Midday stock highlights: Oracle, Bath & Body Works, Gap, and others

Midday Market Update

Here are some notable movements in the stock market:

Oracle: Shares dropped 4% amid ongoing investor worries over AI valuations, adding to weekly losses for both Oracle and Nvidia.

Bath & Body Works: The retailer experienced a 5% decline, following a significant 24.8% drop on Thursday. Analysts, including those from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, downgraded the stock after the company shared its disappointing third-quarter results.

QuidelOrtho: This diagnostic products maker saw an 11% increase in shares after CEO Brian Blazer purchased 23,500 shares.

AZENTA: Shares jumped over 10% following the company’s fourth-quarter earnings, which surpassed analysts’ expectations. They reported earnings of 21 cents per share on revenues of $159.2 million, while analysts had anticipated earnings of 19 cents on $156.2 million in revenue.

Enviri: The waste management firm’s stock rose nearly 29% after announcing the sale of its hazardous and non-hazardous waste division, Clean Energy, to Veolia for $3.04 billion. The company plans to spin off its Harsco Environmental and Rail divisions as part of the new structure, with the deal expected to close by mid-2026.

Bitcoin Stocks: Stocks linked to Bitcoin slid as the cryptocurrency nearly dipped to $80,000, prompting investors to shy away from risky assets. Companies like American Bitcoin and Riot Platforms fell 8% and 2%, respectively, while Bitcoin Financial Strategy dropped 3% and Galaxy Digital decreased by 5%.

Elastic: Shares dropped 14% after the company reported second-quarter results indicating a slowdown in cloud growth, despite better-than-expected adjusted earnings and revenue.

Veeva Systems: The stock fell 11% as the cloud solutions provider forecasted a decrease in interest from top biopharmaceutical firms for its Vault CRM. Veeva reported earnings of $2.04 per share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of $811.2 million, slightly above analysts’ predictions of $1.95 and $792.8 million.

Gap: The apparel retailer’s same-store sales rose over 8% in the latest quarter, boosted by a successful campaign featuring Katseye. This marked the largest same-store sales growth, excluding the pandemic period, since the holiday quarter of 2017.

Ross Stores: The retailer reported sales of $5.6 billion, exceeding forecasts of $5.42 billion, causing a 4% rise in stock prices. Ross also adjusted its earnings outlook for the fourth quarter, expecting minimal tariff-related costs.

Anaptis Bio: Shares fell 2% after it was announced that drugmaker Tesaro intends to sue Anaptis Bio over alleged violations of a licensing agreement concerning its oncology drug, Gemperi.