Midday Fly By: Stocks climb as oil prices pull back

Markets are higher near noon as geopolitical headlines remain at the center of the tape. The conflict in the Middle East has entered its fifth day and while there have been reports Iran has made indirect contact about potential talks, feeding some risk appetite, uncertainty around the durability of any de-escalation continues to drive positioning. The energy complex continues to influence the broader market’s direction as the easing in the recent oil price surge has provided a tailwind, but traders are still cautious amid the ongoing Iran conflict.

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Global equity markets outside the U.S. are showing stress, with Asian markets taking a particularly severe hit. South Korea’s benchmark index experienced one of its largest historical selloffs and other major Asian indices like Japan’s Nikkei and Taiwan’s TAIEX traded materially lower as well.

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

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Apple (AAPL) continued a week of new product launches, with the latest being the MacBook Neo laptop
• A subsidiary of Roivant Sciences (ROIV) and Arbutus Biopharma (ABUS) entered into a COVID-19(MRNA) worth up to $2.25B
• Ross Stores (ROST) reported a “clean beat” in Q4, raised its quarterly dividend and approved a new two-year $2.55B stock repurchase plan
• CoreWeave (CRWV) announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Perplexity to support its inference workloads
• Ford (F) reported U.S. sales were down 5.5% year-over-year in February to 149,962 vehicles

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• BofA (TSLA) at Buy as the “leader” of the next era of mobility
• Target (TGT) upgraded to Outperform at Telsey Advisory and to Market Perform at Bernstein
• Piper Sandler (PIPR) upgraded to Outperform at Northland
• LegalZoom (LZ) downgraded to Underweight at Barclays
• First Solar (FSLR) downgraded to Hold at GLJ Research on weak guidance

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Amazon (AMZN) Publisher Services, which helps websites run ad auctions, is exploring offering technology to help other apps and sites sell ads in AI chatbots, The Information says
• OpenAI is developing an alternative to Microsoft’s (MSFT) GitHub, The Information reports
• Meta (META) is testing a shopping research feature for its AI chatbot that will allow requests for product suggestions, Bloomberg says
• The White House is debating if it will allow Tencent (TCEHY) to maintain stakes in popular video game groups, FT reports
• DraftKing’s (DKNG) strategy to become a prediction market leader is to copy the formula it used to dominate the online sports betting industry, WSJ reports

4. MOVERS:

• SCHMID (SHMD) gains in New York after successfully delivering the first specialized InfinityLine H+ system
• Evolus (EOLS) higher after reporting Q4 results and providing guidance for FY26
• Babcock & Wilcox (BW) increases after reporting Q4 results and announcing it has received full notice to proceed on a $2.4B design-build agreement with Base Electron
• Indie Semiconductor (INDI) falls after filing to sell $150M of Convertible Senior Notes
• GitLab (GTLB) lower after reporting Q4 results and authorizing a $400M share repurchase program

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE

• Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) reported Q4 results and provided guidance for Q1 and FY26
• Holley (HLLY) reported Q4 results, with EPS missing consensus
• Dycom (DY) reported Q4 results, with CEO Dan Peyovich commenting, “Our strong fourth quarter performance closed a record year for Dycom”
• Bath & Body Works (BBWI) reported Q4 results, with EPS and revenue beating consensus
• Bayer (BAYRY) reported Q4 results and provided guidance for FY26

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was up 0.68%, or 329.64, to 48,830.91, the Nasdaq was up 1.46%, or 329.81, to 22,846.51, and the S&P 500 was up 0.87%, or 59.51, to 6,876.14.