Midday Fly By: Musk to start Terafab project, Elliott takes stake in Synopsys

The major averages were sharply higher near noon after President Donald Trump said the U.S. and Iran have held talks and that he was ceasing plans to attack Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure. Of note, however, AP reported that two Iranian semi-official news agencies close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claim that there have been no such negotiations. Following Trump’s comments, oil prices are sharply pulling back, while shares of airlines and cruise lines are advancing. 

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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:

• Elon Musk plans to start his Terafab project, which will be run by Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX, in Austin, Texas, Bloomberg reports
• U.S. Senators have introduced a bill aiming to ban sports bets on prediction markets, (SNPS), WSJ says
• Palantir’s (PLTR) Maven AI system will be adopted by the Pentagon as a core military system, Reuters reports
• Despite Trump’s claims of productive talks with Iran, two Iranian semi-official news agencies close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed that there had been no such negotiations, according to the Associated Press

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• MongoDB (MDB) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Mizuho
• Raymond James (AVAV) after share underperformance
• Valvoline (VVV) upgraded to Buy at Stifel
• Macquarie (XPEV) with 2026 volume growth “no guarantee”
• William Blair downgraded a handful of names in infrastructure software, including Backblaze (BLZE), N-able (NABL), GitLab (GTLB) and Dropbox (DBX) to Underperform

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Sony (SONY) is close to a deal to sell a majority stake in its home entertainment business to Chinese rival TCL Electronics (TCLHF) in a deal that may be valued at about $1B, Bloomberg reports
• United Airlines (UAL) plans to cut additional unprofitable flights over the next two quarters as it braces for sustained high jet fuel prices tied to the Iran war, despite strong travel demand and higher fares, Reuters says
• MP Materials (MP) CEO James Litinsky has repositioned the company as a key U.S. rare earths supplier amid rising geopolitical tensions and Chinese export restrictions following tariffs imposed by Donald Trump in 2025, CBS News reports
• A former Meta (META) executive will lead the ad push at OpenAI, WSJ reports
• An Air Canada Express (ACDVF) flight operated by Jazz Aviation LP collided with a fire truck shortly after landing at LaGuardia Airport, killing both pilots among the 76 people on board, Bloomberg reports

4. MOVERS:

• Apogee Therapeutics (APGE) gains after reporting results from Phase A of its Phase 2 APEX trial of zumilokibart
• TeraWulf (WULF) increases after Arete initiated coverage of the stock with a Buy rating
• Tower Semiconductor (TSEM) higher in New York after demonstrating a 400 Gbps/lane data transmission with Coherent (COHR)
• Equinor (EQNR) lower in New York after acquiring the ready to build 230MW Esquina do Vento onshore wind complex from Vestas
• PG&E (PCG) falls after Jefferies downgraded the stock to Hold

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• Talphera (TLPH) reported Q4 results, with EPS higher year-over-year
• Ondas (ONDS) reported results for FY25 and provided guidance for FY26 and Q1
• Solo Brands (SBDS) provided guidance for FY26
• Cabaletta Bio (CABA) reported Q4 results, with EPS beating consensus
• China Petroleum and Chemical (SNPMF) reported results for FY24, with EPS and revenue lower year-over-year

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was up 1.61%, or 733.01, to 46,309.99, the Nasdaq was up 1.40%, or 302.85, to 21,950.46, and the S&P 500 was up 1.31%, or 85.22, to 6,591.70.