Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. General Motors — Shares rose more than 4% after the automaker exceeded analysts’ expectations for its first-quarter results . General Motors posted adjusted earnings of $2.62 per share on revenue of $43.01 billion. Analysts had anticipated earnings of $2.15 per share and revenue of $41.92 billion, according to LSEG. The company also raised its forecast for adjusted automotive free cash flow to between $8.5 billion and $10.5 billion, above its previously anticipated $8 billion to $10 billion. GE Aerospace — The aircraft supplier stock added 7% after reporting first-quarter adjusted earnings of 82 cents per share, higher than consensus estimates of 65 cents a share, per LSEG. GE Aerospace’s revenue of $16.1 billion also exceeded analysts’ expectations of $15.14 billion. PepsiCo — The snack and beverage stock dipped 2% despite a stronger-than-expected first quarter . PepsiCo reported $1.61 in adjusted earnings per share, topping the $1.52 per share expected by analysts, according to LSEG. Even with the first-quarter beat, PepsiCo kept its full-year outlook the same. Novartis — The U.S.-listed shares of the Swiss drugmaker added 2.6% after Novartis raised its full-year guidance. JetBlue Airways — Shares plummeted 16% after the airline company lowered its forecasts for revenue for the second quarter and full-year 2024. JetBlue’s first-quarter revenue came in line with expectations, while it posted a narrower adjusted loss per share than analysts had predicted, according to LSEG. Cleveland-Cliffs — The steel producer tumbled 8.7% after posting a first-quarter earnings and revenue miss. Cleveland-Cliffs posted adjusted earnings of 18 cents per share on revenue of $5.2 billion, while analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected earnings of 22 cents per share on revenue of $5.35 billion. Nucor — Shares moved 7% lower after the steelmaker missed estimates on earnings and revenue for the first quarter. Nucor also said it anticipates lower second-quarter earnings, citing lower average selling prices, which will only be partially offset by modestly increased volumes, within its steel mills segment. Danaher — The life sciences firm popped more than 7% after beating analysts’ expectations for its first-quarter results. Danaher reported adjusted earnings of $1.92 per share on revenue of $5.8 billion. This exceeded the $1.72 per share on revenue of $5.62 billion that analysts had anticipated, according to FactSet. Spotify — The streaming music company surged 16% after easily topping earnings expectations . Spotify reported 97 euro cents per share for the first quarter, compared to the 65 euro cents expected by analysts, according to LSEG. Spotify also beat expectations for quarterly gross margin. Sherwin-Williams — The manufacturer of paints and coatings shed 2% after posting first-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.17 per share, lower than the consensus estimate of $2.22 per share, according to FactSet. Sherwin-Williams’ revenue of $5.37 billion also missed the $5.50 billion analysts had expected. Roblox — Shares added 5.8% after JPMorgan upgraded the gaming platform to an overweight rating . The bank thinks recent investor skepticism, which has contributed to the stock’s roughly 20% year-to-date decline, has now presented a compelling entry point. Sunnova Energy — The solar stock gained 2.8%. KeyBanc Capital Markets downgraded Sunnova Energy to sector weight from overweight, citing caution on residential solar names particularly ahead of first-quarter earnings. Sunnova is already down more than 74% this year. LKQ — The distributor of aftermarket auto parts slid nearly 15% after first-quarter results fell short of analysts’ forecasts. LKQ posted adjusted earnings of 82 cents a share on revenue of $3.7 billion, while analysts called for earnings of 95 cents a share and $3.76 billion in revenue, per FactSet. MSCI — The provider of investment indexes dropped 13% after reporting revenue that missed Wall Street’s estimates. In the first quarter, MSCI posted $680 million in revenue, while analysts polled by FactSet forecast $685.5 million. Earnings came in at $3.52 a share, surpassing expectations by 5 cents. — CNBC’s Michelle Fox, Sarah Min and Jesse Pound contributed reporting.
Elon Musk at the tenth Breakthrough Prize ceremony held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
The Hollywood Reporter | The Hollywood Reporter | Getty Images
On Saturday, Elon Musk shared who he is endorsing for Treasury secretary on X, a cabinet position President-elect Donald Trump has yet to announce his preference to fill.
Musk wrote that Howard Lutnick, Trump-Vance transition co-chair and CEO and chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, BGC Group and Newmark Group chairman, will “actually enact change.”
Lutnick and Key Square Group founder and CEO Scott Bessent are reportedly top picks to run the Treasury Department.
Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, also included his thoughts on Bessent in his post on X.
“My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice,” he wrote.
“Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt so we need change one way or another,” he added.
Musk also stated it would be “interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback.”
Howard Lutnick, chairman and chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, left, and Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a campaign event with former US President Donald Trump, not pictured, at Madison Square Garden in New York, US, on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In a statement to Politico, Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt made it clear that the president-elect has not made any decisions regarding the position of Treasury secretary.
“President-elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second administration,” Leavitt said in a statement. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”
Both Lutnick and Bessent have close ties to Trump. Lutnick and Trump have known each other for decades, and the CEO has even hosted a fundraiser for the president-elect.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Lutnick has already been helping Trump review candidates for cabinet positions in his administration.
On the other hand, Bessent was a key economic advisor to the president-elect during his 2024 campaign. Bessent also received an endorsement from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, according to Semafor.
“He’s from South Carolina, I know him well, he’s highly qualified,” Graham said.
Money manager John Davi is positioning for challenges tied to President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff agenda.
Davi said he worries the new administration’s policies could be “very inflationary,” so he thinks it is important to choose investments carefully.
“Small-cap industrials make more sense than large-cap industrials,” the Astoria Portfolio Advisors CEO told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
Davi, who is also the firm’s chief investment officer, expects the red sweep will help push a pro-growth, pro-domestic policy agenda forward that will benefit small caps.
It appears Wall Street agrees so far. Since the presidential election, the Russell 2000 index, which tracks small-cap stocks, is up around 4% as of Friday’s close.
Davi, whose firm has $1.9 billion in assets under management, also likes staying domestic despite the tariff risks.
“We’re overweight the U.S. I think that’s the right playbook in the next few years until the midterms,” added Davi. “We have two years of where he [Trump] can control a lot of the narrative.”
But Davi plans to stay away from fixed income due to challenges tied to the growing budget deficit.
“Be careful if you own bonds for sure,” said Davi.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Global pharma stocks — Shares of several vaccine makers declined after President-elect Donald Trump selected prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary on Thursday. Shares of Moderna and Pfizer slipped nearly 9% and 5%, respectively. BioNTech , which helped develop a Covid vaccine with Pfizer, shed 5%, while GSK declined about 2%. Even names such as Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk were lower, with both stocks slipping about 4%, amid concerns that the drug approval process could be slowed. Super Micro Computer — Shares of the embattled server company fell 2% ahead of a Monday deadline that could result in the company being delisted from the Nasdaq. Super Micro is late on filing a year-end report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, putting it on the wrong side of the Nasdaq’s rules. This would be the 11th losing day in the last 13 trading sessions for Super Micro. Alibaba — S hares slipped more than 2% after the Chinese e-commerce giant’s fiscal second-quarter sales fell short of estimates amid a weakening consumer backdrop in China. Alibaba’s revenue of 236.5 billion yuan came out 5% higher year on year but below analysts’ expectations of 238.9 billion yuan, per LSEG. Palantir — Shares jumped 7% after the analytics software provider said it is moving its listing to the Nasdaq Global Select Market from the New York Stock Exchange. Palantir expects to be eligible to join the Nasdaq-100 Index once it makes the switch. Domino’s Pizza , Pool Corp. , Ulta Beauty — Shares of the pizza chain edged up 0.3% after Warren Buffett ‘s Berkshire Hathaway announced a new stake in Domino’s, while Pool Corp. gained almost 2% as the conglomerate purchased a small stake in the swimming pool supplier. Ulta slipped nearly 3% after Berkshire Hathaway revealed in a regulatory filing that it had sold around 97% of its shares, nearly dissolving its position in the beauty retailer. Berkshire had just bought the stock in the second quarter, making Ulta a relatively new bet. AST SpaceMobile – Shares plunged more than 11% on the heels of the company’s weaker-than-expected third-quarter results. AST SpaceMobile reported a loss of $1.10 per share on revenue of $1.1 million. That’s well below the loss of 20 cents per share and $1.8 million in revenue that analysts were expecting, according to FactSet. Applied Materials — The semiconductor equipment manufacturer dropped 8% after providing a softer-than-forecast revenue outlook for the current quarter. Applied Materials told investors to expect $7.15 billion in the first fiscal quarter, less than the estimate of $7.22 billion from analysts polled by LSEG. However, the company beat expectations on both lines in the fourth fiscal quarter and issued positive guidance for adjusted earnings per share. — CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Hakyung Kim and Lisa Han contributed reporting.