Market Insider

Wednesday's midday movers: Apple, Kraft & more

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, December 1, 2014.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Check out some of Wednesday's midday movers:

Apple gained ground after JMP Securities raised its price target on the tech firm to $150 from $135, citing strong demand trends from Black Friday to Cyber Monday.

Taser moved lower after JPMorgan downgraded the electroshock gun maker to "neutral" from "overweight," based on valuation.

Energy stocks rebounded, led by Cimarex, Oneok, Nabors Industries and Diamond Offshore.

Walgreen rose after posting a better-than-expected 4.9 percent rise in November sales, led by strong prescription drug sales.

Biogen Idec rose for the second consecutive session on the heels of positive trial data for its experimental Alzheimer's drug.

Brown-Forman fell after the bourbon producer posted weaker-than-expected second-quarter results.

Johnson & Johnson lost a bit of ground on news that the pharmaceutical and packaged consumer goods manufacturer hired Goldman Sachs to explore a sale of its artificial sweetener brand Splenda.

Kraft also lost a bit of ground after the food producer said it will raise prices on most of its single serve coffees in the United States by about 9 percent.

Cliffs Natural Resources moved higher after the mining firm agreed to sell its Logan County Coal assets in West Virginia to Coronado Coal for $175 million in cash.

Halliburton advanced after Oppenheimer began coverage with an "outperform" rating and $71 price target.

Carbonite surged after J2Global offered to buy the rest of the cloud services company that it doesn't already own, valuing the company at $15 a share. Carbonite has a market cap of about $395 million.

Gold miners, including Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining, Goldcorp and Anglogold Ashanti all rose as gold went back over the $1200 an ounce level.

Parkway Properties and Cousins Properties continued to lose ground as oil prices fall. The two landlords have big exposures in Houston.

Texas Roadhouse moved lower after being downgraded by RBC Capital Markets, based on valuation.