Qualcomm’s 23% one-day stock surge is a rarity for the market
Apple and Qualcomm finally made peace, settling all their patent disputes after two years of bitter legal battles. The news came Tuesday around 3 p.m. ET, sending Qualcomm’s stock skyrocketing instantly. The shares finished the day more than 23% higher and gained another 10% on Wednesday.
A sudden move that dramatic is one for the Wall Street history books. CNBC parsed through the FactSet database and located all the stocks with one-day surges of more than 20% in the past two years. The tally came to 18.
Stocks with one-day moves of more than 20%
Date | Company | Stock gains | Driver |
---|---|---|---|
Thursday, May 25, 2017 | Best Buy | 21.48% | earnings |
Wednesday, July 12, 2017 | NRG Energy | 29.39% | divestment announcement |
Wednesday, July 19, 2017 | Vertex Pharmaceutical | 20.83% | successful trials |
Tuesday, August 08, 2017 | Capri Holdings | 21.54% | earnings |
Monday, November 13, 2017 | Mattel | 20.66% | Hasbro bid |
Friday, November 17, 2017 | Foot Locker | 28.16% | earnings beat |
Friday, March 02, 2018 | Nektar Therapeutics | 21.67% | earnings |
Thursday, April 26, 2018 | Chipotle Mexican Grill | 24.44% | earnings |
Wednesday, May 09, 2018 | TripAdvisor | 22.80% | earnings |
Wednesday, May 23, 2018 | Tiffany | 23.29% | earnings |
Friday, May 25, 2018 | Foot Locker | 20.16% | earnings |
Monday, October 29, 2018 | Red Hat | 45.38% | IBM acquisition |
Tuesday, October 30, 2018 | Under Armour | 27.71% | earnings |
Thursday, January 03, 2019 | Celgene | 20.69% | Bristol-Myers Squibb acquisition |
Thursday, February 07, 2019 | Hanesbrands | 20.17% | earnings |
Friday, February 08, 2019 | Mattel | 23.22% | earnings |
Friday, February 08, 2019 | Coty | 32.15% | earnings |
Friday, April 12, 2019 | Anadarko Petroleum Corp | 32.01% | Chevron deal |
However, four of the jumps were driven by mergers and acquisitions announcements and the majority of the surges came after blowout earnings results.
On May 25, 2017, shares of Best Buy rallied more than 21% after the company posted unexpected sales growth in same-store locations. The jump in sales was attributed to an unexpected surge of shoppers spending their tax refunds on electronics in the first quarter of 2017.
Biotech company Vertex Pharmaceuticals jumped more than 21% on July 19, 2017, after the drugmaker reported an improved response in patients suffering from cystic fibrosis. Vertex said its three-drug cocktails boosted a measure of lung function in patients with cystic fibrosis by 9.6 percentage points or more, which crushed Wall Street expectations for the drug combination.
Power producer NRG Energy on July 12, 2017, announced a transformation plan to raise $2.5 billion to $4 billion by divesting 50% to 100% of its renewable energy business, aiming to remove $13 billion in debt from its balance sheet. The news sent the company stock soaring a whopping 29% that day.
On Oct. 30, 2018, Under Armour shares rallied nearly 28% after it reported blowout quarterly earnings due to a spike in sales overseas. The athletic apparel company had been undergoing changes to trim excess inventory and cut costs amid fierce competition in the space. The strong results came as a relief that Under Armour’s turnaround efforts were paying off after years of patchy sales.