pas by the BOE’s Chief Economist Huw Pill who said Britons should accept that they are now worse off due to stubbornly high inflation.

“It’s not the right choice of words,” Bailey said of Pill’s comments.

“How people form their expectations about future inflation is so important for us. The wording is critically important, because I want to emphasize, we are very sensitive to the impact this has on people in this country,” he continued.

However, he added that he was optimistic of a “rapid” fall in inflation over the coming months.

Earlier Thursday, the U.K. central bank maintained its commitment to tackling price rises, raising interest rates by 25 basis points and taking the main bank rate to 4.5%.

The headline consumer price index rose by an annual 10.1% in March, driven by persistently high food and energy bills. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food, energy, alcohol and tobacco prices, increased by 5.7% over the 12 months to March, unchanged from February.

— CNBC’s Elliot Smith contributed to this report.

Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday:

Peloton — The fitness platform operator saw shares drop 8.9% after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said it’s recalling more than 2 million bikes over concerns about seat breakages and related injuries. Peloton will offer free, updated seat posts to anyone using the recalled model.

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Alphabet — Shares added 4.31% a day after Google unveiled new software and gadgets at its developer conference. The tech giant also said it is eliminating the waitlist for its chatbot Bard.

PacWest Bancorp — The regional bank’s stock sank 22.7% after the company said deposits dropped 9.5% for the week ended May 5. Other regional bank shares followed suit, with Western Alliance and First Horizon shedding 7.3% and 3.2%, respectively.

Beyond Meat — Shares tumbled 18.27% after the alternative meat manufacturer said it plans to sell up to $200 million of its common stock. The company said it intends to use the proceeds for general corporate and working capital purposes. The announcement came after Beyond Meat reported a first-quarter earnings-per-share loss that was less than expected.

Disney — Disney shares tumbled 8.73% after the media company reported a drop in streaming subscribers. The entertainment giant also reported revenue and earnings in line with Wall Street’s estimates, according to Refinitiv.

Icahn Enterprises — Shares of Carl Icahn’s conglomerate slid another 1.77% after notable short seller Hindenburg Research doubled down on its short-selling campaign against the company following its quarterly report. Icahn Enterprises reported a net loss of $270 million in the first quarter, with its hedge fund losing 4.1% during the period. It declared a $2 per share quarterly dividend.

AppLovin — Shares popped 23.53% following the company’s first-quarter revenue beat. Revenue was $715.4 million, compared to the $694.8 million expected, per StreetAccount. AppLovin’s second-quarter guidance also topped expectations.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber — The tire manufacturer’s stock soared 21.42% after Elliott Investment Management sent a letter and presentation to the company. Elliott, which has about a 10% stake in Goodyear, said the purpose was to “outline the right path forward to create value at Goodyear and realize its full potential.”

Unity Software — Shares rallied about 12.94% after the video game software developer reported its first-quarter results. Unity Software’s revenue of $500 million beat the $480 million expected from analysts polled by Refinitiv. The company also raised its full-year revenue outlook.

Tapestry — Shares of the Coach parent jumped 8.27% after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue for its latest quarter. It also issued upbeat guidance for the year that topped estimates.

Robinhood — The stock added 6.39% after the brokerage reported better-than-expected revenue for the first quarter. Its first-quarter revenue came in at $441 million, versus analyst estimates of $425 million, according to Refinitiv. Robinhood also showed growth of monthly users, which hit 11.8 million.

Sonos — Shares plunged 23.69% on the back of disappointing quarterly results. The company reported an adjusted loss of 24 cents per share, while analysts polled by Refinitiv expected a loss of 18 cents per share. The home sound systems manufacturer also reduced its guidance for the second half of the 2023 fiscal year amid weakening consumer demand and channel partner inventory tightening.

JD.com — The U.S.-listed shares of JD.com advanced 7.21% after the Chinese tech firm beat analysts’ first-quarter expectations on the top and bottom lines. JD.com reported earnings of CNY4.76 per share, exceeding consensus estimates of CNY3.53. Revenue came in at CNY242.96 billion, higher than expectations of CNY240.81 billion. Separately, JD.com said that Sandy Ran Xu, who is the company’s current CFO, has been appointed to succeed Lei Xu as CEO and executive director.

Axon Enterprise — Axon Enterprise gained 6.16% after JPMorgan said the pullback in the stock following its first-quarter results on Tuesday is a buying opportunity. The Taser maker slid 15% on Wednesday after reporting some disappointing total gross margin figures, even as it otherwise beat analysts’ expectations.

Albemarle — The chemical manufacturing stock added 2.06% after being upgraded by Keybanc to overweight from sector weight, citing improving trends in China’s lithium market.

— CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel, Hakyung Kim, Yun Li, Alex Harring, Samantha Subin and Sarah Min contributed reporting.

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy built his White House bid around urging companies to stay out of politics.

What he doesn’t tell voters is the asset management firm he co-founded has engaged more with Republican Party officials behind the scenes than was previously known, according to private email correspondence reviewed by CNBC.

The emails show how the firm, Strive Asset Management, became a lead organizer and voice against environmental, social and governance, or ESG, investing, both before and since Ramaswamy entered the presidential race in February.

Ramaswamy told CNBC in an interview Thursday that he stepped away from his role as executive chairman of the firm and is no longer on its board while he runs for president.

When he launched his company last year, Ramaswamy told CNBC that businesses should “focus on excellence over politics.” He slammed ESG-style investing by BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard, and accused the firms of using “their clients’ capital to advocate for viewpoints in the boardrooms of corporate America that most of their own clients disagree with.”

Ramaswamy and his firm have since jumped into the political clash over ESG investing platforms, according to the emails, which were obtained by watchdog Documented and provided to CNBC. The messages show Ramaswamy’s firm actively engaged with GOP state leaders who have defended the fossil fuel industry and criticized environmentally conscious investment standards.

Ramaswamy on Thursday defended the firm’s engagement with GOP officials, saying bigger firms BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street have conducted similar practices with state officials across the country.

“The biggest asset allocators into the asset management systems are state pension funds and BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard, Invesco and others, are regularly engaged,” Ramaswamy told CNBC. “It’s just a hard fact that these institutions have for decades been educating, discussing with states and pension fund systems, the merits of ESG based investment framework. Strive is bringing an alternative perspective to bear across the market.”

Since he began his campaign, Ramaswamy has deferred questions about Strive’s business strategy to the firm.

Strive CEO Matt Cole echoed Ramaswamy’s remarks in an interview with CNBC.

“We’re just copying the playbook of BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard,” Cole said Thursday. When asked about the emails showing how the firm has become a leading organizer against ESG investing, Cole said: “I think Strive is the leading voice in America pushing in favor of shareholder capitalism.”

Strive has become one of the more vocal opponents of ESG investing and has gained enough notoriety to challenge the likes of fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil. Ramaswamy, as Strive’s executive chairman, sent a letter to Exxon in November saying the company’s board “reflects an overrepresentation of directors whose principal focus appears to be on Exxon’s climate change strategy.”

Ramaswamy later secured a meeting with Exxon CEO Darren Woods. Strive said in a December press release that the oil and gas executive “pushed back on certain points in Strive’s letter but committed to exploring suitable directors for Exxon’s board with relevant industry expertise.” A month after the meeting, Exxon announced it would add Lawrence Kellner, a former CEO of Continental Airlines, and John Harris II, a former CEO of Raytheon International, to its board.

Ramaswamy’s firm at the same time focused its investment strategy on fossil fuels. Strive launched an ETF in 2022 called Strive U.S. Energy, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as DRLL. The fund’s fact sheet lists Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips as its top three holdings. It has net assets of over $300 million.

Ramaswamy told CNBC on the day the ETF launched that Strive “is delivering a new mandate.”

“What I call the post ESG mandate to the U.S. energy sector to drill for more oil,” he said at the time. “To frack for more natural gas. To do whatever allows them to be most successful over the long run without regard to political, social, cultural or environmental agendas.”

The firm’s overall assets under management total over $520 million, according to a regulatory filing signed in February and submitted by Strive to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The form was signed a week after Ramaswamy announced he was running for president, and shows that at that time his ownership stake in Strive was at least 50%. Ramaswamy did not dispute in the CNBC interview that he still owns at least 50% of the company.

Cole confirmed that the ownership structure listed on the filing has not changed since Ramaswamy announced his run for president. He added that Strive, as of Wednesday, had about $680 million in assets under management.

Ramaswamy has cast himself for years as a leading culture warrior against major corporations and extended his fight to the campaign trail. He co-founded the anti-ESG firm in 2022, a year after he published a book called “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,” which takes on the concept of stakeholder capitalism.

His declared and potential rivals, including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have often attacked ESG investing standards and corporations that support social causes — an increasingly common refrain within the GOP.

The opposition to businesses expressing political views has helped to propel Ramaswamy to the top tier of the Republican primary, according to early polls. One recent Morning Consult survey found him, in a hypothetical GOP primary field, tied with former Vice President Mike Pence for third place with 5% of support. He trailed only Trump at 60% and DeSantis at 19%.

Trump has raved about Ramaswamy, saying his positive comments about the Trump administration are “the reason he is doing so well.”

The emails suggest that both before and after Ramaswamy explicitly jumped into politics, his firm had entered the fray by establishing ties to anti-ESG Republican officials.

In March, one month after Ramaswamy announced his run for president, Strive organized a call featuring what the email labeled as the “Pro-Fiduciary Investors Taskforce.”

The more than 30 people invited to participate included at least half a dozen Republican state financial officers who have either vehemently opposed ESG investment standards, or in some cases, have used their power to directly take on Wall Street firms that follow the practice, the email shows. Ramaswamy was not on the invite list.

Matthew Kopko, a senior vice president at Strive, said in one of the obtained emails that the “kick-off call” would focus, in part, on a Biden administration rule that allows employers to select ESG funds for their company 401(k) plans. In March, days before the meeting took place, President Joe Biden vetoed a bill that would have rolled back the Labor Department standard.

Cole confirmed to CNBC that the veto came up on the call.

“I think the vast majority of people [at the meeting] thought the bill should not have been vetoed,” he said. Cole added that “it was pretty interesting I think from our perspective that the first veto of Biden’s presidency was a bipartisan bill that was focused on maximizing value, or forcing asset managers to focus on maximizing value.”

An emailed invite to the Zoom call also shows that Strive executives were planning to organize a central forum to discuss ESG-related issues.

“As discussed with many of you across the nation, there is strong interest among state financial leaders to have a forum to share and learn information related to emerging developments in ESG, corporate governance, proxy voting, stewardship and other fiduciary matters,” Kopko said in another email to those invited.

The officials invited included Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s GOP chief financial officer, who in December said the state treasury would pull out $2 billion in assets previously managed by BlackRock. West Virginia state Treasurer Riley Moore was also invited to take part in the call. He announced in 2022 that the state will no longer use a BlackRock investment fund as part of its banking transactions. Representatives for Moore and Patronis said the two did not participate in the call.

Marlo Oaks, the Utah state treasurer who labeled ESG part of “Satan’s plan” and moved about $100 million in state money previously managed by BlackRock to different asset managers, is also listed as invited to the call. A representative for Oaks did not respond to a request for comment.

Derek Kreifels, the CEO of the conservative-leaning State Financial Officers Foundation, which has organized conferences bashing ESG investing, was also invited to take part in the call. Ramaswamy was a keynote speaker at one of the foundation’s meetings last year and the state chief financial officers invited to take part on the Strive call are publicly listed SFOF members. A representative for Kreifels said the nonprofit CEO did not participate in the call.

Kopko sent a follow-up email in May for what he described as the “next task force call.” The email shows that the next event was set to take place May 3. While there’s no document showing who was invited to that Zoom gathering, the itinerary for the call notes that ESG critic and Yale law school professor Jed Rubenfeld was expected to give a “presentation on state pension fiduciary duties.”

Cole said Rubenfeld’s presentation on that call was about “best practices for pensions.” He explained there were about 30 people on the call and most of the people at the meeting were “pension-related employees,” along with some state attorneys general.

Cole said he didn’t know all of the state AGs who took part in the call and which political party they were affiliated with. But he also said that “typically Republican AGs have been more interested in trying to pushback against asset managers pursuing non financial interests but the invite wasn’t to any particular political party.”

Ramaswamy’s firm gained more access to anti-ESG Republican politicians before he launched a presidential bid than was previously known, according to the emails.

His firm’s leaders privately turned to anti-ESG Republican state officials in both Texas and West Virginia to help gain access to government officials to discuss Strive’s business ventures, either through in-person or Zoom meetings, according to emails from September through March.

Cole said they’ve met with leaders from more than 20 states and have also engaged with large wealth managers about their company. “To me these are just two meetings that we have on our calendar every day,” he said.

Strive President Anson Frericks, in a September email to Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar, discussed a lunch he had in August with Hegar and one of his top donors, oil and gas developer Ben “Bud” Brigham. Frericks in the email requested a “warm introduction” to a state-based contact for an “emerging managers fund for new firms like Strive.”

“At lunch with Bud Brigham, you mentioned that TX has an emerging managers fund for new firms like Strive. Are you able to provide us with a contact for that fund (I cc’d our Head of Institutional Investing, Rob Melton)? Or make a warm introduction?” Frericks asked Hegar in the email.

Hegar had argued in letters to money managers in 2022 that firms such as BlackRock, HSBC and UBS are boycotting the energy industry, saying in a statement that he believes “environmental crusaders” have created a “false narrative” that the economy can transition away from fossil fuels.

Hours after Frericks sent his September email, Hegar replied in an email that he obliged the request for an introduction and forwarded Frericks’ email to Mike Reissig, the CEO of the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company. That entity was created by the Texas Legislature “as a special purpose entity to efficiently and economically manage, invest and safeguard funds for its clients: the state and various subdivisions,” according to its website.

Hegar is the chair of the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company.

That introduction led to a March meeting being scheduled in Austin between Reissig, Frericks and Kopko to discuss Strive’s proxy voting services, according to the emails.

Representatives for Hegar and Reissig did not respond to requests for comment.

Federal Election Commission records show that Brigham, the same oil and gas executive who had lunch with Frericks in August, donated $6,600 in March to Ramaswamy’s campaign for president. That amount represents the most an individual donor can give directly to a campaign in the 2024 election cycle.

Goldman Sachs, known more for its Wall Street bankers than its technology, has just spun out the first startup from its internal incubator.

The company, a networking platform for employees called Louisa, was funded and owned by the New York-based investment bank until a few weeks ago, when it became independent, according to founder-CEO Rohan Doctor.

Now Doctor is hustling to grow his client base beyond the confines of Goldman, whose employees have used Louisa for the past two and a half years. The software automatically creates user profiles from an employer’s databases and pulls in newsfeeds to proactively connect people who might benefit from knowing each other, he said.

“Think of Louisa as an A.I.-powered LinkedIn on steroids,” Doctor, 42, said this week in an interview. “We have smart profiles and a smart network, and Louisa reads millions of articles a week from 250 providers and begins connecting people” based on possible deals gleaned from news, he said.

Under CEO David Solomon, Goldman has sought to speed up its digital makeover by hiring Google and Amazon executives and asking employees to pitch leaders on startup ideas. Louisa was part of the inaugural class of Goldman’s incubator program, which encourages employees with startup ideas to develop them in-house.

Doctor, a 17-year Goldman veteran who had stints in Hong Kong and London as head of bank solutions, got the idea for Louisa after landing a massive deal in 2018.

The elation of securing the transaction, a complex risk transfer between a bank and an insurer worth tens of millions of dollars, was followed by nagging questions: How did Doctor pull it off, and was it repeatable?

“The real answer was serendipity, happenstance,” he said. “It was dumb luck that me and another guy got thirsty at the same time, go to a [bar] in London and start exchanging information.”

There has to be a better way, thought Doctor. Professional services firms like Goldman rely on the expertise and contacts of their employees, but there’s a limit to how many colleagues anyone can know.

“This is costing companies billions of dollars in terms of missed opportunities, disconnected colleagues and fractured client experiences,” he said.

So he moved to New York from Hong Kong and began hiring programmers for his nascent effort.

The company’s name originally referred to Louisa Goldman Sachs, the youngest daughter of Marcus Goldman and wife of Samuel Sachs. But, seeing as how Doctor has to cater to competitors of Goldman, the startup’s name now refers more generally to a “renowned warrior,” he said.

Louisa has more than 20,000 monthly active users, according to Goldman, which declined to say how much it spent launching the company.

Doctor has begun signing up clients besides Goldman, including a commercial bank and a venture capital fund with nearly $100 billion in assets, he said. They will focus initially on a small subset of five or six professional services clients before broadening their efforts, he said.

He believes two factors make his startup especially timely.

The arrival of generative A.I. technology like OpenAI’s ChatGPT has created excitement in an otherwise subdued environment for technology firms, he said.

“What OpenAI has done is just phenomenal,” he said. “We can use it to sort of map out what’s in people’s minds and how they want to describe themselves in seconds.”

Further, remote and hybrid work has disrupted the way employees interact, creating the need for a networking platform like Louisa, Doctor said.

“The way it used to be done if you had a question, you’d lean back on a crowded trading floor and ask around,” he said. “Hybrid is here to stay, even at places that don’t want it, and asking around no longer works.”