Midday stock mids: Super Micro, Apple, Pfizer

The stock market trades at noon below. The tech-heavy S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both lost about 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%. The Russell 2000 index fell 0.7%.

S&P 500 Big Stocks Today

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

• Super Micro Computer (SMCI) +15.6%
• Generac Holdings (GNRC) +8.4%
• Air products and chemicals (APD) +8%
• Nvidia (NVDA) +3.2%
• Beautiful Isaac (FICO) +2.9%

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

• Everest Group RE (RE) -8%
• Arch Capital Group (ACGL) -5.8%
• Outdoor deckers (DECK) -5.1%
• American Water Works (AWK) -4.8%
• Garmin (GRMN) -4.6%

Also, stocks worth noting include:

• Apple (AAPL) -1.2%
• adze (TSLA) -2.0%
• Amazon (AMZN) -2.7%
• Pfizer (FE) +2.4%
• MicroStrategy (MSTR) +7.9%

Pfizer has struggled as demand for Covid-19 treatments has slowed.

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Pfizer wins as activist investor takes stake

Shares of Pfizer rose 2.4 percent following a CNBC report that activist investor Starboard Value took a roughly $1 billion stake in the company in an effort to engineer a turnaround.

According to sources, Starboard has reached out to former Pfizer CEO Ian Read and former CFO Frank D’Amelio, both of whom have expressed interest in supporting the effort.

Related: Pfizer stock jumps on obesity drug challenge to Ozempic, Zepbound

While Pfizer’s earnings rose during the Covid-19 pandemic, fueled by the rapid rollout of vaccines, the stock struggled as demand for Covid-19 treatments slowed.

In May, the company launched a cost-cutting program of about $1.5 billion through the end of 2027.

Pfizer shares are down 1.1% year to date.

Apple falls after analyst downgrade

Apple lost 1 percent at midday after Jefferies downgraded the stock to hold from buy, with a price target of $212.92, up from $205, according to thefly.com.

The analyst likes Apple Intelligence for the long term and calls the company “the only integrated hardware-software player that can leverage proprietary data to deliver low-cost, personalized AI services.”

Related: Analyst resets Apple stock estimate ahead of crucial launch

However, Jefferies cautions that expectations for the iPhone 16 and 17 are “premature”, noting that AI-capable smartphone technology could still be a few years away, making current predictions for these models “too high”.

Apple plans to release iOS 18.1 and Apple Intelligence on October 28, Bloomberg reported.

SMCI jumps after positive dispatch

Super Micro rose 15% to become the S&P 500’s biggest gainer after announcing shipments of liquid cooling solutions.

The company said it recently deployed more than 100,000 GPUs with liquid cooling solutions for large AI factories. The liquid cooling solution includes coolant distribution units, cold plates, coolant distribution headers, cooling towers and end-to-end management software.

More AI actions:

• Apple shares slide as high stakes iPhone 16 sputters
• Analyst Revises Price Target on Meta Shares as Parent Facebook Raises AI Spending
• Analyst looks at BlackRock stock valuation after AI partnership with Microsoft

“Super Micro’s ultra-dense server with dual top-bin processors and 8 Nvidia HGX GPUs in just 4U with liquid cooling is the ultimate AI server needed in AI factories,” the company said in a statement.

“When installed in a rack, this server doubles the compute density, allowing organizations to run larger training models with a smaller data center footprint.”

“Time to deployment and online is measured in weeks, not months,” said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Super Micro.

On August 28, Super Micro Computer fell nearly 20 percent after a delay in filing its annual report. A day earlier, short-selling investment firm Hindenburg Research had taken a stake in SMCI, alleging accounting irregularities. Short sellers are betting that a company’s stock will fall.

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