Check out some of the stocks that made the biggest moves in midday trading. Molina Healthcare — Shares rose 2.5%. “Big Short” investor Michael Varley praised the health insurance company and its valuation in a post on Substack. He also drew comparisons to Warren Buffett’s investment in Geico. Intel — The chip company rose 1.7%. A day earlier, Nvidia said in a regulatory filing that it had bought $5 billion worth of Intel stock, completing a deal the artificial intelligence chip giant announced in September. Nvidia stock was little changed at midday. OceanFirst Financial Group — Shares of this regional bank fell 6.7%. The company recently announced that it will merge with Flushing Financial Corporation in an all-stock merger valued at $579 million. Flushing’s stock price fell 8.9%. AXT — The semiconductor component maker’s stock rebounded 8.3%. AXT fell 5% on Monday after announcing it would issue more than 7 million shares of common stock in an initial public offering valued at about $87 million. NEWMONT — Mining stocks rose 2% as silver and other precious metals rebounded from Monday’s pullback. Silver futures rose on Tuesday, with the Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL) up more than 1%. Meta Platforms — The tech giant has acquired Manus, a Singapore-based startup that specializes in developing general-purpose AI agents. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Shares of Facebook’s parent company rose 1.1%. Boeing — The aerospace giant rose 0.6% after the U.S. Air Force awarded an $8.58 billion contract to build fighter jets for the Israeli military. — CNBC’s Sarah Ming and Fred Imbert contributed reporting.
