Midday Movers: Spotify Up 9%, Kohl's Up 12%, Moderna Down 24%, TTM Down 29%

U.S. stocks fell at midday on Thursday, October 22, as worries about AI spending hit chipmakers and Meta. At 1:26 p.m. ET the S&P 500 was down about 1% at 7,676 and the Nasdaq 100 was down 2.3%, while the Dow and the Russell 2000 were little changed, according to Benzinga. Investors rotated into defensive and housing-related names as the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.99%. Spotify, Kohl's, Biohaven and a string of earnings reporters jumped, while Moderna, TTM Technologies, Carpenter Technology and Graco tumbled. The percentage moves in the tables below come from the market summary supplied.

Leading and lagging groups

AI worries hit chips and Meta

Lam Research fell about 9% after the chip-equipment maker reported a record quarter but guided December-quarter revenue to $8.6 billion, plus or minus $400 million. CFO Doug Bettinger said the guide "would have been a bit higher" without near-term supply chain constraints, and that orders slipping out of December should ship in the March quarter. Applied Materials fell about 6% and ASML about 4%. AMD and Marvell each fell roughly 8%, and Intel about 7%, according to 24/7 Wall St.; the VanEck Semiconductor ETF was down 4.8% at midday.

Meta fell 6.1% to $655, wiping out about $108 billion in market value, even after beating third-quarter revenue estimates and guiding higher. Benzinga reported that it raised the low end of its 2026 capital spending forecast to $135 billion from $130 billion, with free cash flow of negative $2.12 billion. Bank of America raised its price target to $845, while Scotiabank held at $650. CoreWeave fell 8.3% after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC that scarce capital is holding back neocloud providers. Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon report next week.

Midday scorecard

Earnings and upgrade winners

Spotify. Monthly active users rose 11% to 788 million and premium subscribers rose 9% to 306 million. Gross margin was 33%, above company guidance, and operating income was €672 million, up 15%. Spotify guided fourth-quarter operating income to about €820 million and premium subscribers to 316 million. Benzinga noted that adjusted EPS of $2.85 missed a $3.11 consensus and fourth-quarter revenue guidance of €5.2 billion was slightly below consensus, yet shares rose, with market coverage crediting the profit forecast.

Waste Connections. Third-quarter revenue rose to $2.638 billion from $2.458 billion, and adjusted EPS rose to $1.58 from $1.44. Adjusted EBITDA was $895.8 million, a 34.0% margin. The company raised its 2026 outlook for the second time this year to about $10.09 billion of revenue and $3.345 billion of adjusted EBITDA, and lifted its quarterly dividend 10% to $0.350 a share. CEO Ronald Mittelstaedt called it "another top to bottom beat."

Roper and Pool. Roper reported revenue of $2.17 billion, up 7.4%, and adjusted EPS of $5.89, $0.10 above consensus; it raised full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $22.35 to $22.40 from $22.15 to $22.30. Pool's third-quarter sales rose 4% to $1.50 billion on 3% price growth, with diluted EPS of $3.40, flat from a year ago, and it confirmed full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $10.87 to $11.17, according to its earnings release. Benzinga said both Pool figures topped estimates.

Kohl's. Gordon Haskett moved to Buy with a $27 target, versus a $22.16 close on Wednesday, saying traffic declines have eased to the mid single digits and Placer.ai data showed visits on sale days running 9.6% above the recent average. The firm's target implies about 18 times forward earnings.

Biohaven. The FDA accepted Biohaven's resubmission as a complete response to its November 2025 action letter, with a goal date in the first quarter of 2027. The agency has cited concerns about bias and unmeasured confounding in the external-control evidence and plans an advisory committee meeting, with a date to be announced.

Earnings and company-news losers

Moderna. Shares plunged after detailed Phase 3 results for the melanoma vaccine with Merck apparently leaked online ahead of the Oct. 24 ESMO presentation. See our full article.

TTM Technologies. Record third-quarter sales and a raised 2026 outlook were not enough, as fourth-quarter revenue guidance of $1.42 billion to $1.44 billion came in slightly below consensus. See our TTM article.

Kaiser Aluminum and Carpenter Technology. Kaiser reported adjusted EPS of $1.89, up from $1.86, on sales of $1.21 billion, but its adjusted EBITDA margin fell to 19.1% from 23.2% on a metal price lag swing of about $29 million. It now expects adjusted EBITDA growth toward the lower end of its 45% to 55% range, per its release. Carpenter's fiscal first-quarter sales of $798.2 million rose less than expected, according to Benzinga.

Graco and Forgent. Graco missed third-quarter estimates and guided fourth-quarter sales below forecasts; see our earnings article. Forgent Power Solutions said CFO Ryan Fiedler is stepping down to move into an external consulting role, with Amy Ard, the executive vice president of finance, succeeding him, per the company's announcement.

Defensives, housing and the macro backdrop

Consumer staples rose 2.5% and health care 1.6%. Procter & Gamble gained about 6% after 4% organic sales growth and core EPS of $2.00, Blackstone rose nearly 6% on a third-quarter profit beat, and Lockheed Martin gained about 6% after raising its annual sales and profit forecast, according to market coverage. The home construction ETF (ITB) rose 4.8%, Lennar rose 7.2% and Zillow rose 8.6% as Freddie Mac's 30-year mortgage rate eased to 7.32% from 7.40%.

The 10-year yield fell 12.5 basis points to 4.99%, on pace for its largest one-day drop since Aug. 1, 2025, while weekly jobless claims fell to 194,000 against a 200,000 consensus. Brent crude rose 2.8% to $111.86 amid Middle East tensions. Gold fell 2.1% to $4,061 and bitcoin fell 2.9% to about $81,600.

Sources: Company releases from Pool, Kaiser Aluminum and Forgent Power Solutions; Benzinga, 24/7 Wall St., Yahoo Finance and Motley Fool market coverage (Oct. 22). Percentage moves for individual stocks are as given in the market summary supplied. This is informational, not a recommendation to buy or sell.