Midday stockists: Kroger, Alaska Air, Moderna

The stock market is trading higher in the afternoon, after a slight drop in the morning.

The S&P 500 rose 0.9 percent and the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite climbed nearly 1 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5 percent, while the Russell 2000 rose 1.2 percent.

Trending Stocks:

All stocks of Magnificent 7 are available at noon. Nvidia added 2.7% and is now trading above $120 per share again.

In the semiconductor sector, Broadcom and AMD rose 4.3% and 0.5%, respectively, while Micron lost 3%.

Kroger’s CEO said shoppers are being more cautious with their spending.

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S&P 500 Big Stocks Today

Five S&P 500 stocks making big midday moves are:

• Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) +7.1%
• Kroger (Cr) +6.0%
• Axon Enterprise (AAXN) +5.1%
• Newmont (NO) +4.6%
• Broadcom (AVGO) +4.3%

The five worst-performing S&P 500 stocks with the biggest midday declines are:

• Modern (mRNA) -12.9%
• Micron technology (MU) -3.8%
• Charles Schwab (SCHW) -3.4%
• Enphase Energy (ENPH) -3.2%
• Texas Instruments (TXN) -2.7%

Also, stocks worth noting include:

• Alaska Air Group (ALK) +1.7%
• Nvidia (NVDA) +2.6%
• Meta platforms (THE TARGET) +2.3%
• Micron (MU) -3.4%
• Nope (NO) -7.7%

Alaska Air moves higher after raising outlook

Alaska Air Group, which owns Alaska Airlines, rose 1.7 percent after the company raised its third-quarter outlook. The share initially rose 5 percent in premarket trading before paring its gains.

The airline updated its earnings per share estimate to between $2.15 and $2.25, up from a previous range of $1.40 to $1.60.

Related: Analysts Update CrowdStrike Share Price After Earnings

Last week, JetBlue raised its third-quarter revenue forecast, citing a benefit from rebookings caused by a cyber outage from CrowdStrike’s software update.

Kroger wins after T2 results

Kroger shares rose 6% at midday and were one of the top five S&P 500 gainers after the company’s fiscal second-quarter earnings beat consensus estimates.

For the quarter ended Aug. 17, the supermarket chain earned 93 cents per share, beating analysts’ projections of 91 cents. However, revenue of $33.91 billion was below Wall Street’s forecast of $34.08 billion.

Related: Analysts Reset Costco Share Price Targets Ahead of Earnings

The company also raised the lower end of its full-year comparable sales guidance, excluding fuel, to a range of 0.75% to 1.75%. It maintained its fiscal 2025 earnings forecast at $4.30-$4.50 per share.

“Conscious shoppers shop more at the beginning of the month to stock up on grocery essentials. And then as the month progresses, they’re more cautious with their spending,” Kroger Chief Executive Rodney McMullen said during an earnings call.

Moderna falls on the plan to reduce expenses

Moderna fell 13% after the drugmaker announced plans to cut research and development spending by $1.1 billion through 2027. The estimate is now $3.6 billion to $3.8 billion dollars in 2027, from $4.8 billion in 2024.

Moderna also plans to break even on a cash operating cost basis with the $6 billion in revenue the company expects to achieve in 2028.

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The company now forecasts 2025 revenue of between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion, with cost of sales expected to be 35 percent to 45 percent of that amount.

Moderna also said it expects to launch 10 new products by 2027.

Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks