During market hours:
- Stocks rose on Wednesday in volatile trading as gains in major tech names offset declines in shares that would benefit from the economy reopening.
- The Dow Jones (Symbol: DIA) traded higher 0.2%. The S&P 500 (Symbol: SPY) climbed 0.4% and the Nasdaq (Symbol: QQQ) advanced nearly 1%.
- Apple (Symbol: AAPL) rose 2% to a record high after a Deutsche Bank analyst hiked his price target on the stock. Microsoft (Symbol: MSFT) shares gained 1.3% and Netflix (Symbol: NFLX) climbed 1.2%. Amazon (Symbol: AMZN) traded 1.5% higher.
- Nikola (Symbol: NKLA) — Shares of Nikola soared nearly 18% after JPMorgan hiked its rating on the controversial electric vehicle company to overweight from neutral. The bank said the stock looks attractive for long-term investors after a 40% plunge this month alone. JPMorgan also cited a number of positive drivers for Nikola on the horizon, including partnerships and regulatory reliefs.
- Kohl’s (Symbol: KSS) — Shares of the retailer jumped more than 4% following an upgrade to buy from neutral from Bank of America. The firm said “upside risks” outweigh the downside and likes the company’s “value proposition.”
- Twitter (Symbol: TWTR) — Shares rose more than 7% after the company posted a job listing for a new team, codenamed Gryphon, that will focus on building a subscription platform. Shares of the social media company are up more than 17% this month.
- Levi Strauss (Symbol: LEVI) — Shares of the denim maker dropped nearly 8% after the company reported a 62% fall in sales during its fiscal second quarter. It also announced it will be slashing about 15% of its global corporate workforce, impacting about 700 jobs.
- Biogen (Symbol: BIIB) — Shares of the pharmaceutical company rose more than 5% after Biogen said it submitted its application to the FDA for its Alzheimer’s treatment, Aducanumab. Biogen said it would be first approved treatment to address the course of Alzheimer’s.
- Taylor Morrison Home (Symbol: TMHC), Lennar (Symbol: LEN), Toll Brothers (Symbol: TOL) — Shares of home builders rose after Taylor Morrison Home reported net sales orders in June nearly doubled compared with last year. Closings also rose 24% in the second quarter compared with the prior year. Taylor Morrison’s stock surged more than 14%, while shares of Toll Brothers and Lennar gained 3.8% and 5.5%, respectively.
- Synaptics (Symbol: SYNA) — Shares of Synaptics surged more than 10% after the hardware company agreed to acquire wireless Internet of Things business from Broadcom for $250 million in cash. Synaptics expects the transaction to add approximately $65 million in current annualized sales and provide significant revenue growth potential.