Midday Trading Highlights
Here’s a quick look at some companies making waves during midday trading. Stryker, the medical equipment manufacturer, saw its shares tumble over 7%. The decline came after management reported that its peripheral vascular business is facing supply constraints, which are likely to be a setback through both the third and into the fourth quarter of the year.
Amgen’s stock dropped nearly 10% as well. This happened following news that a competing cholesterol drug from Novartis, called pelacarsen, didn’t perform well in a crucial clinical study. As a result, investor expectations for Amgen’s olpasiran—a drug anticipated to provide late-stage data in 2027 or 2028—have decreased. Additionally, BMO Capital Markets downgraded Amgen to a “market perform” rating, maintaining a price target of $450, which suggests only a modest upside of about 3%.
On a brighter note, Qualcomm experienced a 4% increase in its stock price. The chipmaker has teamed up with Amazon Web Services to create a data center infrastructure partnership. They’ve issued Amazon warrants to acquire 25 million shares for $4 billion as part of the deal.
Shares connected to artificial intelligence have seen significant gains after OpenAI launched its GPT-6 Astra large language model last week. CoreWeave gained nearly 15%, while photonics companies Lumentum and Coherent rose by 12% and 9%, respectively. Both Corning, a fiber optic provider, and Nebius, part of the AI cloud space, were up around 10%.
In the travel sector, stocks related to travel and accommodations took a hit due to rising gasoline futures. Shares of Expedia Group and Booking Holdings fell by 6% and 5%, respectively, while Tripadvisor and Airbnb both saw drops of about 3%. Gasoline futures for October delivery were up roughly 2% at last check.
Roivant Sciences saw a striking 20% rally after announcing that Phase 2 trial results for its subsidiary Pulmovant’s mosliciguat showed a “clinically meaningful and statistically significant placebo-adjusted reduction in pulmonary vascular resistance” among patients dealing with pulmonary hypertension related to interstitial lung disease.
Lockheed Martin’s shares added about 3% following an upgrade from UBS, which moved its rating from neutral to buy, pointing out the company’s overlooked potential for earnings growth.
Conversely, Novartis suffered a 13% decline after Phase 3 results indicated that its del-desiran drug showed no significant benefits for patients with myotonic dystrophy type 1. This marked the third drug trial setback for the firm in just a week.
Peloton Interactive’s shares fell over 5% after Morgan Stanley lowered its investment rating from equal weight to underweight, citing that “PTON is facing structural headwinds in fitness.” Meanwhile, Boston Scientific’s stock dropped by 5% after the company stated that a recent cyberattack negatively impacted its sales and profit projections for 2026.
Bloom Energy, a fuel-cell producer, saw its stock jump 10% ahead of its inclusion in the S&P 500 on September 21. The company has greatly benefited from the expansion of AI data centers, with shares surging an impressive 190% this year.
Lastly, stocks in the quantum computing sector rose after the U.S. government agreed to acquire minority equity stakes in several firms as part of a $300 million initiative under the CHIPS Act. D-Wave Quantum saw an increase of over 7%, while Rigetti Computing and Quantinuum grew by 4% and 3%, respectively.
