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Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:
Nvidia — Shares of the artificial intelligence darling fell about 2% after a rare negative call on Wall Street. New Street Research downgraded Nvidia to hold from buy, citing limited upside given the big run already this year. It is only the second downgrade of Nvidia this year.
Macy’s — Shares of the retailer jumped 9.5% after The Wall Street Journal reported that the investor group of Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management increased its buyout offer. The group is now offering about $24.80 per share for Macy’s, up from $24 previously, the report said.
Crypto stocks — Stocks tied to the cryptocurrency plummeted after the trustee for the now defunct Mt. Gox exchange said the company has begun making payments in both bitcoin and bitcoin cash to creditors. Marathon Digital was down nearly 4% following the news, while Microstrategy and Coinbase were down about 1.6% and 0.6%, respectively. Bitcoin miner Iris Energy gained 4.7%, reversing losses from earlier in the session, while fellow miner CleanSpark fell 0.6%. Trading platform Robinhood was down 1%, while Riot Platforms also reversed losses to close nearly 1% higher.
SoftBank Group, Arm Holdings — U.S. shares of SoftBank rose 6.4% after Japanese shares hit their first record high in 24 years on Thursday. The Japanese giant’s founder, Masayoshi Son, recently came back into the spotlight to unveil the company’s plan with AI. SoftBank has a majority stake in British chip designer Arm, which has been aiding its success. U.S. shares of Arm also rose 7.7%.
Instructure — The education technology stock jumped 5.3% after Reuters reported interest in an acquisition from private equity firms Francisco Partners and KKR. The two are reportedly competing against each other and are expected to provide binding offers next week, sources told Reuters.
Chinese EV stocks — Shares of Chinese electric vehicle makers fell after the European Union confirmed on Thursday that it was increasing tariffs on electric vehicles imported from the country, with the higher duties going into effect Friday. As a result of the decision, Nio said that while it is currently maintaining prices for its cars sold into Europe, it may have to adjust prices “at a later stage.” That stock fell more than 5% during Friday’s trading session. Other Chinese EV stocks also fell Friday. Shares of Xpeng plunged 4.8% and Zeekr was down 8.7%, while Geely and Li Auto dropped about 4.4% and 1.3%, respectively.
Novo Nordisk — The pharmaceutical giant’s stock inched 2.5% higher despite concerns that semaglutide, present in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, might be tied to an increased risk of a rare eye disease. However, Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Papadakis said the results from the study by Harvard Medical School were “hardly a game-changer.”
Teck Resources — The stock rose nearly 1% after Bloomberg reported Thursday that Canada had approved Glencore’s $6.9 billion acquisition of Teck’s metallurgical coal business. Teck announced that it expects the proceeds from the sale to buy back $2 billion in shares and pledged to invest in “near-term copper growth projects.”
— CNBC’s Alex Harring and Jesse Pound contributed reporting.