Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Spotify — The music streaming platform advanced 2% after Wells Fargo named it a top stock pick . Analyst Steven Cahall cited Spotify’s rising profit margins, strong product mix and evolving record label relationships as catalysts while reiterating an outperform rating on the stock. Robinhood — The fintech stock rose less than 3% after it said Monday that users will have the chance to trade a Kamala Harris or Donald Trump contract ahead of next week’s presidential election. Users must meet certain eligibility criteria, including being a citizen of the United States. Occidental Petroleum , Exxon , BP — Oil companies slipped more than 1% alongside declining crude prices after Israel spared Iran’s crude facilities in its weekend attack on Iranian military installations. Citi predicts that the Israeli strike will not ultimately disrupt oil supplies. McDonald’s — Shares rose 1.5% after the fast-food chain said its Quarter Pounder burger would return to menus this week at restaurants affected by a deadly E. coli outbreak, which led the stock to suffer slump roughly 7.5% last week. About 900 locations will serve the burger without slivered onions, which are the likely source of the outbreak, as health officials continue investigating the contamination. McDonalds is also set to release quarterly earnings Tuesday before the market open. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing — The chip manufacturer slipped 3% after halting shipments to a China-based chip designer after a chip it made was found on a Huawei AI processor, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The U.S. had restricted Huawei since 2020 from buying the technology over national security concerns. ON Semiconductor — The semiconductor product maker rose 5% after third-quarter earnings and revenue topped analyst estimates. ON’s adjusted earnings of 99 cents per share exceeded the 97 cents estimate by analysts polled by FactSet, while revenue of $1.76 billion was above the Street’s $1.75 billion expectation. Nio — the Chinese electric vehicle maker jumped about 11% following Macquarie’s upgrade to outperform from neutral . Analyst Eugene Hsiao sees accelerating volumes in the current quarter due to strong Onvo L60 orders. Delta Air Lines — The Atlanta-based carrier moved 4% higher after filing suit against CrowdStrike Friday, accusing the security software vendor of negligence and breach of contract in a July outage that resulted in 7,000 flight cancellations. Delta has also benefited from a 15% drop in jet fuel prices over the past three months. Honeywell — Shares eased 1.1% on the heels of Wolfe Research’s downgrade to peer perform from outperform. Wolfe, which had held an outperform rating on the stock since 2005, said it’s less optimistic that Honeywell’s headwinds will resolve in the next year. Philips — Shares tumbled 17% after the Dutch healthcare devices company lowered its revenue outlook for 2024. CEO Roy Jakobs blamed deteriorating demand from Chinese hospitals and consumers. Nutanix — The cloud infrastructure stock rose 4% following an upgrade to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley. Analyst Meta Marshall said Nutanix’s set up looks attractive, and that the company’s architectural changes should lead to market share gain in the next few years. Moderna — Shares jumped after Moderna and Merck said they initiated a Phase 3 trial investigating a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. Moderna shares advanced 3.9%, while Merck was slightly higher. Aaon — The heating and air conditioning equipment manufacturer surged 8% following an upgrade to outperform at Baird. Analyst Timothy Wojs said Aaon could benefit from artificial intelligence, since higher computing power generates more heat and requires more liquid cooling equipment. — CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Michelle Fox, Alex Harring, Sarah Min and Pia Singh contributed reporting.
Ken Griffin, chief executive officer and founder of Citadel Advisors LLC, speaks during an Economic Club of New York event in New York, US, on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin issued a warning against the steep tariffs President-elect Donald Trump vowed to implement, saying crony capitalism could be a consequence.
“I am gravely concerned that the rise of tariffs puts us on a slippery slope towards crony capitalism,” the billionaire investor said Thursday at the Economic Club of New York.
The Citadel founder thinks domestic companies could enjoy a short-term benefit of having their competitors taken away. Longer term, however, it does more harm to corporate America and the economy as companies lose competitiveness and productivity.
Crony capitalism is an economic system marked by close, mutually advantageous relationships between business leaders and government officials.
“Those same companies that enjoy that momentary sugar rush of having their competitors removed from the battlefield, soon become complacent, soon take for granted their newfound economic superiority, and frankly, they become less competitive on both the world stage and less competitive at meeting the needs of the American consumer,” Griffin said at the event.
Trump made universal tariffs a core tenet of his economic campaign pitch, floating a 20% levy on all imports from all countries with a specifically harsh 60% rate for Chinese goods.
The protectionist trade policy could make production of goods more expensive and raise consumer prices, just as the world recovers from pandemic-era inflation spikes.
“Now you’re going to find the halls of Washington really filled with the special interest groups and the lobbyists as people look for continued higher and higher tariffs to keep away foreign competition, and to protect inefficient American businesses have failed to meet the needs of the American consumer,” Griffin said.
At the same event, Griffin also said that he’s not focused on taking Citadel Securities public in the foreseeable future. Citadel is a market maker founded by Griffin in 2002.
“We’re focused on building the business, on investing in our future. And we do believe that there are benefits to being private during this period of very, very rapid growth,” he said.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Nvidia — Shares of the chipmaker dipped about 1% in midday trading, after gyrating earlier in the session. Nvidia beat on top and bottom lines for the third quarter, posting adjusted earnings of 81 cents per share on revenue of $35.08 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG had called for earnings of 75 cents per share on $33.16 billion in revenue. Nvidia also gave a better-than-expected forecast for the current quarter. Baidu — U.S. shares of the Chinese search engine fell about 5% after Baidu’s third-quarter revenue declined by 3% compared to the year-ago period . Still, the company posted a 12% increase in its non-online marketing revenue, fueled mostly by growth in its artificial intelligence cloud business. Alphabet — Shares declined 5% on news that the Department of Justice is pushing a federal judge to force Google divest its Chrome internet browser in order to create a more level playing field for competitors in the search industry. That follows a ruling in August that Google has a monopoly in the search market. Snowflake — The data analytics software maker saw shares skyrocket more than 34%, after the company’s better-than-expected third-quarter results . The stock is heading for its best day ever. Snowflake also called for $3.43 billion in fiscal 2025 product revenue, implying 29% growth. CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said Snowflake is focusing more on saving money. Merus — Shares of the cancer therapeutics company gained nearly 4%. Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of Merus with a buy rating, saying it sees big gains ahead driven by the company’s cancer treatment. Netflix — Shares rose nearly 2% on the heels of Bank of America reiterating its buy rating on the stock and upping its price target to $1,000. The bank cited live events, as well as Netflix’s in-house ad tech platform, as catalysts for growth. Crypto-related stocks — Stocks tied to cryptocurrencies earlier rose after the price of bitcoin crossed $98,000 for the first time , but they fluctuated after Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz warned that a pullback in bitcoin will come eventually. MicroStrategy was down 1%, reversing its earlier gains, while Coinbase dipped 3%. Miner Mara Holdings gained nearly 10%, while trading platform Robinhood dipped about 1%. BJ’s Wholesale Club — Shares moved 9% higher after the warehouse club’s third-quarter adjusted earnings beat the Street’s estimates. BJ’s also boosted its full-year guidance. The company said it will increase its membership fee and announced plans to repurchase $1 billion shares. PDD Holdings — Shares of the e-commerce giant, which owns Temu, fell 9.7%. PDD missed profit and revenue estimates. — CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Yun Li and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
Rohit Chopra, director of the CFPB, testifies during the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing titled “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Semi-Annual Report to Congress,” in the Dirksen Building on Nov. 30, 2023.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday issued a finalized version of a rule saying it will soon supervise nonbank firms that offer financial services likes payments and wallet apps.
Tech giants and payments firms that handle at least 50 million transactions annually will fall under the review, which is meant to ensure the newer entrants adhere to the laws that banks and credit unions abide by, the CFPB said in a release. That would include popular services from Apple and Google, as well as payment firms like PayPal and Block.
While the CFPB already had some authority over digital payment companies because of its oversight of electronic fund transfers, the new rule allows it to treat tech companies more like banks. It makes the firms subject to “proactive examinations” to ensure legal compliance, enabling it to demand records and interview employees.
“Digital payments have gone from novelty to necessity and our oversight must reflect this reality,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “The rule will help to protect consumer privacy, guard against fraud, and prevent illegal account closures.”
A year ago, the CFPB said it wanted to extend its oversight to tech and fintech companies that offer financial services but that have sidestepped more scrutiny by partnering with banks. Americans are increasingly using payment apps as de facto bank accounts, storing cash and making everyday purchases through their mobile phones.
The most popular apps covered by the rule collectively process more than 13 billion consumer payments a year, and have gained “particularly strong adoption” among low- and middle-income users, the CFPB said on Thursday.
“What began as a convenient alternative to cash has evolved into a critical financial tool, processing over a trillion dollars in payments between consumers and their friends, families, and businesses,” the regulator said.
The initial proposal would’ve subjected companies that process at least 5 million transactions annually to some of the same examinations that the CFPB conducts on banks and credit unions. That threshold got raised to 50 million transactions in the final rule, the agency said Thursday.
Payment apps that only work at a particular retailer, like Starbucks, are excluded from the rule.
The new CFPB rule is one of the rare instances where the U.S. banking industry publicly supported the regulator’s actions; banks have long felt that tech firms making inroads in financial services ought to be more scrutinized.
The CFPB said the rule will take effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.