Raphael Stevens

Rivian electric trucks are seen parked near the Nasdaq MarketSite building in Times Square on November 10, 2021 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Here are the stocks making headlines on Wall Street in midday trading.
Humana — Shares of the insurance stock slid 19.4% after Humana released updated guidance. The company reaffirmed its full-year earnings guidance for 2021 and decreased its Medicare Advantage membership growth estimate for 2022.

CrowdStrike — The cybersecurity stock rose 4.6% on Thursday after Wells Fargo initiated coverage of the company and rated it overweight. The investment firm said in a note that CrowdStrike still had strong growth prospects despite the recent struggles for its shares.
Allbirds — Shares of the shoe company rose 12.2% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight. The firm said that Allbirds’ stock now looked cheap after a sharp decline, which brought shares below their IPO price from November.
Dick’s Sporting Goods — Shares of the retailer gained 1.4% after Dick’s released updated guidance for its fourth quarter. The company said it now expects adjusted earnings of between $3.45 and $3.55 per share. Analysts were expecting $2.88 per share, according to FactSet’s StreetAccount.
Rivian — Shares of EV start-up Rivian sank 3% as the market rotated out of high-growth stocks, despite a bullish call from Bank of America. Bank of America named Rivian one of its top picks for 2022. Amazon, a key backer of the EV company, announced a deal with Stellantis on Wednesday, potentially creating additional selling pressure for Rivian.
Goldman Sachs — Shares of the bank slid 0.4% after Bank of America downgraded the stock to neutral from buy. The Wall Street firm also slashed its 12-month price target to $475 per share from $490 per share. Bank of America is cautious on Goldman as it expects a tougher revenue growth backdrop for its capital markets business due to a moderation in trading activity and M&A.

Conagra Brands — The food stock fell 1.8% after Conagra missed earnings estimates for its fiscal second quarter. The company reported 64 cents in adjusted earnings per share, while analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected 68 cents per share. Conagra said inflation hurt its profit margins.
MGM Resorts — The hotel and casino stock gained 3% after Credit Suisse named MGM a top pick for 2022. The firm cited positive trends in Las Vegas as a reason to be optimistic for MGM.
Lamb Weston — Shares of the food company jumped 7.5% after Lamb Weston beat estimates on the top and bottom lines for its fiscal second quarter. The company reported 50 cents in adjusted earnings per share, compared with 33 cents expected by analysts, according to FactSet’s StreetAccount. Lamb Weston also said it expected its full-year net sales growth to be above its long-term target range.
Bed Bath & Beyond — Shares of the home goods retailer jumped 8% even after the company reported disappointing fiscal third-quarter results with earnings and sales missing analysts’ expectations. Chief Executive Mark Tritton said a lack of inventory due to supply chain bottlenecks cost Bed Bath & Beyond about $100 million. The company also cut its financial outlook for the year.
Walgreens — Shares of the drugstore chain fell 2.9% after the company spoke of rising labor costs as its pharmacists are stretched thin by administering vaccines and filling prescriptions. Still, Walgreens beat analysts’ expectations for fiscal first-quarter earnings, as customers came to stores for Covid vaccines and tests. It also raised its forecast for the year.

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GM made headlines at CES with announcements of new EVs, including the Silverado and Equinox, progress on autonomous vehicles and thousands of orders for its BrightDrop electric work vans.
Reaction to the Silverado EV by Wall Street analysts has largely been positive, however some questioned the lack of options and timing of the launch.

DETROIT – General Motors made several announcements at the CES technology show Wednesday that investors should take note of – specifically its future plans for electric and autonomous vehicles.
GM CEO Mary Barra, who was one of the event’s headliners, unveiled the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV pickup that’s expected to go on sale next year against Ford Motor’s electric F-150 and Rivian Automotive’s R1T, among others.

Reaction to the Silverado EV by Wall Street analysts has largely been positive, however some questioned the lack of options and timing of the launch. Specifically, the company’s decision to only launch with two trims, giving Ford’s F-150 Lightning that’s launching this spring a one-year advantage.
Shares of GM closed Wednesday down 3.6% to $62.74 a share amid a broader market selloff. The stock was largely unchanged through midday trading Thursday.

Mary Barra, chief executive officer of General Motors Co., presents the new Silverado elective vehicle during a live-streamed event at the CES 2022 trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022.
Bridgett Bennett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“While the Silverado specs were very solid, they arguably came largely as expected, and we believe that investors may have been ‘selling the news,'” Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner told investors in a note Thursday. He said investors “may also have been surprised” by the launch cadence that includes a fleet model in spring 2023, followed by a $105,000 consumer model in the fall.
Credit Suisse analyst Dan Levy called the timing “somewhat of a disappointment for investors” in a Tuesday note.
But the Silverado EV wasn’t the only news investors should have paid attention to Wednesday. Others included electric van orders for GM’s BrightDrop unit, personal autonomous vehicle plans and timing on two new EVs. Here’s more on those things and others from GM’s CES presentation.

BrightDrop

GM’s electric commercial vehicle unit BrightDrop, which it debuted a year ago at CES, announced deals with Walmart and FedEx to buy thousands of its EV vans.
Walmart signed a new agreement with BrightDrop to reserve 5,000 electric vans, while FedEx added an additional 2,000 vans to a previous order of 500. FedEx said that order could increase to 20,000 electric vans.

An EV600 all-electric light commercial vehicle purpose-built for the delivery of goods and services, built by GM’s electric commercial vehicle business, BrightDrop, is seen in Detroit, Michigan, in this undated photograph.
Brightdrop | Handout | via Reuters

Alan Wexler, GM’s senior vice president of innovation and growth, called such orders “critically important” for the business, which began delivering the first vans to FedEx last month.
“It’s a big market,” he told CNBC. “It’s important for our commercial segment because I think there’s going to be a halo that extends even into our traditional kind of fleet business as we talk to Walmart, FedEx, and others.”

$30,000 Equinox EV

In addition to revealing the Silverado EV for 2023, Barra said GM will offer EV versions of the Chevrolet Equinox and Chevrolet Blazer next year. The electric Equinox will start around $30,000, she said.
Wall Street analysts view the vehicles as GM’s first truly mainstream EVs on the company’s new Ultium batteries and platform.

GM will expand its Chevrolet EV lineup in fall 2023 to include the Equinox EV, starting at about $30,000.

“Both vehicles are critical, as they will represent GM’s first bid at high-volume EV entries, and GM’s first true shot against (Tesla’s) Model 3 / Y,” Levy said.
Barra showed images of the electric Equinox but did not disclose any additional details about that vehicle or the Blazer EV.

GM targets Tesla’s FSD

GM plans to begin offering a new “door-to-door” hands-free driving system with greater capabilities than Tesla’s “FSD” system beginning next year.
The Detroit automaker has said its new “Ultra Cruise” system will be capable of operating hands-free in 95% of all driving scenarios. That compares to Tesla’s “FSD” system that is designed to operate with drivers’ hands on the wheel.

Barra on Wednesday said the Cadillac Celestiq, an upcoming luxury electric sedan, will be among the first vehicles with the technology.
“Celestiq will be a true halo for Cadillac in every way,” Barra said, adding the Celestiq will be hand-built and available in “exclusive volumes.”

AVs

Barra confirmed two major plans Wednesday regarding GM’s autonomous vehicle plans, which the automaker has been investing billions in for several years.
Most notable, Barra said GM’s majority-owned autonomous vehicle unit Cruise is expected to commercialize a ride-hailing service in San Francisco in the coming months. Crusie applied for the last permit needed to commercialize the operations in November.

GM Cadillac Innerspace Halo Concept Car
Courtesy: GM

She also said that GM and Cruise plan to offer consumers personal autonomous EVs by mid-decade. The new timeline was accompanied by GM’s Cadillac luxury brand unveiling a sleek new personal self-driving EV concept called InnerSpace.
The concept is part of Cadillac’s “Halo Concept Portfolio” that started a year ago at CES with an urban air mobility vehicle and a shared autonomous shuttle. Such products could be crucial for GM to offer subscription services to create recurring revenue to assist in its plans to double revenue to $280 billion by 2030.
“We’re taking very much a holistic approach to how we think about subscriptions across our business,” Wexler said.

Cadillac InnerSpace concept

EV boat

Separate from Barra’s keynote, a GM-backed start-up that makes electric outboard motors for boats called Pure Watercraft revealed a new electric pontoon boat at CES.
GM last year acquired a 25% stake in the Seattle-based company. GM will supply components as part of the $150 million deal with Pure Watercraft, a co-developer of new products, and will provide engineering, design and manufacturing expertise to help the start-up establish new factories.

Pure Watercraft electric pontoon boat is the first product to result from the company’s collaboration with General Motors.
Pure Watercraft

The deal is part of GM’s plans to offer its fuel cell and Ultium electric vehicle technologies to segments outside of automotive. It previously announced tie-ups or deals in locomotive, aerospace and defense.
– CNBC”s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

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World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the unequal distribution of vaccines the biggest failure of 2021.
Tedros said low vaccine coverage in many countries of the world contributes to the emergence of new variants, which can undermine global economic growth.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a press conference on December 20, 2021 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

The World Health Organization on Thursday warned the unequal distribution of vaccines around the globe has contributed to the emergence of new Covid variants, such as omicron, that threaten the global economic recovery.
“Vaccine inequity is a killer of people and jobs, and it undermines a global economic recovery,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during an update from the group’s headquarters in Geneva.

Tedros said the inability of world leaders to work together to increase vaccine coverage in poorer nations with less-developed health systems was one of the biggest failures of 2021. Low vaccine coverage in many countries was a major factor in the emergence of variants such as delta and omicron, Tedros said. Delta was first detected in India in late 2020 while omicron was first found by health officials in southern Africa in November.
The WHO had set a target to vaccinate 40% of the population in every nation of the world by the end of 2021. However, 92 countries did not achieve that despite the distribution of 9 billion shots worldwide, according to the organization.
The WHO has set a goal to vaccinate 70% of the population in every country of the world by the middle of this year.

CNBC Health & Science

“Global leaders who have shown such resolve in protecting their own populations will extend that resolve to make sure that the world, the whole world is safe and protected,” Tedros said. “And this pandemic will not end until we do that.”
The International Monetary Fund is expected to downgrade its global growth forecast due to the emergence of the omicron variant. The IMF has delayed the release of its World Economic Outlook until the end of January in order to take the impact of omicron into account.

“A new variant that may spread very rapidly can dent confidence, and in that sense, we are likely to see some downgrades of our October projections for global growth,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told Reuters during a virtual conference last month.
The IMF in October forecast the global economy would grow 5.9% in 2021 and 4.9% in 2022. The organization warned at the time that the emergence of new variants had created increased uncertainty.
The IMF projected that the pandemic could reduce gross domestic product worldwide by $5.3 trillion over the next five years compared with current estimates. It called on world leaders to do more to increase vaccine coverage in low-income nations.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said last month that omicron poses a risk to U.S. economic growth, but he noted that there are many unknowns about how the variant will impact public health and the economy.
Powell said omicron’s impact will depend on how much it suppresses demand. The Fed chair said it was unclear how the variant would impact inflation, hiring and economic growth.
“The more people who get vaccinated the less economic effect,” Powell said during a news conference after the Fed’s December meeting. “It doesn’t mean it won’t have an economic effect,” he said.
Powell said the delta variant slowed hiring and hurt global supply chains during a wave of infection in the fall.
The Bank of England’s chief economist, Huw Pill, told CNBC last month that omicron poses a “two-sided” risk.
“Omicron has introduced a new level of uncertainty into our assessment of the economy as a whole, the inflation outlook and the labor market developments,” Pill said on “Street Signs Europe.”

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Zack Scott, the former acting general manager for the New York Mets, was found not guilty in a DWI case that had led to his firing after a tenure of less than one year.
Scott reportedly was ordered to pay two fines for traffic violations in the case.
Hours before his arrest, Scott had been attending an Amazin’ Mets Foundation benefit at the Connecticut home of Mets owner Steve Cohen, the former hedge fund operator.

New York Mets general manager Zack Scott is on the field before the game between the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs at Citi Field on June 16, 2021 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
Elsa | Getty Images

Zack Scott, the former acting general manager for the New York Mets, was found not guilty Thursday morning in a DWI case that had led to his firing in late 2021 after a tenure of less than one year.
Scott reportedly was ordered by the judge in the case to pay two fines for traffic violations.

In a statement issued after the verdict in a Westchester County court, where he went on trial last month, Zack said, “I am thankful for today’s verdict.”
“Nonetheless, I regret choices I made on August 31, resulting in circumstances that led to my arrest,” Zack said. “Professionally, I’m grateful to [team president] Sandy Alderson for the opportunity to lead baseball operations for the Mets and wish my former teammates nothing but the best going forward.”
The verdict came weeks after Scott’s trial on several drinking and driving charges.
During that trial, Scott’s lawyer reportedly argued he had not failed a standard field sobriety test administered by police. Evidence from police bodycam footage also reportedly did not give the impression that Scott was intoxicated.
The verdict had been delayed as a result of Scott testing positive for Covid-19 in mid-December, according to media reports.

Scott was arrested at 4:30 a.m. Sept. 1, 2021, in White Plains, N.Y., in Westchester County, after being found in his stopped 2018 Toyota. He lives in the nearby suburb of Rye and was found near the police department in White Plains.
Hours before his arrest, Scott had been attending an Amazin’ Mets Foundation benefit at the Connecticut home of Mets owner Steve Cohen, the former hedge fund operator.
In addition to being charged with driving while intoxicated, which is a misdemeanor, Scott was issued a traffic ticket for allegedly “stopping/standing/parking on highway,” disobeying a traffic control device, and failing to notify the state Department of Motor Vehicles about a change in address.
The Mets barred Scott from traveling with the team the day of his arrest, and placed him on leave on Sept. 2. He was fired two months later.
Scott had replaced former Mets GM Jared Porter, who was fired in January 2021 after he admitted sending unsolicited, explicit text messages to a female reporter when he worked for the Chicago Cubs in 2016.

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Virgin Galactic dipped below its October 2019 debut price of $11.75 in Thursday trading.
The space tourism company went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
Delays to its spacecraft testing and development have steadily pushed back the beginning of commercial service, which had been planned for 2020.

Virgin Galactic’s passenger rocket plane VSS Unity, carrying billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson and his crew, lands after reaching the edge of space above Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, U.S., July 11, 2021.
Joe Skipper | Reuters

Shares of space tourism company Virgin Galactic fell below $11.75 in trading on Thursday, bringing it beneath the level the stock debuted at more than two years ago.
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, from Chamath Palihapitiya in October 2019. The stock has experienced volatile, speculative trading since then – falling near $7 a share in the months after its debut and climbing as high as $62.80 a share in February 2021.

While the space tourism company said during its debut that it planned to begin flying customers in 2020, delays to its spacecraft testing and development have steadily pushed that schedule back. After launching Branson and three other company employees on a test spaceflight in July 2021, further delays have pushed Virgin Galactic’s beginning of commercial service to late this year.
The company is pre-revenue and loses about $55 million to $65 million per quarter on an adjusted Ebitda basis.
Virgin Galactic stock tumbled to a 52-week low of $11.30 on Thursday morning before paring losses.
Notably, Branson has steadily sold pieces of his stake in Virgin Galactic since the company went public. Across four major stake sales, Branson recouped more than $1.25 billion, although he remains Virgin Galactic’s largest single shareholder.
His global business conglomerate Virgin Group has said in statements to CNBC that proceeds of those stock sales are intended to support Branson’s other leisure and travel businesses that have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Bentley reported sales of 14,659 vehicles last year, a 31% increase over the company’s previous sales record of 11,206 cars and SUVs in 2020.
Bentley attributed the record sales to new models, including hybrids, as well as the company’s “Beyond 100” business plan to pivot the famed carmaker to be fully electric by 2030.

A Bentley PHEV Mulliner car is displayed during the 19th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition, also known as Auto Shanghai 2021, at National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) on April 23, 2021 in Shanghai, China.
Zhe Ji | Getty Images

Bentley Motors sold a record number of its luxury sedans and SUVs last year as much of the mainstream automotive industry struggled with supply chain issues, the 102-year-old carmaker said Thursday.
The Volkswagen-owned company reported sales of 14,659 vehicles last year, a 31% increase over the company’s previous sales record of 11,206 cars and SUVs in 2020.

Bentley attributed the sales success to new models, including hybrids, as well as the company’s “Beyond 100” business plan that includes transitioning the famed carmaker to be fully electric by 2030.
“2021 was yet another year of unpredictability though I am delighted to be able to confirm that we overcame significant headwinds, and deliver a breakthrough in our sales performance,” Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark said in a release. “This is our second record sales year in the successive years and is a positive sign of our brand strength, operational excellence, strong global demand and affirmation of our strategic priorities.”

Sales in the Americas rose by 39% and remained Bentley’s top market in 2021, while sales in China increased 40%. Sales in other markets such as Europe, Asia Pacific (excluding China) and the Middle East also increased.
Bentley sells some of the most expensive and rare cars in the world. Its entry-level SUV, the Bentayga, starts at more than $180,000, while its exclusive “coachbuilt” models such as the Mulliner Bacalar sell for $2 million.
Bentley’s record sales occurred while much of the global automotive industry struggled with supply chain issues. Most notably, an ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips.

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Macy’s has released a list of the handful of department store locations that it plans to close in the first quarter of this year.
It includes six full-line department stores, a Bloomingdale’s outlet store, and a Macy’s store that the company said already closed in 2021 but was never announced publicly.
Macy’s will offer impacted workers at these locations severance packages or other roles at nearby stores, according to a company spokeswoman.

Macy’s has released a list of the handful of department stores that it plans to close this year.
It includes six full-line department stores, a Bloomingdale’s outlet store, and a Macy’s store that the company said already closed last year but was never announced publicly.

The Bloomingdale’s location at Miromar Outlets in Estero, Florida, is set to shutter by the end of the fiscal fourth quarter, Macy’s said. The other six full-line locations should close by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
“Stores remain an integral part of our omnichannel retail ecosystem,” said a Macy’s spokeswoman in a statement. “As our business evolves, we continue to optimize and reposition our store fleet to more effectively support our omnichannel sales growth and expand market share.”
Macy’s will offer impacted workers at these locations severance packages or other roles at nearby stores, she said. The company declined to say how many employees work at these sites.
In mid-November, Macy’s announced it would be closing about 10 stores in January. The retailer had been on track to close more locations, but it said it was reconsidering when it would close the roughly 60 remaining open stores out of a batch of 125 closures that targeted to go dark by 2023.
“The delayed closure of certain stores allows us to maintain a physical presence in the market, which is critical to our top line growth,” said Chief Financial Officer Adrian Mitchell, during an earnings conference call at the time. “Digital performance is stronger in the markets where we have stores.”

Macy’s is also undergoing a review of its business with the consulting firm AlixPartners amid pressure from activist investor Jana Partners to split Macy’s stores from its e-commerce arm.
Last January, Macy’s had announced a list of dozens of department store locations to be closed as part of its three-year plan. But the pace of closures is slowing as Macy’s operates a leaner portfolio of stores today. It has 516 full-line Macy’s department stores, according to its website.
Macy’s has also been testing off-mall and smaller-format locations, as it closes its larger locations anchored at traditional malls.
Macy’s stock rose a whopping 143% in 2021.
Here’s the full list of Macy’s locations that are closing in 2022 or have already closed.

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