By Mackenzie Tatananni, George Glover, and Connor Smith
Stocks rose Wednesday after the latest Institute for Supply Management services sector survey topped expectations and data from ADP showed the U.S. added 63,000 jobs to private payrolls in February. Investors also held out hope for a possible end to the conflict in the Middle East.
These stocks made notable moves:
Moderna surged 16% after the vaccine maker agreed to pay $950 million to settle patent litigation with Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences related to technology in its Covid-19 shot. Arbutus gained 1.3%. Investors had feared Moderna would have to pay much more, considering its Covid-19 vaccine has generated between $45 billion and $50 billion in revenue.
Coinbase Global surged 15% as a rally in crypto prices boosted shares of the digital-asset exchange. Bitcoin has jumped 6.2% to $73,217 over the past 24 hours as the conflict in the Middle East upended global markets. Online-trading platform Robinhood Markets gained 8.1% and Bitcoin investor Strategy rose 10%.
GitLab slumped 6.2% after the software company said it expected sales to slow this year. CEO Bill Staples said GitLab "wasn't satisfied" with its revenue guidance, and the company laid out five steps it thinks could boost growth. The weak outlook overshadowed a fourth-quarter earnings beat.
Shares of memory-chip and data-storage companies staged a comeback after falling sharply on Tuesday. Seagate Technology added 4.9%, Western Digital rose 4.3%, Micron Technology jumped 5.6%, and Sandisk advanced 6%.
Chevron and Exxon Mobil fell 1.5% and 1.3%, respectively. The selloff came as oil prices pared back their gains. Iran has reached out to the U.S. via secret service channels to signal it is ready to hold talks to end the conflict, according to the New York Times, which cited officials briefed on the outreach.
CrowdStrike rose 4.2% after the cybersecurity company beat analysts' estimates for fourth-quarter earnings and revenue. Earnings guidance for the current quarter also topped expectations.
CoreWeave climbed 7.8% after unveiling a multiyear partnership with Perplexity. Under the terms of the deal, Perplexity will use CoreWeave's cloud-computing platform to power its AI workloads. In turn, CoreWeave will roll out Perplexity's Enterprise Max product for its employees.
Abercrombie & Fitch fell 3.6%. The clothing retailer posted better-than-anticipated earnings for the fiscal fourth quarter but guided for a greater tariff impact and a slowdown in sales growth in the current fiscal year.
Box added 10% after the cloud-storage company topped Wall Street's earnings and revenue targets for the fourth quarter. Box's guidance for the current quarter also beat expectations.
Lithium miner Albemarle advanced 2.2% while gold miners Newmont and Freeport-McMoRan gained 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively, as uncertainty over the crisis in the Middle East sent investors piling into haven assets such as precious metals.
Ross Stores rose 8%. The off-price clothing and home-goods chain topped the Street's target for fourth-quarter earnings and issued solid guidance. Shares were up 43% over the past 12 months through Tuesday's close, as an uncertain macroeconomic environment drives up the appeal of discount stores to shoppers.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com and George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 04, 2026 16:50 ET (21:50 GMT)
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