Market Update: Notable Movements in Midday Trading
A number of companies are making waves during midday trading. First up, memory stocks are under pressure. Shares of firms involved in memory chips have dropped after China’s CXMT announced plans to produce next-gen memory chips, which could rival those from U.S. and Korean manufacturers. Micron Technology saw a decline of about 3%, with Seagate Technology experiencing a similar dip. Western Digital fell over 2%, and Sandisk dropped more than 5%. The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) also dropped about 4%.
On a brighter note, eBay is seeing significant gains, jumping over 5%. This surge comes after Morgan Stanley identified eBay as a key investment and raised its price target to $132, indicating a potential upside of nearly 18%. The firm points out that the burgeoning $27 billion live selling market, which involves real-time product sales through livestreaming, contributes to over 40% of eBay’s growth.
In the tech sphere, shares of Meta Platforms rose by more than 3% following the launch of its new AI model, called Muse Wonder. There was some buzz earlier in the day after Meta AI chief Alexandr Wang hinted at an upcoming rollout—codenamed Watermelon—on social media, which caught the attention of investors.
Meanwhile, optical stocks took a hit as investors pulled back after last week’s AI rally. Ciena saw its shares drop over 8%, while Lumentum slid by 9%, and Applied Optoelectronics fell 6%.
Salesforce saw a modest increase of nearly 2% after a double upgrade from Bank of America, which moved its rating from underperform to buy. They suggested that artificial intelligence should enhance, not disrupt, Salesforce’s business.
First Solar shares gained approximately 2% after Truist upgraded the company from hold to buy. The bank expressed confidence in strong growth and demand in the solar sector in the coming years, along with First Solar’s pricing influence in that space.
Biogen’s stock climbed nearly 4% following an upgrade from JPMorgan, which moved it from neutral to overweight, citing several key clinical readouts expected in 2027 as potential catalysts for the company.
SLM shares also rose by 4% after Morgan Stanley upgraded it to overweight from equal weight. They pointed out that even though the stock has declined 15% this year, it presents a buying opportunity due to its favorable valuation in the education loan sector.
Mattel experienced a modest rise of 1% after Seaport upgraded it from neutral to buy. The firm noted that with rumors of a potential takeover, there seems to be renewed interest in toy stocks, highlighting some undervalued assets in that market.
Conversely, IonQ shares tumbled more than 8% after the company announced its acquisition of cybersecurity firm Elisity for $1.3 billion. This decline was reflected in the quantum computing space as Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum both fell around 5% in reaction.
