Here we will introduce companies that have become a hot topic in intraday trading. Semiconductor stocks — Semiconductor companies rallied as the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) rallied for its best quarter ever. The chip ETF was on pace to gain 70% in the second quarter and ended the day up more than 3%. Astera Labs’ stock rose 7% during the session, KLA’s stock rose 8% and Applied Materials’ stock rose 5%. Watts Water Technologies — The maker of water valves and hot water solutions saw its shares rise more than 7% on the back of an upgrade to Overweight by Barclays. The company said Watts is “best positioned” among the waste and water technology groups to benefit from the data center capital investment cycle as it expands its product portfolio to serve data center plumbing, drainage and cooling needs. Avivax — the French biotech company’s U.S.-listed shares soared 40%. Avivax presents new data on its treatment of ulcerative colitis, showing that the incidence of malignancy is in line with expectations. The company also said that more than 37% of patients who initially did not respond to treatment experienced clinical remission after approximately 10 months of treatment at the 50-milligram dose. SolarEdge — Shares of the inverter system maker rose 7% after Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the Trump administration is working to ban imports of foreign-made inverters. Enphase Energy rose 2%. Air Products and Chemicals — Shares rose more than 8% after the industrial gas maker announced it would not move forward with construction of a clean energy complex in Louisiana. Air Products said the project’s expected financial benefits did not meet its criteria and this was a factor in its decision. Air Products announced that it will record a pre-tax charge of up to $2.9 billion in its fiscal third quarter. Zimmer Biomet — Shares fell 7% after Pacira BioSciences announced it would sell its Iovera pain treatment system to Zimmer Biomet for $140 million. AeroVironment — Shares rose about 17% after the drone maker reported higher profits and revenue. AeroVironment earned $1.84 per share on revenue of $642 million. Analyst estimates compiled by LSEG were for sales of $559 million and earnings per share of $1.46. Digital Realty Trust — The real estate investment trust fell nearly 5% after agreeing to buy a stake in three fully leased data centers from Blackstone for $7.8 billion. Merck, AbbVie — Shares of Merck and AbbVie each fell less than 1% after Reuters reported that a U.S. House committee had opened an investigation into whether the drug companies were involved in clinical trials conducted in China to support China’s military. Strategy — Cryptocurrency proxy stocks fell about 7%, giving back some of Monday’s gains. Strategy stock rose 22.6% in the previous session, ending an eight-day losing streak. It was also the stock’s biggest single-day increase since February 6, when it soared 49.6%. Bitcoin also fell during the session, dropping more than 3% to trade at around $58,430. Seras Life Sciences — Shares regained previous gains and ended the day down 4%. Ceras stock rose nearly 25% on Monday after the company disclosed changes to the employment contracts of several executives last week. Specifically, the changes are related to retirement benefits. This could be a regular update or an indication that a takeover may be in progress. —CNBC’s Michelle Fox, Nick Wells and Darla Mercado contributed reporting.
