Microsoft, Western Digital, Micron, Nio & more

Check out the companies that are making headlines in midday trading.

Microsoft – Microsoft shares rose 2.4% in midday trading after the software giant confirmed it will build more than 120,000 custom HoloLens augmented reality headsets for the U.S. Army. The contract is valued at US $ 21.9 billion over a period of 10 years and, after years of research and development, is considered a key source of income for the futuristic product.

QuantumScape – Shares in the lithium battery maker rose 9% after the company announced it had qualified to close a $ 100 million investment from Volkswagen. The car company will test QuantumScape’s solid-state lithium metal cells in their laboratories in Germany.

Western Digital – The chipmaker’s shares rose 4.8% thereafter, and Micron Technology is set to examine a deal to buy Japanese semiconductor company Kioxia for about $ 30 billion, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Ford – Ford was down 1.5% after it was announced that several US factories are planning further downtime as a global semiconductor shortage continues to disrupt production. The company announced on Wednesday that it would cease production at several plants in the United States and one location in Canada. These locations produce a range of cars, including popular F-150 pickups and vans for the Ford Explorer SUV and the Ford Escape Crossover.

Nio – The China-based electric vehicle maker saw its shares jump about 2.7% after shipping 7,257 vehicles in March. This corresponds to an increase of 373% compared to the same month of the previous year.

Wingstop – The restaurant company’s shares rose 6.4% after the company recently released preliminary results for the first quarter. Preliminary results showed that Wingstop’s domestic sales in the same store increased 20.7% year over year and digital sales increased 63.6%.

CarMax – CarMax shares were down more than 6% after the company missed revenue estimates in its quarterly report. The auto company grossed $ 5.16 billion, down from its $ 5.17 billion estimate, according to Refinitiv. CarMax also announced that it will acquire the remainder of Edmunds that it did not already own in a cash-and-stock deal that valued the auto information provider at $ 404 million.

Micron – The chipmaker’s shares rose 4.6% after the company beat the income statement for its quarterly results. Micron made 98 cents per share on sales of $ 6.24 billion. According to Refinitiv, analysts expect earnings of 95 cents per share on sales of 6.21 billion US dollars. Micron also released a higher than expected earnings and revenue guidance for the third quarter.

– CNBC’s Maggie Fitzgerald, Tom Franck and Rich Mendez contributed to the coverage.