Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Capital One, Disney, Cheesecake Factory, Expedia and more

Finance news

Pedestrians wearing protective masks wait to enter a Disney store in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

Virgin Galactic — Shares of Virgin Galactic were down 14% in midday trading after the space company filed to sell up to $500 million in common stock. The swoon came despite a successful test flight over the weekend with founder Sir Richard Branson. The stock, which trades under ticker SPCE, was halted for volatility earlier in the session.

Cheesecake Factory — Shares of the restaurant chain jumped nearly 3% after Raymond James upgraded its shares to outperform from market perform and said the market is underestimating the comeback for full-service restaurants. Cheesecake Factory particularly saw a boost in recent months from its footprint states that were slower to reopen, Raymond James’ Brian Vaccaro said.

Didi Global, Tencent Music — Chinese stocks extended their sell-off with Didi and Tencent falling more than 4% each amid intensifying regulatory pressure. China has vowed to crack down on domestic companies that list on U.S. exchanges and it will also tighten restrictions on cross-border data flows and security. The Wall Street Journal reported that ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, scrubbed plans for an offshore listing.

Financial firms — Companies in the financial services businesses are still broadly enjoying the rebound in bond yields and the period before earnings season, in which they’re expected to produce blowout results for the second quarter. Discover Financial, Morgan Stanley and T. Rowe Price jumped more than 3%. Goldman Sachs and Capital One are also trading higher by more than 2%.

Travel sites — Booking websites are trading lower as parts of Asia, Europe and Australia reimpose travel restrictions to protect against the spread of the delta variant of Covid-19. Expedia shares fell 1.2% and TripAdvisor shares are down by over 3%.

Cruise lines — Shares of cruise companies are also taking a hit in response to worries about the spread of the delta variant and a resurgence of Covid-19 cases. Carnival Corp’s stock is down over 2% while Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line have fallen more than 1%. 

Disney — Shares of the media giant gained more than 2% following the release of “Black Widow.” The film brought in $80 million from the domestic box office, which is the highest of any film released following the pandemic. The latest Marvel movie also brought in more than $60 million globally from sales through Disney+ Premier Access.

Clover Health – Clover’s stock fell 2.5% after JPMorgan downgraded it Monday morning to underweight from neutral, saying that uncertainty about the company’s business and a weak first-quarter report made the stock unattractive and that other managed care companies offer a more balanced risk/reward profile.

Charter — Shares of Charter fell 3% after Bernstein downgraded the telecommunications and media company to market perform from outperform. “We remain convicted about Charter’s business plans, financial strategies, and structural competitive position in most of the U.S.,” the firm said.

 — CNBC’s Yun Li, Pippa Stevens, Hannah Miao and Tom Franck contributed reporting

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