S&P 500 Gains and Losses Today: FMC Stock Falls as Agricultural Supplier Says Customers Are Lowering Inventory

Major U.S. equities indexes ticked higher on Wednesday, recovering from morning losses as chip giant Nvidia and other AI names reinvigorated the tech sector.

After opening the session on a downbeat note following an underwhelming earnings report from Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), stocks found some momentum later in the day, bolstered in part by semiconductor giant Nvidia (NVDA) and other artificial intelligence (AI) players.

After trading in negative territory earlier in the day, the S&P 500 staged an afternoon recovery, closing 0.4% higher. The Dow and the Nasdaq also bounced back from morning losses to notch gains of 0.7% and 0.2%, respectively.

Shares of industrial manufacturer Johnson Controls International (JCI) logged the S&P 500’s top performance on Wednesday, surging 11.3%. The manufacturer of ventilation, refrigeration, and security equipment posted better-than-expected sales and profits for its fiscal first quarter and its guidance for current-quarter and full-year earnings topped expectations. The company also announced a leadership change, with longtime Danaher (DHR) executive Joakim Weidemanis set to become the new CEO of Johnson Controls starting next month.

Super Micro Computer (SMCI) shares soared for the second straight session, jumping 8.0% on Wednesday after the company announced “full production availability” of its newest artificial intelligence (AI) data center server solution.

Electronic Arts (EA) shares gained 7.6% following the video game maker’s quarterly earnings release. Although slumping sales of its soccer and Dragon Age titles contributed to a year-over-year downtick in sales, earnings per share (EPS) topped estimates, and EA’s sales and profit guidance for the current quarter came ahead of consensus forecasts.

Agricultural sciences company FMC Corp. (FMC) shares tumbled 33.5% on Wednesday, suffering the steepest drop of any S&P 500 constituent. The maker of herbicides and other pest control products said in its earnings call that customers in various countries opted to lower inventory levels compared with historical trends.

Shares of IDEX Corp. (IEX) sank 9.6% after the provider of metering systems, fire safety equipment, and other industrial machinery missed fourth-quarter sales estimates and provided a soft outlook for the first quarter. While IDEX benefitted from its acquisition of metal filtration specialist Mott Corp., higher employee-related costs contributed to a downtick in gross margins.

Match Group (MTCH) shares dropped 7.9% after the operator of online dating platforms named a new CEO. Former Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff has been tapped to take over as Match CEO following Bernard Kim’s departure.