Midday stock movers: Tesla, Dollar General, HP Enterprise, more

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Stocks traded mixed on Thursday after reaching record highs in the previous session.

The S&P 500 added 0.01% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.28%. The Russell 2000 Index fell 0.69%.

Bitcoin traded 2.5% higher, breaking above $100,000 for the first time. Crypto stocks rallied in premarket trading but lost that momentum by noon.

S&P 500 big stock movers today

Five S&P 500 stocks making big midday moves are:

  • Brown-Forman  (BF.B)  +11.3%

  • Moderna  (MRNA)  +5.1%

  • United Airlines (UAL)  +4.8%

  • Delta Air Lines  (DAL)  +4.3%

  • Tesla  (TSLA)  +4.1%

The worst-performing five S&P 500 stocks with the largest midday drop are:

  • Synopsys  (SNPS)  -12.0%

  • Uber (UBER)  -7.3%

  • Ball Corp  (BALL) -6.4%

  • Cadence Design Systems  (CDNS)  -5.5%

  • Ansys  (ANSS)  -5.2%

Stocks also worth noting include:

  • Nvidia  (NVDA)  +0.3%

  • Amazon  (AMZN)  +1.8%

  • Dollar General  (DG)  -2.2%

  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise  (HPE)  +1.4%

  • UnitedHealth  (UNH)  -4.2%

Dollar General has ambitious real estate projects.shutterstock
Dollar General has ambitious real estate projects.shutterstock

Tesla gains after analyst raised price target

Tesla added 4% midday after Bank of America analyst John Murphy raised its price target to $400 from $350 with a buy rating on the shares, thefly.com reported.

After visiting Tesla's Texas gigafactory for a meeting with investor relations, a factory tour, and a ride-and-drive session, the analyst is increasingly confident that Tesla is well-positioned to grow in 2025 and beyond with its core EV business, robotaxis and Optimus.

CEO Elon Musk called Optimus "the most advanced humanoid robot by a long shot" during Tesla's October earnings call.

Related: Analyst revisits Tesla stock price target amid Optimus robotics push

"While Optimus currently accounts for only a single-digit percentage of Tesla's compute capacity, we expect the resources allocated to Optimus will grow as the robotaxi technology matures," Murphy said.

Murphy also sees opportunities for Tesla to improve margins, which are driven mainly by hardware now but will shift more to margin-accretive software with growth in Full Self Driving.

Dollar General falls on mixed earnings

Dollar General lost 2.2% after earnings miss estimates and the outlook narrowed.

The retailer reported adjusted earnings of 89 cents a share, missing Wall Street’s forecast of 94 cents. Sales of $10.2 billion, up 5% from a year earlier, exceeded the consensus estimate of $10.14 billion.

Dollar General narrowed its fiscal 2024 earnings-per-share outlook. The company now expects EPS in the range of $5.50-$5.90, compared with the previous estimate of $5.50-$6.20.