Here are the companies making headlines in midday trading. Principal Financial Group — The financial services company lost 4% after Bank of America cut its rating to underperform from neutral. “Our downgrade comes with an expectation of decelerating operating income growth in the next 12 months following a period of significant multiple valuation increases,” analyst Joshua Shanker wrote in a report Wednesday. “Healthy operating growth in the recent past appears to be waning in our forecasts (despite being ahead of consensus).” Energy stocks — The energy sector of the S & P 500 fell 2% as West Texas Intermediate crude futures briefly slipped as low as $69.63 a barrel while oil tankers continued their passage through the Strait of Hormuz. APA Corp , Halliburton and ConocoPhillips declined more than 3%. Exxon Mobil and Chevron each slid more than 2%. Travel stocks — Companies related to the travel industry saw shares rise as oil prices tumbled. Expedia Group added 9%, while Booking Holdings gained 8%. Cruise operators Carnival and Royal Caribbean rose 2% and 5%, respectively. Delta Air Lines climbed about 4%, while United Airlines rose 6%. Alphabet — The Google parent gained 1% after S & P Dow Jones Indices said that Alphabet would replace Verizon in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The change, which will kick in before trading opens on June 29 , adds to the index’s exposure to mega-cap tech. Verizon fell 2%. Cerebras — The semiconductor company dropped 16% after posting its first earnings report since going public in May. Cerebras reported a first-quarter loss of 22 cents on revenues of $193.4 million. The company also said core gross margin is expected to shrink to between 36% and 38% in the second quarter, compared to 46.5% in the first. FedEx — Shares shed about 1% even after the company posted better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results . Those numbers reflected the last before FedEx spun off its freight business. Micron Technology — The memory stock shed earlier gains and was last down 1% on the day. Micron extended its losses from Tuesday’s global tech stock sell-off , when it sustained a 13% fall. The company is slated to release earnings Wednesday after the closing bell. Memory stocks — Other memory stocks retreated alongside Micron, turning negative on the session. Sandisk lost about 2%. Seagate Technology and Western Digital shed 5% each. KB Home — The homebuilder added 17% after posting fiscal second-quarter revenue of $1.11 billion, beating the $1.10 billion analysts had penciled in, per LSEG. On the other hand, KB Home’s earnings of 43 cents per share came under the estimated 45 cents. Home improvement and building stocks — The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) was last up 6%, catching a tailwind from KB Home’s jump. Building materials company Builders FirstSource and homebuilder PulteGroup added 11% and 9%. Home Depot jumped 5%. Worthington Enterprises — The industrial manufacturer tumbled 9% after reporting fiscal fourth-quarter results that missed expectations. In its last quarter, Worthington earned an adjusted 97 cents per share on revenue of $371.5 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting earnings of $1.06 per share and $386.5 million in revenue. Wendy’s — Shares surged 26% as the fast-food stock became one of the most discussed on the Reddit investing community r/Wallstreetbets, according to data from Swaggy Stocks . Wendy’s has a short interest of around 23% of its float, according to S3 Partners, potentially setting up a short squeeze. — CNBC’s Nick Wells contributed reporting
