Midday Trading Highlights
Auto Stocks Decline — Major automobile manufacturers experienced a drop in their shares following President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 25% tariff on imported vehicles, effective April 2. General Motors, Ford Motor, and Stellantis saw their stocks decline by 6%, 2%, and 1%, respectively.
GameStop’s Stock Plummets — Following a gain of nearly 12% in the previous session, GameStop’s shares fell over 17% on Thursday. The downturn occurred after the video game retailer revealed plans to raise $1.3 billion through the issuance of convertible senior notes maturing in 2030 to fund Bitcoin purchases.
Jefferies Financial Group Reports Dismal Earnings — Shares of Jefferies dropped 10% after the company disclosed fiscal first-quarter earnings of 57 cents per share on revenue of $1.59 billion, a decrease from 69 cents earnings and $1.74 billion in revenue during the same period last year.
Alibaba Shares Rise — U.S.-traded shares of Alibaba surged over 3% following the introduction of its new open-source AI model, “Qwen2.5-Omni-7B.” This multimodal model is compatible with edge devices, including smartphones.
Mixed Results for Verint Systems — Verint Systems’ shares fell 11% after it reported underwhelming fourth-quarter results and revenue guidance. The company announced earnings of 99 cents per share on revenue of $254 million, falling short of analysts’ expectations of $1.27 in earnings and $277 million in revenue.
Liberty Energy Sees Stock Growth — Liberty Energy’s shares rose nearly 6% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the company to an overweight rating from equal weight, highlighting potential growth in data center and power demand.
Significant Gains for Petco Health & Wellness and Concentrix — Petco’s shares surged by 34% as it projected full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization between $375 million and $390 million, exceeding estimates. Meanwhile, Concentrix saw a staggering 37% increase after it reported strong fiscal first-quarter results, with adjusted earnings of $2.79 per share on $2.37 billion in revenue, surpassing analyst expectations.
