Stocks making the biggest moves midday: AeroVironment, Abivax, Astera Labs, Watts Water Technologies & more

Semiconductor stocks rallied, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) on pace for a ~70% surge in Q2; major gainers included KLA (+8%), Applied Materials (+5%) and Astera Labs (+7%). Abivax jumped ~40% after ulcerative colitis data showed ~37% of initial non-responders achieved clinical remission at ~10 months (50mg), while Air Products rose >8% but flagged up to $2.9B of pretax charges. On corporate actions, Pacira will sell Iovera to Zimmer Biomet for $140M (Zimmer -7%), and Digital Realty agreed to buy a stake in three data centers from Blackstone for $7.8B (DLR ~-5%); AeroVironment also beat (EPS $1.84 on $642M vs $1.46 on $559M). Crypto stocks weakened alongside Bitcoin, with Strategy ~-7% and BTC down >3% to ~$58,430, while SolarEdge gained ~7% on reports of a potential Trump administration import ban on foreign inverters.

Analysis

The cleanest read-through is that capital allocation, not headline growth, is starting to separate winners from losers. In data-center infrastructure, the higher-quality exposure is in the picks-and-shovels layer: plumbing, thermal management, and process control should keep compounding even if hyperscaler spend becomes lumpier, while asset owners that pay up for stabilized real estate risk compressing their own future returns if cap rates drift higher. That makes the data-center ecosystem a barbell: suppliers with pricing power and low capital intensity should outperform balance-sheet-heavy landlords over the next 1-3 months.

The policy-driven tape in inverters looks tradable but not structural yet. A foreign-import constraint would help domestic share-of-wallet for U.S.-assembled hardware, but the bigger second-order effect is margin mix: if pricing rises too fast, installers can push out projects and demand elasticity shows up with a lag. On the industrial side, walking away from a marginal megaproject is a positive signal for capital discipline and FCF quality, but the market is still treating it like a binary event rather than a multi-quarter reset in return thresholds. Defense remains one of the few end-markets where revenue beats are converting into real orders, not just optimism.

The contrarian miss is that crypto beta and biotech optionality are being traded like macro momentum, when both are still path-dependent. Levered BTC proxies remain vulnerable if the underlying coin fails to reclaim prior support; meanwhile, the biotech bounce likely needs follow-through clinical confirmation rather than one encouraging subgroup. Near term, the market may be overpaying for policy headlines and underpricing balance-sheet discipline; over 6-18 months, that usually favors the boring compounders over the story stocks.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long WTS / short DLR for 1-3 months: own the higher-ROIC data-center beneficiary and fade the REIT paying up for fully leased assets; exit if DLR financing terms prove materially accretive or WTS fails to hold the post-upgrade bid.
• Tactical long ENPH vs short SEDG into any confirmed inverter-import restriction; best entry is on policy confirmation, not on rumor. Falsify if the ban is delayed, narrowed, or installers report project deferrals from higher equipment costs.
• Buy AVAV on pullbacks for a 6-12 month hold: defense demand is translating into revenue, and the beat suggests operating leverage is still intact. Stop if forward margin guidance rolls over or order conversion slows.
• Short MSTR against BTC spot, or short MSTR outright, for a 1-4 week trade if BTC stays below prior support and MSTR’s premium persists. Thesis breaks if BTC reclaims momentum above the recent range and leverage demand returns.
• Do not chase APD after the gap; use it as a watchlist long on any retracement if management proves the capex reset lifts FCF and ROIC. Falsify on any renewed large-project spending or weaker fiscal-Q3 guidance.