Midday Fly By: Merck to acquire Terns, Arm CPU launch applauded

The major averages were broadly higher near noon following reports that the U.S. has provided a plan to Iran to bring the war to an end, which sent oil prices lower. The Associated Press reported that Iran was given a 15-point proposal from the U.S. to end the conflict, though media have reported that the two sides remain very far apart and attacks from both sides have continued.

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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:

• Merck (MRK) agreed to acquire Terns Pharmaceuticals (TERN) for $53 per share in cash
• Elon Musk’s SpaceX will file an IPO prospectus as soon as this week or next, (ARM) expects $15B in annual sales from its chips unit in five years
• Chewy (CHWY) reported slightly downbeat Q4 earnings and provided its outlook for Q1 and FY26
• Beretta will (RGR) shares

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Arm (ARM) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James
• Wolfe (GM) on underappreciated potential tailwinds
• Wedbush (RZLT) as worst case scenario seems unlikely for cHI
• Mondelez (MDLZ) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Rothschild & Co Redburn
• EVgo (EVGO) assumed with Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Finland has suspended a plan to move its election platform to Amazon Web Services (AMZN), opting to remain on domestic servers through the 2027 general election, Bloomberg reports
• SK Hynix (HXSCL) plans to spend about $8B on cutting-edge EUV lithography chipmaking tools from ASML (ASML) through 2027, Bloomberg says
• Clear Secure (YOU) app downloads have surged, with passengers downloading the app 289,000 times since the beginning of March, as travelers face long TSA lines amid a partial government shutdown, WSJ reports
• Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD) have each told customers they plan to raise prices across their entire CPU product lines starting in March and April, Nikkei reports
• Meta Platforms (META) will lay off “a few hundred people” across the company on Wednesday, The Information says

4. MOVERS:

• Sarepta (SRPT) increases after announcing first clinical results from Phase 1/2 ascending dose studies of SRP-1001 and SRP-1003
• Braze (BRZE) gains after reporting Q4 results and authorizing a stock repurchase program of up to $100M
• Apogee Therapeutics (APGE) higher after announcing a 5M share offering
• Maze Therapeutics (MAZE) lower after reporting Q4 results and announcing data from its Phase 2 HORIZON trial
• Adma Biologics (ADMA) falls after addressing the report from Culper Research

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• Paychex (PAYX) reported Q3 results and reaffirmed its guidance for FY26
• EDAP TMS (EDAP) reported Q4 results and backed its guidance for FY26
• Cognyte (CGNT) reported Q4 results, with EPS beating consensus
• Cintas (CTAS) reported Q3 results and raised its guidance for FY26
• QT Imaging (QTI) reported Q4 results and reaffirmed guidance for FY26

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was up 0.62%, or 287.95, to 46,412.01, the Nasdaq was up 0.80%, or 173.04, to 21,934.94, and the S&P 500 was up 0.59%, or 38.91, to 6,595.28.