Midday movers: Nvidia, Affirm Holdings, and more

(Updated - December 19, 2023 12:01 PM EST)

Investing.com -- Main U.S. indexes rose Tuesday on optimism of interest rate cuts next year. The S&P 500 climbed to its higher level of the year, putting it within striking distance of the all-time high.

Here are some of the biggest U.S. stock movers today:​

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock rose 0.3% even after the tech giant said it would pause sales of its Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches in the United States from this week, as it deals with a patent dispute over the technology that enables the blood oxygen feature on the devices.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock rose 0.5% despite its Google unit agreeing to pay $700 million to settle a lawsuit brought against the search giant by U.S. states and consumers over anticompetitive practices at its Play app store on Android devices.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock rose 1.9% after CNBC reported the EV manufacturer is planning a 10% or greater pay rise for some set-rate hourly employees at its battery factory in Nevada, a move that could help Tesla persuade workers at the site not to form a union and demand a collective agreement.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) stock fell 0.3% after the IT consultant said it expects revenues in its current quarter to be lower than the prior three-month period due to negative currency effects, although tailwinds remained from hype around artificial intelligence.

Boeing (NYSE:BA) stock rose 1.6% after the German carrier Lufthansa ordered 40 737 planes, for the first time since 1995.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) stock fell 0.6% after JPMorgan downgraded its stance on the soft drinks giant to ‘neutral’ from ‘overweight’, citing "limited room for positive surprises."

Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) stock fell 1% after Piper Sandler downgraded the hydrogen fuel cell firm to ‘underweight’ from ‘equal weight’.

Heico (HEI) stock rose 1% after the aerospace and electronics company posted better-than-expected sales results for its fourth quarter.

UBS (UBS) stock rose 5% after Cevian Capital announced it has taken a 1.3% stake in the Swiss lender, with the activist investor group seeing "significant value potential."

Affirm Holdings (NASDAQ:AFRM) shares rose 13% after the buy-now, pay-later company announced it has expanded its partnership with Walmart (NYSE:WMT). Affirm’s flexible pay-over-time options will become available to self-checkout kiosks across over 4,500 Walmart stores in the United States.

Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) climbed 9% after it entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire two currently operational Bitcoin mining sites, totaling 390 megawatts of capacity, from subsidiaries of Generate Capital, PBC for a total of $178.6 million.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) declined 2% following a note from analysts suggesting potential for mixed AI/GPU demand in the short term, though long-term demand remains strong.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) climbed 4% following a court's favorable ruling in a class action lawsuit related to Tylenol.

Additional reporting by Louis Juricic