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Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Moderna, Morgan Stanley, GE and more

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Boxes containing vials of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine are stored at the Kedren Community Health Center on January 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Moderna — Moderna shares surged 5.1% after the company said its Covid vaccine showed promise in a lab setting in protecting against coronavirus variants, including the highly contagious delta variant first identified in India. Banks — Big banks saw their shares gain after announcing dividend increases following the Fed's latest stress tests. Morgan Stanley shares gained 3.3% after the bank said it would double its dividend. Goldman Sachs shares added 1% as the bank announced it would boost its dividend by 60%. Meanwhile, Citigroup saw its shares dip 2.5% after it was the only major bank to not commit to any specific dividend increases. Lennar, PulteGroup — Homebuilder stocks rose on Tuesday as the S&P CoreLogic Case-Sh

Stocks making the biggest moves in the premarket: Big banks, Facebook, Tesla & more

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Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket: Big banks – Goldman Sachs (GS), Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) all announced dividend increases after passing the Fed's latest stress tests. Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo both doubled their dividends, while Citigroup (C) was the only one of the six largest banks to keep its dividend unchanged. Morgan Stanley rose 3.3% in the premarket, with Goldman up 1.4%. Facebook (FB) – Facebook remains on watch after a late Monday jump which saw it surge past the $1 trillion mark in market value. That followed a court decision that dismissed both federal and state antitrust complaints against the social media giant. Tesla (TSLA) – UBS cut its price target on Tesla shares to $660 from $730, while maintaining a "neutral" rating, noting increasing competition as well as operational delays. Boeing (BA) – Boeing won a 200 jet order from United Airlines (UAL), which als

JPMorgan is buying an ESG investing platform in bank’s third fintech acquisition of the past year

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JPMorgan Chase wants to take the sustainable-investing trend to the next level. To do that, the biggest U.S. bank by assets has agreed to buy OpenInvest, a San Francisco-based start-up backed by Andreessen Horowitz and founded by former Bridgewater Associates employees, CNBC has learned exclusively. It's the third acquisition of a fintech start-up by JPMorgan since December, when the bank bought 55ip, a company that automates the construction of tax-efficient portfolios. This month, JPMorgan said it was acquiring UK-based robo-advisor Nutmeg to help boost its overseas digital banking efforts. CEO Jamie Dimon said last year that the bank would be "much more aggressive" in searching for potential takeovers to help it bolt-on capabilities and fend off threats from fintech and Big Tech players alike. The traditional banking industry has begun to lose ground to fast growing, disruptive players including PayPal and Square, while Alphabet and even retailer Walmart have each

This under-the-radar trend may provide investors with relief from runaway inflation fears

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A longtime market bull sees an under-the-radar trend that should calm runaway inflation fears, and it has nothing to do with Federal Reserve policy. According to The Leuthold Group's Jim Paulsen, private money coming from individuals and companies has been acting as a "very encouraging" market mechanism to help curb inflation. "We make decisions about whether we save or spend. We make decisions on whether we borrow money or not. And, those all affect the rate of growth of the money supply," the firm's chief investment strategist told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Monday. "While we're still debating when the Fed may start tapering ... the reality is the money supply in this country has been tapering now for the last four months." Paulsen, who oversees about $1 billion in assets, highlights the trend in a special chart. It shows the relationship between consumer price inflation and money supply since 1990. Zoom In Icon Arro

Stock futures are flat after S&P 500 closes at a record

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U.S. stock index futures were little changed during overnight trading on Monday, after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at record highs. Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat. S&P 500 futures were also flat, while Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.1%. Stocks rose to new highs during regular trading on Monday amid strength in Big Tech. The S&P 500 advanced 0.23%, registering its third straight record close. The Nasdaq gained nearly 1%, posting its fifth positive session in the last six, and also closed at a new high. The Dow, however, dipped 151 points amid a pullback in Boeing and Chevron, among other names. "Markets are off to a strong start this year," LPL Financial chief market strategist Ryan Detrick said. "However, most of those gains came early in the year, and many stocks have stagnated over recent months," he added. Detrick believes investors should stay overweight stocks relative to bonds, but pointed to some

Morgan Stanley doubles its dividend as most banks raise payouts following Fed stress tests

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Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street powerhouse, doubled its quarterly dividend and announced a new $12 billion stock repurchase plan. The bank said Monday in a press release that its dividend will jump to 70 cents a share starting in the third quarter, and it would buy up to $12 billion of its own stock through June 2022. Shares of Morgan Stanley popped almost 4% in after-hours trading. "Morgan Stanley has accumulated significant excess capital over the past several years and now has one of the largest capital buffers in the industry," CEO James Gorman said in the release. "The action taken by the Board reflects a decision to reset our capital base consistent with the needs we have for our transformed business model." Morgan Stanley's new capital plan appeared to be among the most aggressive of the banks rushing to announce at the market close. Larger rival JPMorgan Chase boosted its dividend by 11% to $1 per share, according to the bank. JPMorgan said it "

Fed Vice Chair Quarles casts significant doubt on establishing a digital dollar

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With the Federal Reserve set to release a much-anticipated report this summer on the potential creation of a digital dollar, the central bank's vice chair for supervision said Monday that he has significant doubts about the idea. Fed Governor Randal Quarles expressed skepticism about most arguments made in favor of a central bank digital currency. "The potential benefits of a Federal Reserve CBDC are unclear," Quarles said in prepared remarks to the Utah Bankers Association. "Conversely, a Federal Reserve CBDC could pose significant and concrete risks." Among the downsides he cited are the challenges if the public could bypass traditional banks and go straight to the Fed for digital money. Along the same lines, he said the benefits that consumers get through bank competition might be diminished if the Fed stepped further into the space. Also, he worried about the potential for cyberattacks on a system whose security would be difficult to design. Proponents

Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Boeing, Intellia Therapeutics, Royal Caribbean and more

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Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Intellia Therapeutics – Intellia shares surged 56% after the company announced positive results from a phase one study, along with partner Regeneron, of a gene-editing treatment. The treatment is the first time gene-editing technique CRISPR has been delivered systemically as a medicine to the human body. Other companies involved with CRISPR also saw their shares rally, with CRISPR Therapeutics' stock soaring 7.5% and Editas Medicine's stock jumping 8.8%. Boeing — Shares fell 3.5% after the Federal Aviation Administration said in a letter to the aircraft maker that its 777X long-range aircraft likely won't be approved to fly until mid- to late-2023 at the earliest. The FAA's letter to Boeing, which was obtained by CNBC, said there were numerous technical issues that needed to be resolved. Cruise stocks — Cruises may be back, but cruise line stocks are falling after two teenage guests on one of Royal Caribbe

Perella Weinberg shares popped and later cooled after going public last week via a SPAC

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Perella Weinberg shares saw a sharp rise early Monday after going public last week via a SPAC. The stock opened 12% higher Monday, before bouncing between positive and negative territory later in the day. The global investment bank — headquartered in New York City — started trading Friday after announcing the day before that it completed its merger with special purpose acquisition company FinTech Acquisition Corp. IV. "We're going public because we think there's a very significant growth opportunity for the firm going forward," co-founder and CEO Peter Weinberg said Monday on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "The reason that we picked a SPAC is because it's a transaction as opposed to a process" like an initial public offering, said Weinberg, who prior to starting his own firm was CEO of Goldman Sachs International in London. "Given all the constituencies that we have, our founding investors, our retired partners — very important constituenci