Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Generac Holdings — Shares of the maker of power generators surged 8% as Hurricane Milton intensified into a Category 5 storm . Amazon — The e-commerce stock lost 2.9% after Wells Fargo downgraded shares to equal weight from overweight and cut its price target, citing slowing growth and competition from Walmart. Pfizer — Shares of the drugmaker gained nearly 3%. Citing sources families with the matter, CNBC reported that activist investor Starboard Value has amassed a nearly $1 billion stake as it pursues a turnaround at the company. Insurance stocks — Property and casualty insurers saw shares under pressure as Hurricane Milton strengthened into a Category 5 storm with Florida preparing for evacuations. Allstate and Travelers both saw their shares fall more than 3%, along with Progressive and Chubb. These insurance companies have weather catastrophe exposure, so they could be exposed to potential insured losses tied to Hurricane Milton. Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Universal Insurance plunged more than 15%. Air Products and Chemicals — Shares of the industrial gas supplier popped nearly 8%. CNBC reported that Mantle Ridge has attained a stake in the company exceeding $1 billion, citing a person familiar with the matter. Garmin — U.S. shares of the fitness device maker dropped 4.7% in the wake of a downgrade to underweight from equal weight by Morgan Stanley. The firm pointed to a deceleration in growth and decompression in margins, while noting Garmin has been a top-performing hardware stock this year. Coty — The beauty company rallied more than 3% following an upgrade to buy from hold by Jefferies. Analyst Ashley Helgans highlighted ongoing growth in the fragrance segment and an attractive valuation. Arcadium Lithium PLC — Shares of the lithium producer jumped 33% after Arcadium said in a press release that it has been approached by Rio Tinto about a potential acquisition. The approach is non-binding, according to the release. Hershey – Shares fell 2% after the chocolate maker was downgraded to neutral at UBS and to market perform at Bernstein. UBS anticipates that gross margin compression will persist in 2025 due to cocoa inflation, while Bernstein sees GLP-1 drug usage impacting U.S. chocolate volumes. KB Home — Shares shed 2% following a downgrade to underperform from equal weight at Wells Fargo. The bank believes the homebuilder could lag peers in the next phase of the cycle. Duckhorn Portfolio — Shares more than doubled after private equity firm Butterfly Equity announced it would take over the California-based luxury wine company in a deal worth $1.95 billion. Mobileye Global — The maker of driver-assisted technology slumped more than 3%. JPMorgan downgraded shares to underweight from neutral, citing dwindling confidence in the Israel-based company grapples with share loss concerns and volume challenge. Ciena — The networking stock lost 3.5%. JPMorgan downgraded shares to neutral, citing limited EPS upside from here. Apple — Shares dipped about 1% on a Jefferies downgrade to hold from buy. The firm said near-term expectations for the iPhone 16 and 17 are too high after weaker-than-expected initial demand, and that Apple’s AI capabilities for its smartphones are a “premature” catalyst as they are not likely to reach commercialization for another two to three years. — CNBC’s Yun Li, Hakyung Kim, Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Michelle Fox, Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed reporting
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, leaves the U.S. Capitol after a meeting with Republican members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the issue of de-banking on Feb. 13, 2025.
Dimon, the veteran CEO and chairman of the biggest U.S. bank by assets, explained his worldview during his bank’s annual investor day meeting in New York. He said he believes the risks of higher inflation and even stagflation aren’t properly represented by stock market values, which have staged a comeback from lows in April.
“We have huge deficits; we have what I consider almost complacent central banks,” Dimon said. “You all think they can manage all this. I don’t think” they can, he said.
“My own view is people feel pretty good because you haven’t seen effective tariffs” yet, Dimon said. “The market came down 10%, [it’s] back up 10%; that’s an extraordinary amount of complacency.”
Dimon’s comments follow Moody’s rating agency downgrading the U.S. credit rating on Friday over concerns about the government’s growing debt burden. Markets have been whipsawed the past few months over worries that President Donald Trump‘s trade policies will raise inflation and slow the world’s largest economy.
Dimon said Monday that he believed Wall Street earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies, which have already declined in the first weeks of Trump’s trade policies, will fall further as companies pull or lower guidance amid the uncertainty.
In six months, those projections will fall to 0% earnings growth after starting the year at around 12%, Dimon said. If that were to happen, stocks prices will likely fall.
“I think earnings estimates will come down, which means PE will come down,” Dimon said, referring to the “price to earnings” ratio tracked closely by stock market analysts.
The odds of stagflation, “which is basically a recession with inflation,” are roughly double what the market thinks, Dimon added.
Separately, one of Dimon’s top deputies said that corporate clients are still in “wait-and-see” mode when it comes to acquisitions and other deals.
Investment banking revenue is headed for a “mid-teens” percentage decline in the second quarter compared with the year-earlier period, while trading revenue was trending higher by a “mid-to-high” single digit percentage, said Troy Rohrbaugh, a co-head of the firm’s commercial and investment bank.
On the ever-present question of Dimon’s timeline to hand over the CEO reins to one of his deputies, Dimon said that nothing changed from his guidance last year, when he said he would likely remain for less than five more years.
“If I’m here for four more years, and maybe two more” as executive chairman, Dimon said, “that’s a long time.”
Of all the executive presentations given Monday, consumer banking chief Marianne Lake had the longest speaking time at a full hour. She is considered a top successor candidate, especially after Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Piepszak said she would not be seeking the top job.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. UnitedHealth — The health insurer’s stock popped roughly 7% as investors scooped up shares of the beaten-down name, which lost 23% last week. UnitedHealth had suspended its 2025 guidance, announced that its CEO is stepping down and is reportedly the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation . Reddit — Shares of the social media stock dropped more than 4% following a downgrade to equal weight from overweight at Wells Fargo. The firm said search traffic disruptions at Reddit are likely to become lasting as Google’s search integrates full artificial intelligence capabilities. Tesla , Palantir — Shares of retail investor favorites Tesla and Palantir each slid more than 3% as key tech stocks led Monday’s stock market losses. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals — Shares of the drugmaker dropped about 1% after the company announced it had agreed to pay $256 million to buy most of the assets of genetic data company 23andMe out of bankruptcy. Regeneron’s deal does not include Lemonaid Health, 23andMe’s telehealth subsidiary. Bath & Body Works — Shares ticked 1% lower after the personal care retailer said CEO Gina Boswell would step down immediately. The company said former Nike executive Daniel Heaf would replace her. Alibaba — U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant traded 1% lower after the New York Times reported that the Trump administration has raised concerns about Apple’ s plan to use Alibaba’s A.I. on iPhones in China. TXNM Energy — Shares of the energy company popped 7% after TXNM agreed to be acquired by Blackstone’s infrastructure unit. TXNM Energy shareholders will receive $61.25 in cash for each share as part of the deal. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, speaking at a fintech event in London on Monday, April 4, 2022.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Klarna saw its losses jump in the first quarter as the popular buy now, pay later firm applies the brakes on a hotly anticipated U.S. initial public offering.
The Swedish payments startup said its net loss for the first three months of 2025 totaled $99 million — significantly worse than the $47 million loss it reported a year ago. Klarna said this was due to several one-off costs related to depreciation, share-based payments and restructuring.
Revenues at the firm increased 13% year-over-year to $701 million. Klarna said it now has 100 million active users and 724,00 merchant partners globally.
It comes as Klarna remains in pause mode regarding a highly anticipated U.S. IPO that was at one stage set to value the SoftBank-backed company at over $15 billion.
Klarna put its IPO plans on hold last month due to market turbulence caused by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans. Online ticketing platform StubHub also put its IPO plans on ice.
Prior to the IPO delay, Klarna had been on a marketing blitz touting itself as an artificial intelligence-powered fintech. The company partnered up with ChatGPT maker OpenAI in 2023. A year later, Klarna used OpenAI technology to create an AI customer service assistant.
Last week, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the company was able to shrink its headcount by about 40%, in part due to investments in AI.