Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Abbott Labs, AMD, Charles Schwab, On Semi & more CNBC

Here are the stocks making headlines in midday trading. Advanced Micro Devices – The chip company surged more than 7% after Bernstein lifted its price target to $265 per share from $235. "We are warming to AMD as well as they benefit from server CPU strength," wrote analyst Stacy Rasgon in a Thursday report. The stock is on pace for a 12th straight winning session. Rasgon's team also raised their price target on Intel to $60 per share from $36 in the same report. Shares advanced nearly 5%. Abbott Laboratories – Shares tumbled nearly 7% as the company reported weak guidance for the second quarter. Abbott sees adjusted earnings for the current quarter ranging from $1.25 to $1.31 per share, compared with the FactSet consensus of $1.36 per share. The company also dialed back its full-year adjusted earnings guidance to reflect its acquisition of Exact Sciences, forecasting $5.38 to $5.58 per share and missing analysts' estimate of $5.60 per share. Aehr Test Systems – Shares of the test solutions provider for semiconductor devices surged 11%. Aehr announced it received a $41 million production order from one of its lead hyperscale artificial intelligence customers. Several AI-related optical stocks also rose in sympathy, including Lumentum , up almost 6%, and Coherent , up 3%. On Semiconductor – The chip stock popped 9%. Several Wall Street shops have rolled out bullish reports for On Semi just this week, with Bank of America hiking its price target to $85 per share from $70 and lifting its rating to buy from neutral. PepsiCo — The snack and beverage giant posted first-quarter results that beat analyst expectations, sending the stock 2% higher. PepsiCo earned an adjusted $1.61 per share on revenue of $19.44 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG expected a profit of $1.55 per share on revenue of $18.94 billion. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing — The chipmaker slipped 3% despite posting an earnings and revenue beat for its first quarter. PPG Industries — The paint and coating ...

Invesco Next Gen Connectivity ETF hits a 52-week high, fueled by AI and semiconductor strength.

Inna Kot/iStock via Getty Images Shares of AI mortgage origination platform Better Home & Finance Holding Company ( BETR ) have been on a rollercoaster ride after hedge fund manager Eric Jackson touted the stock in Sept 2025. The company aims to leverage AI to disrupt the mortgage origination market by removing the human element that can reduce the time for approval answers from three weeks to 47 seconds. Trading at a PE of just over 18x on FY27E non-GAAP EPS while expected to grow revenue by 63% and 53% over the next two years, the beneficial owner buying into this busted IPO merited a deeper dive. An analysis follows below. BETR Stock Chart (Seeking Alpha) Company Overview: Better Home & Finance Holding Company is a New York City based digital platform that provides mortgages, home equity loans, and ancillary products, all designed to enable a seamless and quicker financing experience. Aided by a technology stack dubbed Tinman AI Platform, the company aims to disrupt the mortgage origination ecosystem, having generated funded loan volume of $4.7 billion in FY25, which represented a 32% increase over FY24. Better was formed in 2015 and went public in 2023, when it reversed merged into special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Aurora Acquisition Corp. The public debut was an enormous flop as SPAC investors typically have the option to redeem their investment before the impending merger. With interest rates low when Aurora went public in 2021 but significantly higher when the Better transaction was about to consummate, 95% of investors redeemed, leaving a relatively illiquid float. With confidence waning in the mortgage market, shares of [NOW] BETR cratered 93% to $57.50 (after giving effect to a 1-for-50 reverse stock split in August 2024) on their first day of trading. Its stock trades at just over $37.00 a share translating to a market cap of roughly $725 million. March 2026 Company Presentation The company is capitalized by three classes of stock. The 10.6 milli...

Unstoppable surge: AMD hits all-time high in best run in nearly two decades - what's fueling the drive? The Economic Times

Running at a loss can be a red flag. Many of these businesses face mounting challenges as competition increases and funding becomes harder to secure.

Jim Cramer Shares Important Advice About Intel (INTC) Stock Insider Monkey

Key PointsThe electric air taxi maker cleared a key regulatory hurdle and has nearly $2 billion in liquidity.

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called on US authorities to prepare a back-up plan in order to avert a potential collapse in demand for Treasuries — an event that he warned would have “vicious” effects. “We need an emergency break-the-glass plan, which is targeted and short-term, on the shelf, so it’s ready to go when when we hit the wall,” Paulson said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin . Paulson said a breakdown in the $31 trillion market for US government debt would be different from the financial crisis he dealt with while at the Treasury’s helm two decades ago. “As bad as it was,” the government had fiscal firepower to address the credit meltdown, he said. “You can come in and clean up the mess.” But in the event of a US public debt crisis, “when you hit the wall and you’re trying to issue Treasuries and the Fed is the only buyer and the prices of the Treasuries are going down and interest rates are up, that’s a dangerous thing.” US budget experts have for years warned of the potential for a “ doom loop ,” where investors start demanding higher yields on Treasuries due to risks tied to the government’s swelling debt burden , which then causes an increase in the government’s interest payments — in turn widening the deficit. In an extreme scenario where the Treasury proves unable to raise all it needs to pay for interest or principal payments, many assume the Federal Reserve would have to step in as an emergency buyer. “People say, when are you going to hit the wall? I obviously don’t know, it’s impossible to know,” Paulson said. “When we hit it, it will be vicious, so we have to prepare for that eventuality.” Read More: IMF Says Treasuries Losing Premium, Warns on Debt Management The former Treasury chief didn’t lay out the specifics for a potential break-the-glass plan. But he said “there is good news — we’re a rich country, and so there’s plenty we could do if we begin to act” on the fiscal deficit. “It’s goin...

We recently published Jim Cramer Said Allbirds Management Are “Jokers” & Discussed These 18 Stocks. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the stocks discussed by Jim Cramer. Software giant Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of Jim Cramer’s favorite stocks in the AI space. Over the past couple of months, he has repeatedly praised the firm’s […]

We recently published Jim Cramer Said Allbirds Management Are “Jokers” & Discussed These 18 Stocks. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is one of the stocks discussed by Jim Cramer. eCommerce and cloud services provider Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s shares are up by 9.5% year-to-date. Evercore ISI discussed the firm on April 9th as it reiterated a $285 share […]

Jim Cramer Reveals What Amazon’s (AMZN) Closely Held Secret Is Yahoo Finance

Madison Air Solutions Corp. shares rose 19% after the company raised $2.23 billion in the biggest US listing of an industrial firm in close to three decades. Shares of the provider of ventilation and filtration systems opened at $32, compared to the initial public offering price of $27 each. The company sold 82.7 million shares after marketing them for $25 to $27 apiece. The trading gives the Chicago-based company a market value of $15.6 billion based on the number of outstanding shares listed in its filings. The IPO is the biggest in the US by an industrial company since United Parcel Service Inc. raised $5.5 billion in 1999, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The courier went public during the rise of online commerce and found favor with investors hungry for stocks linked to the internet. Read More: AI Gold Rush Drives Thousands of Newcomers Into Data Centers Madison Air is also seen as way to get exposure to the cutting edge of technology, this time the artificial intelligence boom that’s powered a three-year bull market in US stocks. The company’s business includes selling liquid, hybrid and air cooling products for data centers, and it’s said that the construction of those computing hubs — as well North America’s aging housing stock and reshoring of advanced manufacturing — is fueling growth in the estimated $40 billion market for specialized air systems. “Anything associated with AI tends to get a premium,” said Rob Thummel , a portfolio manager for the Tortoise AI Infrastructure ETF . “The question is, is it pure-play enough? And I guess that’s what investors will decide.” The IPO is the latest, and the largest, in a series of splashy debuts from industrial firms with a tie to the buildout of data centers. Shares of Legence Corp. surged 148% from the engineering company’s September IPO through Wednesday, while power-equipment maker Forgent Power Solutions Inc. climbed 20% since debuting in February. A key part of the pitch for SpaceX , whose IPO could b...

We recently published Jim Cramer Said Allbirds Management Are “Jokers” & Discussed These 18 Stocks. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the stocks discussed by Jim Cramer. Tech giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s shares are up by 30% over the past year and are down by 2.9% year-to-date. Cramer has discussed the firm several times over […]

Jim Cramer Reveals Why Apple (AAPL) Stock is Worth it Yahoo Finance

We recently published Jim Cramer Said Allbirds Management Are “Jokers” & Discussed These 18 Stocks. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the stocks discussed by Jim Cramer. Technology giant Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s stock is up by a modest 5% over the past year. Cramer hasn’t missed the weakness either, as he has discussed the firm […]

Jim Cramer Makes Big Claim About Microsoft (MSFT) & SpaceX IPO Yahoo Finance

leolintang/iStock via Getty Images Microsoft Corporation ( MSFT ) has gone out of the market’s favor, and I don’t say this lightly. The stock is now the worst-performing in the Mag 7, as seen below. Seeking Alpha Microsoft is up around 4% over the past month, underperforming everyone in the peer group, with the exception of Tesla ( TSLA ), which is flat. Over the 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, and year-to-date periods, the stock is in deep, double-digit red territory, all while nothing has changed fundamentally. In my August 2025 coverage, I maintained the stock with a Buy at the $504 levels, mainly on Azure pulling in over $75 billion annually at 34% year-over-year growth. At the time, I thought that with over 65% of Fortune 500 companies already using the Azure OpenAI Service, and that Elon Musk's proposed Macrohard AI-native competitor, launched under xAI ( X.AI ), was unlikely to dent Microsoft's enterprise moat within any investable time horizon. Displacing Windows, Office 365, Teams, and Azure from three decades of entrenched government, corporate, and education relationships was "practically impossible for any new entrant, at least within the next five to ten years." My thesis from back then still stands, but what’s different now is sentiment. That stock is now trading at $411, now down around 18% since my last coverage, and it even hit the low of $356 in late March. But the question arises: has anything materially changed in the underlying business to justify this steep reduction in market cap since that late July high at $552? The answer is no, and that is precisely why Microsoft is attractive at these levels. What I think changed is the market's narrative around the stock, not the business itself. Last year, the market was rewarding Microsoft's AI capex as visionary, but by January of this year, that same capex had been reframed as a liability, as the stock fell 7% after the company spent $37.5 billion on capex for Q2 , above consensus at $34.3 billion. The ma...

Tomas Ragina Some Gulf Arab and European leaders believe a U.S.-Iran peace deal will take approximately six months to finalize and are urging both sides to extend their ceasefire to cover that negotiating window, according to officials from the regions, Bloomberg reported. The leaders are demanding the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to restore energy flows, warning privately that a global food crisis may develop if the vital waterway isn’t opened by next month. Brent crude ( CO1:COM ) has climbed about 3.5% to more than $98 a barrel, with oil prices up 35% since the conflict began in late February, and Gulf economies have been unable to export normal levels of oil, liquefied natural gas, aluminum, and fertilizers. Gulf states believe Iran is still pursuing a nuclear weapon despite the U.S.-Israeli bombardment and want any peace deal to ban Iran from enriching uranium or possessing long-range ballistic missiles. The UAE has emphasized the need for “a comprehensive and sustained approach that addresses Iran’s full range of threats, including its nuclear capabilities, ballistic missiles, drones, military capabilities, and affiliated proxies and terrorist groups.” Washington and Tehran are currently weighing a two-week extension of their truce, which ends Tuesday, though contentious issues remain, including Iran’s demand for indefinite control over the Hormuz Strait, sanctions relief, and the ongoing war in Lebanon between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah. President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday, which some officials said could help advance the broader Iran negotiations. Dear readers: We recognize that politics often intersects with the financial news of the day, so we invite you to click here to join the separate political discussion. More on the U.S.-Iran war Israel, Lebanon agree on 10-day ceasefire U.S. naval blockade of Iran turns away 13 ships, ramps up pressure on Tehran - reports Polymarket odds f...

Microsoft: Cheap For All The Wrong Reasons (NASDAQ:MSFT) Seeking Alpha

Case of businessman using AI to generate false letters of complaint against Heaven nightclub part of a growing issue, say police A businessman has pleaded guilty to making false statements in order to shut down a nightclub, which police believe were generated using AI. A Metropolitan police source said the use of AI to generate letters by complainants who do not exist is a growing issue. Continue reading...

Heaven club neighbour admits offences under Licensing Act, as Met says fictitious AI-generated complaints a growing issue A businessman has pleaded guilty to making false statements in order to shut down a nightclub, which police believe were generated using AI. A Metropolitan police source said the use of AI to generate letters by complainants who do not exist is a growing issue. Continue reading...

Oracle will source up to 2.8 GW of energy from the fuel cell company.

Written by Nick Ackerman, co-produced by Stanford Chemist The discount on the Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Buy-Write Opportunities Fund ( ETW ) has remained wide since our last update. As a closed-end fund, discounts can remain wide for significant periods of time. In this case, it has been a number of years now since the fund was flirting with a premium level. That said, the discount still remains enticing at these levels, and on the back of added broader equity volatility, we can sometimes see that discount get even deeper. ETW Basics 1-Year Z-score: 0.00 Discount/Premium: -9.48% Distribution Yield: 8.51% Expense Ratio: 1.1% Leverage: N/A Managed Assets: $1.1 billion Structure: Perpetual ETW "invests in a diversified portfolio of common stocks and writes call options on one or more U.S. and foreign indices on a substantial portion of the value of its common stock portfolio to seek to generate current earnings from the option premium." The tax-managed focus comes in with the "fund evaluating returns on an after-tax basis and seeks to minimize and defer federal income taxes incurred by shareholders in connection with their investment in the Fund." Performance - Deep Discount Remains Persistent Since our last write-up , ETW has outperformed the S&P 500 Index. However, this has been quite a volatile period, where we entered into a correction and then rebounded sharply. ETW Performance Since Prior Update (Seeking Alpha) The discount level still remains relatively attractive, though off the double-digit discount level we had been seeing. Overall, I believe this still continues to represent a time to consider adding to this fund based on the discounted valuation. Data by YCharts Looking back at longer-term historical results, the fund provides a breakdown of various benchmarks. These all help to highlight the global nature of the fund, the equity focus, but also the call writing strategy. Against the call writing indexes, the fund has outperformed or provided competiti...