By Mackenzie Tatananni and George Glover

Stocks were rising Wednesday as investors held out hope for a swift end to the war in the Middle East amid talks between the U.S. and Iran.

These stocks were making moves:

Arm Holdings surged 20%. While shares initially fell Tuesday when the company unveiled its plans to enter the market for data-center chips, Arm laid out a series of aggressive sales targets for the coming years in after-hours trading, boosting shares.

Intel and Advanced Micro Devices rose 7.2% and 6.3%, respectively. Nikkei Asia reported that both companies had informed clients of a plan to increase prices for all series of CPUs amid a supply crunch in the PC and server CPU markets.

Newmont gained 3.6% and Freeport-McMoRan added 1.6% as gold prices rallied. Investors are hopeful a swift end to the war in the Middle East would weaken the case for higher interest rates. When borrowing costs rise, gold becomes less appealing relative to interest-bearing assets such as bonds.

Meta Platforms advanced 1.1% after the Facebook and Instagram owner introduced executive pay incentives tied to hitting a $9 trillion market capitalization by 2031. The Facebook owner's valuation stood at $1.5 trillion as of Tuesday's closing bell.

Intuitive Machines, Rocket Lab, Firefly Aerospace, and Rocket Lab were up 16%, 10%, 17%, and 10%, respectively. All four stocks sold off in the previous session after NASA unveiled sweeping changes ahead of its Artemis II mission.

Robinhood Markets jumped 5.8% after the brokerage firm's board authorized a $1.5 billion share repurchase program. The program will be executed over the next three years, with flexibility to accelerate based on market conditions, the company said.

U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba added 3.2%, while JD.com climbed 7%. China's State Administration for Market Regulation appeared to signal on Wednesday that it would move to end the food delivery price war, which has squeezed margins in recent years.

Sarepta Therapeutics soared 29%. The biopharma company reported its first clinical results from two programs for different types of muscular dystrophy.

Chewy spiked 12%. The online pet-supplies retailer guided for sales in the range of $13.6 billion to $13.75 billion for the coming year, ahead of the $13.58 billion analysts had projected.

KB Home tumbled 4.9% after the home builder cut its full-year guidance, warning that the conflict in the Middle East could drive up uncertainty in the housing market.

GameStop rose 1% even after the videogame retailer reported lower profit and revenue for the fourth quarter. Software and hardware sales fell and GameStop's Bitcoin holdings also lost value over the period.

Paychex ticked up 0.9%. Fiscal third-quarter earnings topped Wall Street's expectations and revenue edged past estimates. Interest expense rose to $68.1 million, a $45.5 million increase, largely due to the issuance of incremental debt to finance last year's acquisition of Paycor.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com and George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com

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March 25, 2026 12:24 ET (16:24 GMT)

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