By Joe Woelfel and Emily Dattilo
Stocks fell Friday, as investors reacted to signals from the Federal Reserve that it could keep interest rates higher for longer.
These stocks made moves Friday:
Ford (ticker: F) rose 1.9%, General Motors $(GM)$ slipped 0.4%, and Stellantis $(STLA)$ gained 0.1% after the United Auto Workers expanded its strike to 38 General Motors and Stellantis parts distribution facilities while keeping a more limited work outage at Ford, which has been making progress in negotiations with the union, the UAW said.
Microsoft's $(MSFT)$ $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard (ATVI) drew closer to being cleared after the U.K.'s antitrust authority said a new restructured deal substantially addresses its concerns over cloud gaming. Microsoft shares dropped 0.8%, while Activision jumped 1.7%.
American depositary receipts of Alibaba $(BABA)$ rose 5%, JD.com $(JD)$ gained 2%, and PDD Holdings $(PDD)$ climbed 4.1%. A Bloomberg report said China was considering relaxing rules that cap foreign ownership in domestic publicly traded companies.
Squarespace $(SQSP)$ jumped 4.2% to $28.66 after the e-commerce platform was initiated with a Buy rating at UBS and a $40 price target.
Scholastic $(SCHL)$ sank 13% after the children's book publisher reported an adjusted loss in the first quarter of $2.20 a share -- much wider than analysts' estimates, which called for a loss of $1.35. Revenue of $228.5 million fell from $262.9 million a year earlier and missed forecasts of $268.8 million. Scholastic said it typically reports a loss in the first quarter when schools aren't in session.
Seagen (SGEN) shares rose 3.5% after the biotech company announced positive results from a Phase 3 trial for a bladder cancer treatment combination.
United States Steel $(X)$ rose 2.5% after a report from Bloomberg said Stelco Holdings, Canada's biggest steelmaker, was pursuing a bid for the American steel producer. U.S. Steel rejected a takeover offer from Cleveland-Cliffs $(CLF)$ in mid-August.
Deere (DE) fell 1.8% after the agricultural equipment giant was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord.
VinFast Auto (VFS), the Vietnamese electric-vehicle maker, reported a second-quarter loss of $526.7 million, which was 8% narrower than the year-earlier period. The company said it delivered 9,535 vehicles in the second quarter, up from 1,789 a year earlier. The stock declined 0.8%.
Amazon.com $(AMZN)$ fell 0.2% after the online giant said Friday that it intends to add advertising to Prime Video next year.
Wayfair (W) finished down 2% to $59.34 after shares of the online furniture retailer were upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Bernstein, and the price target was raised to $65 from $60.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 22, 2023 16:37 ET (20:37 GMT)
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