GM workers with the UAW Local 2250 union strike outside the General Motors Wentzville Assembly Plant in Wentzville, Missouri, Sept. 15, 2023.
Michael B. Thomas | Getty Images
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
General Motors, Ford, Stellantis — Shares of Ford rose slightly, while General Motors gained 1% and Stellantis was up 2% as a targeted strike by the United Auto Workers began. Workers walked off the job at several assembly plants belonging to the three automakers Thursday night after a key deadline to settle a new labor contract passed.
Planet Fitness — Shares slid 13% after the gym chain’s board pushed out CEO Chris Rondeau. The move was shocking to employees close to Rondeau, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. Board member Craig Benson, known for his role as the former governor of New Hampshire, is the interim CEO.
Nucor — The steelmaker fell 5% after offering worse-than-expected guidance for third-quarter earnings, with the company pointing to pricing and volume challenges. Nucor said to expect earnings between $4.10 and $4.20 per share, while analysts polled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv, forecast $4.57.
PTC Therapeutics — The therapeutics stock plummeted 28.3% after the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use issued a negative opinion on a conversion of conditional to full marketing authorization for a PTC drug to treat nonsense mutation Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Raymond James downgraded the stock to underperform from outperform following the news.
Core & Main — The infrastructure stock retreated more than 3% a day after it announced a secondary stock offering. The offering of 18 million Class A shares by selling shareholders will be held concurrently with the repurchase of 3.1 million Class A shares. Partnership interests in a company unit also will be bought back.
Arm Holdings — Shares slipped as much as 2% in midday trading during its second session as a public company, but were recently up nearly 1%. Investment banking firm Needham initiated coverage of the stock at hold without a price target following Arm’s debut that valued the company at about $60 billion. Needham analyst Charles Shi cautioned, however, that the stock’s value already “looks full.”
Insulet, Dexcom — Shares of the diabetes-focused health-care companies fell Friday after Bloomberg News reported Thursday afternoon that Apple has selected a new leader for its team working to develop a noninvasive blood sugar monitoring device. Shares of Insulet shed 3%, while Dexcom sank 3.8%.
Chipmakers — Chip equipment stocks ASML Holding, KLA, Lam Research and Applied Materials dropped nearly 4% each following a report that Taiwan Semiconductor is telling vendors to delay deliveries due to demand concerns. U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor lost 2%.
Adobe — Shares of the Photoshop maker dropped 4% following Adobe’s fiscal third-quarter earnings Thursday. The company reported an earnings and revenue beat and forward guidance that matched Street projections. While Goldman Sachs and Bank of America reiterated buy ratings, JPMorgan remained neutral, citing macroeconomic headwinds and a high premium for Adobe’s pending acquisition of Figma for $20 billion.
Apellis Pharmaceuticals — The biopharmaceutical company advanced 7.5% following a Wells Fargo upgrade to overweight from equal weight. The bank said Apellis has a favorable risk/reward ahead of third-quarter earnings.
DoorDash — Shares of the food delivery company fell 3% after MoffettNathanson downgraded the stock to market perform from outperform. The Wall Street firm said the resumption of loan repayments introduce bookings risk to food delivery. The stock is still up more than 60% this year.
Axis Capital — The insurance stock rose 2.7% following an upgrade to buy from underperform by Bank of America. The Wall Street firm said its pessimistic outlook was changing despite recent underperformance in the reinsurance space.
Estée Lauder — The cosmetics stock advanced nearly 2% after Redburn Atlantic Equities turned less bearish. The firm upgrades shares to neutral from sell, saying the company was feeling technical benefits as customer ordering patterns normalize.
Casella Waste Systems — The waste stock traded about 1.6% higher after getting initiated by Goldman Sachs at buy. Goldman called the company a “compounder with pricing.”
— CNBC’s Yun Li, Jesse Pound, Samantha Subin, Pia Singh, Brian Evans and Lisa Kailai Han contributed reporting.
