The stock market was trading slightly lower at midday, with the S&P 500 down 0.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite holding steady. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6%, while the Russell 2000 was down 1%.
Top S&P 500 stocks on the move today
Five S&P 500 stocks that are seeing big moves in the midday trading session are:
- View (VST) +6.5%
- Hewlett Packard Company (Energy Efficiency) +4.2%
- Energy of the constellation (CEG) +3.2%
- Intel (INTC) +23%
- Advanced Microdevices (AMD) +2.0%
The five worst-performing and biggest decliners in the S&P 500 as of midday are:
- Global Payments (GPN) -6%
- General Motors (Managing director) -5.3%
- Amgen (AMGN) -4.9%
- Tyson Foods (TSN) -4.1%
- Ford Engine (F) -4.1%
Actions also worth highlighting include:
- Nvidia (NVDA) +1.6%
- Tesla (TSLA) +0.5%
- Apple (APL-American Lead Association) -1%
- Micron (IN) +1.3%
- Microsoft (MSFT) +0.6%
- KB Home Page (KBH) -5.3%
Ford and GM fall after Morgan Stanley downgrades
General Motors and Ford fell 5% and 4%, respectively, following downgrades from Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas.
According to thefly.com, Morgan Stanley downgraded General Motors from equal weight to underweight with a price target of $42, compared to $47 previously. The analyst also downgraded Ford from overweight to equal weight with a price target of $12, compared to $16 previously.
Related: Analysts weigh in on Ford, praise Tesla
The company now has an online view toward the U.S. auto industry, which has become less attractive due to rising auto inventories in that country and weakening consumer affordability.
China's auto market is also struggling, with companies producing nearly 9 million more units than they sell locally, Morgan Stanley added.
HP Enterprise rises thanks to Barclays improvement
Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose 4% after a Barclays analyst upgraded the stock to overweight from equalweight with a price target of $24, up from $20.
Barclays sees early signs of a business recovery and believes HP Enterprise is one of the best ways to invest “as the stock lacks an ai premium,” the analyst said in a research note.
Barclays expects HPE to continue to grow its ai server revenue and sees the acquisition of Juniper Networks, announced in January, as a positive driver of earnings growth.
KB Home shares trade lower after negative results
KB Home shares fell 5% after posting weaker-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings.
The homebuilder earned $2.04 per share, below the $2.06 expected by analysts. Revenue of $1.75 billion was above the $1.73 billion forecast.
KB Home raised its full-year revenue estimate to a range of $6.85 billion to $6.95 billion, up from $6.7 billion to $6.9 billion previously.
Barclays raised its price target on KB Home shares to $99 from $78 and affirmed an overweight rating after earnings, saying the company's revenue guidance was “well above” the Wall Street consensus estimate.
Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of trouble ahead for stocks
