Check out the companies that are trending in midday trading: Chip equipment stocks — The world’s biggest market leader after news that the Biden administration is considering additional sanctions on sales of semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence memory chips to China chip equipment stocks rose, but the content may be more modest than previously suggested. Shares of U.S.-based companies Applied Materials and KLA Corporation each rose more than 3%, while Lam Research jumped 5.3% following the Bloomberg report. Dutch equipment maker ASML rose about 3.5%. Robinhood — The brokerage resumed its post-election rally with shares up more than 3%. Friday’s rise came after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the creation of a 24-hour stock exchange by startup 24 Exchange, paving the way for 24-hour trading. Robinhood soared 66% to a record high in November as investors flocked to the company, which is seen as a big beneficiary of the incoming Trump administration’s deregulation plans. Advance Auto Parts — Shares fell 7% after credit rating agency Moody’s Ratings downgraded the auto parts company’s senior unsecured debt to Ba1, below investment grade, according to FactSet. “This downgrade reflects our expectation that very high lease-adjusted leverage, weak interest coverage, and negative free cash flow will continue over the next 12 to 18 months,” Moody’s said. Hasbro — Shares rose more than 2% after Elon Musk hinted he might buy the toy maker to secure the rights to Dungeons & Dragons. Retail Stocks — Major retail stocks rose modestly, with Target up about 1% and wholesale retailer Costco up 0.6% as Black Friday shopping got into full swing across the United States. Meanwhile, Walmart, the country’s largest retailer, rose 0.1% to a record high. Zeta Global Holdings — Marketing software shares rose 5% after the company’s CEO called recent short-selling reports “false” on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” Wednesday. Stock prices have fallen more than 20% this month. Crypto Stocks — Stocks tied to the price of Bitcoin rose as the cryptocurrency approached the $100,000 milestone. MicroStrategy, which has an aggressive Bitcoin buying strategy, rose 4%. Mara Holdings, a Bitcoin miner and another buyer of the cryptocurrency, soared nearly 10%. Coinbase remained largely unchanged. —CNBC’s Yun Lee, Jesse Pound, Ha-Kyung Kim, Sarah Min, Sean Conlon, Pia Shin and Tanaya Machel contributed reporting.
