Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Apple — The tech giant climbed more than 2% Thursday. A report a day earlier said the company is doing away with plans to more heavily include haptic touch technology from supplier Cirrus. Reports had been circling ahead of the launch of the iPhone 15 later this year that the model would include a physical side button that used Cirrus’ solid state technology.
Bed Bath & Beyond — The meme stock favorite dropped 5.9%. Earlier this week, the company sold about 100 million shares to bookrunner B. Riley Securities.
Harley-Davidson — The motorcycle maker’s stock shed more than 3% after UBS said a retail decline in the first quarter may be worse than expected. The Wall Street firm anticipates U.S. retail sales could be down close to 20%.
Novo Nordisk — U.S.-listed shares of the Danish pharmaceutical company gained 2.1% after being upgraded to outperform from neutral by Credit Suisse. The Wall Street firm said growth in the drugs has “significantly outperformed” its expectations.
Alibaba — Shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant rose 2%, rebounding from a near 6% selloff in the previous session. The stock has been volatile this week. A Financial Times report revealed Wednesday that SoftBank has sold a majority of its stake in the company. Meanwhile, investors digested news that Alibaba will be rolling out its own ChatGPT-style product.
Steve Madden — The shoe company advanced 3.4% on the back of an upgrade to by from neutral by Citi. The bank said the company is seeing improved wholesale trends.
Chipotle — Shares rose 1% after Citi said it was optimistic about the restaurant chain’s earnings report later this month.
Netflix — Shares of the streaming platform rose 4.5%, following other major tech-related names higher. However, Goldman Sachs reiterated its sell rating on the stock. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo said it was bullish on the streaming giant, saying paid account sharing in the U.S. could help lift its profit and loss statement.
Tesla — The electric vehicle maker added 3% on Thursday. Investors are looking ahead to the company’s first-quarter earnings next week. They will look for insight on whether Tesla is planning more price cuts on key models such as the Model 3 and Model Y.
Progressive — Shares of the insurance company fell 6% after Progressive reported a loss of 26 cents per share for March, down from a profit of 38 cents per share in the year-earlier period. Progressive said it had “unfavorable developments” in its personal and commercial auto products that weighed on results. The company did report a positive net income for the first quarter.
— CNBC’s Alexander Harring, Michelle Fox, Yun Li and Jesse Pound contributed reporting
Source: Finance - cnbc.com
