Nikola Motor Company Two truck
Source: Nikola Motor Company
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Nikola — The electric truck maker saw its stock surging 17.9% a day after the company announced on Twitter that its first customer delivery is done and signaled there’s more to come.
Novavax — Vaccine producer Novavax fell 3.3% despite reporting on Wednesday that a two-dose treatment of its Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated strong immune responses against the omicron variant. It also said the response to omicron was lower than the response against the original virus strain and added a booster dose would be helpful.
JD.com — Shares of JD.com fell about 7% after the Chinese social media company Tencent said it will distribute most of its stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant to shareholders in the form of a $16.4 billion dividend.
Las Vegas Sands, Wynn — Casino stocks with exposure to Macao rose on Thursday after the local government released the results of a review of the gaming industry. The review determined that there should be six operators, according to FactSet’s StreetAccount. Shares of Wynn rose 3.5%, while Las Vegas Sands added 4.2%. Both stocks are still trading below where they were in mid-September when Macao announced the review.
Stitch Fix — Shares of Stitch Fix gained 8% after one of its shareholders, Working Capital Advisors, disclosed that it purchased 3.4 million shares in the company, bringing its total holdings to 10.6 million shares.
Crocs — Shares of Crocs dropped more than 11.6% after the footwear maker announced it would buy privately held rival Heydude for $2.5 billion in cash and stock. The companies said they expect the deal to close in the first quarter of next year.
Tesla — Tesla shares rose more than 5% after CEO Elon Musk announced he’s “almost done” selling his shares, after offloading more than $15 billion worth for more than one month. Earlier in the week he suggested he had completed “enough” transactions to reach his goal of selling 10% of his shares.
Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Quidel — Shares of the in-vitro diagnostics company climbed 6.9% following news that Ortho will be acquired by Quidel, a diagnostics technology provider. The cash-and-stock deal is valued at about $24.68 per share. Quidel shares tumbled by about 17%.
Sciplay, Scientific Games — SciPlay, a digital games developer and publisher, saw its shares slide 12.8% a day after Scientific Games, one of its largest shareholders, withdrew its offer to acquire the remaining 19% equity interest in the company. Meanwhile, Scientific Games shares jumped more 8.9%.
Mission Produce — The produce company’s shares tumbled 8.5% after it reported a quarterly miss on both earnings and revenue, noting that its results were affected by supply challenges.
— CNBC’s Hannah Miao, Jesse Pound and Yun Li contributed reporting