Take a look at the companies making headlines in midday trading. Trump Media & Technology – The stock fell more than 13% following Tuesday’s debate between major shareholders former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. On Wednesday, Trump Media hit its lowest intraday price since listing on Nasdaq in late March. Rentokil Initial—The pest control company’s shares plunged more than 20% after the company said it expects North American organic sales growth to slow to about 1% in the second half. GameStop – Meme shares fell more than 15% after the video game retailer reported a sharp drop in second-quarter sales compared with the same period last year. GameStop also announced a “market-based” issuance of up to 20 million shares. Novartis – Shares of the Swiss pharmaceutical company’s U.S.-listed shares fell nearly 2% after Bank of America downgraded its rating to hold from buy. The bank said there was little growth momentum in sight. Viking Therapeutics — Shares of Viking Therapeutics rose more than 7% after JPMorgan gave the biotech company an overweight rating. The bank cited upcoming data in November as a positive catalyst for Viking Therapeutics, which competes in the GLP-1 space. Cryptocurrency Stocks – Cryptocurrency stocks were weighed down after Bitcoin prices edged lower overnight as crypto traders pondered Bank of Japan policy. Shares of Coinbase and MicroStrategy fell 2% and 1% respectively. Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms fell nearly 2%. Morgan Stanley – Shares of the bank fell 1% after Goldman Sachs downgraded its rating to neutral from buy. Goldman Sachs cited Morgan Stanley’s overvaluation relative to peers as the reason for the downgrade. Bank of America – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway shares fell 2% after the company disclosed in a filing on Tuesday that it sold more shares in the bank, reducing its stake to 11%. The latest sales totaled 5.8 million shares and took place on Friday, Monday and Tuesday. Since mid-July, Berkshire’s total sales have exceeded $7 billion. SOLAR STOCKS – Solar stocks rallied en masse after Vice President Kamala Harris’ performance in Tuesday’s debate boosted confidence in a Democratic victory in the U.S. presidential election. The Invesco Solar ETF (TAN) rose 5% and the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN) gained 2.6%. First Solar shares rose more than 11%, while SolarEdge Technology shares rose more than 5%. Sunnova Energy shares rose nearly 5%. Sunrun shares rose 8%. —CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Michelle Fox, Alex Harring, Yun Li, Sarah Min and Samantha Subin contributed reporting.
