Midday Fly By: FedEx reports ‘beat and raise,’ Ecolab to acquire CoolIT

The major averages were broadly lower once again near noon as investors continue to digest the Federal Reserve’s more cautious stance on rate cuts while weighing ongoing volatility in energy markets. Traders also continue to monitor the U.S.-Iran war, as Iran and Israel exchanged strikes overnight. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon is sending thousands of extra Marines to the Middle East. Amid the continuing attacks, U.S. benchmark oil prices were higher, though still below $100 per barrel.

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Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.

1. STOCK NEWS:

• FedEx (FDX) provided a “beat and raise” report for Q3
• U.S. prosecutors indicted Super Micro (SMCI) co-founder Wally Liaw and two others for allegedly smuggling Nvidia (NVDA) chips to China
• Unilever (UL) is in talks to separate its food business and combine it with McCormick (MKC), WSJ reports
• Nexstar (NXST) has closed its acquisition of Tegna (TGNA)
• Ecolab (ECL) agreed to acquire CoolIT Systems from KKR (KKR) for $4.75B in cash

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Arm (ARM) double upgraded to Buy at HSBC amid AI transition
• Oppenheimer (FIGS) to Outperform on expectations for “sustained recovery”
• Chipotle (CMG) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Mizuho
• Mosaic (MOS) downgraded to Neutral at BofA and to Sell at Freedom Capital
• Magnum Ice Cream (MICC) downgraded to Sell at Goldman Sachs

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Kalshi’s valuation hit $22B in an ongoing funding round, WSJ reports
• Nvidia (NVDA) plans to sell 1M GPUs to Amazon (AMZN) by the end of 2027, Reuters reports
• UBS’ (UBS) national bank charter has been approved by U.S. regulators, WSJ says
• Amazon is developing a smartphone built around Alexa, Reuters says
• Meta (META) is reducing its reliance on outside content moderators, Bloomberg says

4. MOVERS:

• Torrid (CURV) higher after reporting quarterly results and providing upbeat FY26 guidance
• Scholastic (SCHL) rises after reporting upbeat quarterly results
• XPeng (XPEV) falls in New York after reporting quarterly results
• FiscalNote (NOTE) lower after reporting quarterly results and announcing it will lay off 25% of its staff
• Flowco (FLOC) slips after its 7.8M share Spot Secondary

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• Milestone Pharmaceuticals (MIST) reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings
• Gemini Space Station (GEMI) reported downbeat Q4 results
• BitFuFu (FUFU) reported a year-over-year decline in FY25 earnings
• Ondas (ONDS) provided guidance for Q4 and FY25
• Intellicheck (IDN) reported upbeat Q4 results

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was down 0.53%, or 244.36, to 45,777.07, the Nasdaq was down 1.10%, or 243.87, to 21,846.82, and the S&P 500 was down 0.78%, or 51.28, to 6,555.21.