Take a look at the companies making headlines in midday trading. GLOBAL PHARMACEUTICAL STOCKS – Shares of several vaccine makers fell after President-elect Donald Trump picked noted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary on Thursday. Shares of Moderna and Pfizer fell nearly 9% and 5%, respectively. Shares of BioNTech, which is working with Pfizer to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, fell 5%, while GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) fell about 2%. Shares of companies including Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk also fell about 4% on concerns that the drug approval process could slow down. Super Micro Computer – Shares of the troubled server company fell 2% ahead of Monday’s deadline that could lead to the company’s delisting from Nasdaq. AMD’s delay in filing its year-end report with the Securities and Exchange Commission put it in violation of Nasdaq rules. This will be AMD’s 11th losing day in the past 13 trading days. Alibaba — Shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant fell more than 2% after its fiscal second-quarter sales fell short of expectations amid weak consumption in the country. According to data from the London Stock Exchange, Alibaba’s revenue was 236.5 billion yuan, an increase of 5% year-on-year, but lower than analysts’ expectations of 238.9 billion yuan. Palantir — Shares of Palantir rose 7% after the analytics software provider said it will move its listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Palantir expects to be eligible to join the Nasdaq 100 Index once converted. Domino’s Pizza, Pool Corp., Ulta Beauty — Shares of the pizza chain edged up 0.3% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway announced it would increase its stake in Domino’s, while Pool Corp. Gained nearly 2% after buying a small stake in Domino’s. Ulta shares fell nearly 3% after Berkshire Hathaway revealed in a regulatory filing that it had sold about 97% of its shares, all but eliminating its position in the beauty retailer. Berkshire Hathaway just bought the stock in the second quarter, making Ulta a relatively new bet. AST SpaceMobile – Shares of SpaceMobile plunged more than 11% as the company’s third-quarter results fell short of expectations. AST SpaceMobile reported a loss of $1.10 per share on revenue of $1.1 million. That was well below analysts’ expectations for a loss of 20 cents per share and revenue of $1.8 million, according to FactSet. Applied Materials — Shares of Applied Materials fell 8% after the semiconductor equipment maker reported a lower-than-expected revenue outlook for the current quarter. Applied Materials told investors it expected fiscal first-quarter revenue of $7.15 billion, below the $7.22 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG. However, the company beat expectations on both lines in its fiscal fourth quarter and issued positive guidance for adjusted earnings per share. —CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Hakyung Kim and Lisa Han contributed reporting.
