Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Microsoft, Applied Materials, Moderna and more

Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Microsoft, Applied Materials, Moderna and more

Tech stocks — Tech stocks dropped as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield touched a high of 1.567% Tuesday. fell 4.7%, and lost more than 3%, slipped by 2.6%. Rising bond yields hurt growth stocks like tech stocks because they lower the relative value of future earnings. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is on pace for its 10 down day in the past 15 sessions. — Shares of the semiconductor stock dropped 6.8% after New Street to neutral from buy. The Wall Street firm cited Applied Material's sky-high valuation for the downgrade. Other semis fell as well, with over 5% lower and , which will report earnings after the bell, down more than 2%. , — Vaccine makers BioNTech and Moderna fell 8.6% and 5.4%, respectively, after the French drugmaker Sanofi from a study of its MRNA-based Covid vaccine. Sanofi said it would halt further development because the market is so already so well dominated by Pfizer and Moderna. Instead, it'll focus on using MRNA technology for other vaccines and developing a protein-based Covid vaccine with GlaxoSmithKline. — Shares of Wells Fargo fell 4.2% after Morgan Stanley to equal weight from overweight, citing persistent regulatory challenges. The call comes after Federal Reserve Chair