A United Airlines plane prepares to take off at the Benito Juarez International airport in Mexico City, on March 20, 2020.
Pedro Pardo | AFP | Getty Images
Check out the companies making headlines midday Monday:
United, American, Delta, Southwest — Airline stocks rallied on Monday as investors continued to bet on a return in air travel as the economy opens up from the coronavirus crisis. American Airlines jumped 6% and United Airlines rose more than 9%. Southwest and Delta gained 3% and 5.5%, respectively.
Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruises — Shares of cruise operators rallied on Monday as the economy reopening gave investors hope for a recovery in cruise bookings. Carnival jumped 11% along with Norwegian Cruise Line while Royal Caribbean gained 3.6%.
Thor Industries — Shares of the recreational vehicle company jumped nearly 10% after its fiscal third-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations. The company reported earnings of 43 cents per share on $1.68 billion in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected a loss of 26 cents per share and $1.615 billion of revenue. The company’s CEO credited a “highly variable cost structure” for the results. The company temporarily shut-down manufacturing in March.
Zoom Video, Netflix, Microsoft — Companies that initially benefited from consumers spending more time at home lagged the broader market as investors turned their attention towards potential reopening winners. Zoom Video dropped more than 1% while Netflix lost 2.1%. Microsoft slid 0.5%.
GrubHub — Grubhub dropped more than 7% in midday trading after CNBC’s David Faber reported that it’s disagreeing with Uber Technologies over certain antitrust concessions. Grubhub is committed to consolidation and last month declined a takeover offer from Uber that would have granted each GRUB shareholder 1.9 UBER shares. CNBC reported last week that JustEat and Delivery Hero were also eyeing the Grubhub.
Gilead Sciences, Astrazeneca — Gilead rose 0.6% and Astrazeneca’s stock fell 2.4% after conflicting reports about a possible merger between the two pharmaceutical giants. Bloomberg News reported over the weekend that Astrazeneca had approached Gilead about a potential merger, but CNBC’s David Faber said no discussions are currently taking place.
Dunkin’ Brands — Shares of the restaurant chain gained 2% after KeyBanc upgraded the stock to an overweight rating based on improving same-store sales numbers. Separately, the company said it’s looking to hire 25,000 employees as the economy begins to reopen.
Zillow — Zillow jumped 5.1% after Needham upgraded the online real estate company to buy from hold. The firm believes the coronavirus’ impact on real estate has “carry underappreciated longer-term benefits” for Zillow, and the number of homes the site offers will likely rebound as the economy returns to a normal state after the pandemic.
Michaels — Michaels rocketed more than 38% on Monday to $7.71 after JPMorgan upgraded the stock to overweight and said shares could pop to $13. “Given increased optimism around the pace of economic recovery and a wide divide in valuation of haves (essential retailers) and have nots (value/just reopening/levered names), we looked at our universe for upgrade opportunities and believe MIK represents the best upside potential at current prices,” wrote analyst Christopher Horvers.
JetBlue — Shares of the airline stock climbed 7% after Bank of America upgrade the stock to a neutral rating, saying it’s a “pure play on recovering leisure.” The stock also moved higher amid broader strength in the industry as demand begins to improve. Shares of the airline have slid 22% this year.
Boeing — Boeing soared 11.4%, on track for its sixth straight day of gains. The advance came after Seaport Global Securities initiated coverage of the plane maker with a buy rating, saying the worst of pandemic-related risk is now priced in. Boeing is also benefiting from the overall optimism about the reopening of the economy.
International Flavors & Fragrance — International Flavors dropped more than 1.5% after the company released preliminary results for the second quarter. In a statement, the company said gross profit fell 12% amid “lower sales volumes and an unfavorable mix, combined with additional COVID-19 manufacturing and procurement costs.”
—CNBC’s Pippa Stevens, Jesse Pound, Maggie Fitzgerald, Yun Li and Tom Franck contributed to this report.