Nike, Pfizer, Alibaba, Carnival, GameStop and more

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

Nike — Shares of Nike jumped 3.2% after the company reported a beat on the top and bottom lines in the third quarter. The retailer reported earnings of 87 cents per share on revenues of $10.87 billion, topping analysts’ estimates of 71 cents per share on revenues of $10.59 billion. Nike delayed giving its outlook for the year.

GameStop – Shares of the video-game retailer jumped more than 28% in afternoon trading. There was no clear reason behind the move. The firm reported quarterly results last week, posting a per-share loss of $1.86 compared to expected earnings of 85 cents per share, according to FactSet’s StreetAccount. Shares of AMC Entertainment, a fellow meme-stock favorite, also leapt 11%.

Datadog — Shares of the software company jumped more than 6% after investment firm BTIG initiated coverage of the stock with a buy rating. BTIG said in a note to clients that Datadog is set up for near- and long-term success.

Alibaba — Shares of the China-based e-commerce giant jumped more than 12% after the company increased its share buyback program to $25 billion from $15 billion, effective for a two-year period through March 2024. Alibaba also appointed Weijian Shan, executive chairman of Hong Kong-headquartered investment group PAG, to its board as an independent director.

Tencent Music Entertainment — The entertainment services company saw its shares jump about 10% after it reported better-than-expected earnings for the most recent quarter. Tencent Music also said it would pursue a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Pfizer — The biopharmaceutical giant’s stock price slipped 2% in midday trading after the company said it will distribute up to four million treatment courses of its oral Covid pill to dozens of poorer nations in a partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund. 

Okta — Shares of the authentication and identity management firm fell more than 3% on news of a potential breach from a hacking group. Okta said it had “detected an attempt to compromise the account of a third party customer support engineer working for one of our subprocessors” but found no new evidence of an attack.

Alphabet — The tech giant’s stock price spiked 2.8% in midday trading after Google’s parent company spun off Sandbox AQ, a quantum computing start-up that includes former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as investor and chairman of the board.

Sherwin-Williams — The paint company’s shares gained about 1.8% after Bank of America upgraded the stock to a buy from neutral. Analyst Steve Byrne said the issues facing the chemicals sector are already accounted for in the stock price and that the shares could be a way to bet on the U.S. economy…