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The logo of US cloud computing services provider Fastly is seen on a smartphone screen.

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Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

Robinhood Shares of the trading app dropped more than 27% after the newly public company said in a filing that existing shareholders will sell close to 97.9 million shares over time. The commission-free broker said it will not receive any of the proceeds from the stock sale of 97,876,033 shares of its Class A common stock. The stockholders were among those who came to Robinhood's rescue during the historic trading mania earlier this year.

Cigna The insurance company's shares fell more than 11% despite a better-than-expected quarterly earnings report. Cigna reported quarterly earnings of $5.24 per share on revenues of $43.11 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $4.96 per share on revenue of $41.26 billion. However, the company noted a headwind of higher medical costs.

Fastly Fastly shares plunged over 10% following its earnings report Wednesday, which showed a loss of 15 cents per share for the second quarter, compared to the 17-cent loss analysts had estimated. The cloud software provider missed on revenue forecasts and said its June network outage will continue to affect results for the rest of the year.

Wayfair The furniture and home goods retailer saw shares jump 10% after reporting earnings. Wayfair topped earnings estimates, reporting $1.89 per share, but missed slightly on revenue, reporting $3.86 billion compared to the estimated $3.94 billion. The company said active customers grew 20% year-over-year to 31.1 million.

Nautilus Biotechnology Shares of Nautilus surged past 10% around 12:20 p.m. EST, after a report that Amazon invested "millions" in the pre-revenue biotechnology company as part of its efforts to grow its healthcare presence. Nautilus went public in June through a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

Etsy Shares of the e-commerce name tumbled about 9.5% after user growth numbers came up short of estimates. During the second quarter the company earned 68 cents per share, compared to the 63 cents analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting. Revenue came in at $528.9 million, also ahead of the expected $524.7 million.

Booking Holdings Booking Holdings stock jumped 5.8% despite missing Wall Street expectations for quarterly earnings on Wednesday. The company whose brands include Priceline, Kayak and other travel services lost an adjusted $2.55 per share for the second quarter, wider than the loss of $2.04 per share analysts anticipated. However, revenue came in above estimates as travel demand jumped.

Edgewell Personal Care The maker of personal care products saw shares rise 4.5% after reporting quarterly earnings. Edgewell reported earnings per share of 89 cents and revenue of $573.7 million, both of which beat Wall Street forecasts, according to Refinitiv. The company also raised its full-year earnings guidance.

Roku The streaming service device company's shares slid more than 4% after Roku reported weaker-than-expected user growth during the second quarter. The company did, however, beat expectations on both the top and bottom line. Roku earned 52 cents per share on $645 million in revenue. Analysts were expecting 13 cents per share on $618 million in revenue, according to estimates from Refinitiv.

Becton Dickinson Medical tech company Becton Dickinson's stock fell 4.5% despite reporting second-quarter earnings of $2.74 per share, which beat analysts' estimates by 30 cents. It also beat on revenue, reporting $4.89 billion versus the forecasted $4.51 billion.

Moderna Moderna shares fell 1.8% before reclaiming some of its losses. The vaccine maker released better-than-expected earnings and revenue as well as positive vaccine protection durability data this week, which indicated protection from Covid, from the Moderna vaccine, lasts well after six months. The company also announced it plans to release a booster vaccine this winter.

CNBC's Pippa Stevens, Hannah Miao and Yun Li contributed reporting

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Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Wayfair, Fastly, Robinhood and more - CNBC

Utah Valley University is seeking students for free classes in its Learn & Work in Utah program.

Learn & Work in Utah, offered at postsecondary institutions statewide, is for unemployed or underemployed individuals and is continuing this fall with 10 different programs taught at Utah Valley University.

The program is a joint effort by the Governors Office of Economic Development and the Utah System of Higher Education. The training is primarily for displaced, unemployed or furloughed workers or those whose jobs are vulnerable due to economic conditions. However, anyone wanting to renew their skills or learn new ones may apply.

Just participating in class discussions helped me feel more like a normal person, said Jon Spell, who was laid off in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Spell completed the data analytics program offered at UVU and found a new position at a local software company.

The professor was very encouraging and supportive, far beyond what I would expect from a typical college teacher. The whole class experience definitely boosted my confidence and enabled me to apply for jobs that I did not consider myself qualified for previously, Spell said.

Since fall 2020, more than 2,500 people have applied to courses at UVU through Learn & Work in Utah, with 915 accepted. Of those people, 64% had no prior relationship with UVU, and all applicants who were unemployed at the time were accepted. The average completion rate in the top five courses offered was 88%.

Running these programs is an intense effort, but we have been amazed and frankly humbled by the impact that our programs and outstanding faculty have had on the careers and lives of nearly a thousand Utah workers and their families, said Shawn Neider, director of UVU Executive Education. Its been a privilege to work with GOED and USHE we cant say enough about them for making it all possible. Our staff is excited about providing new skill enhancement and career advancement opportunities for hundreds of new students again this year.

After completing the data analytics program as part of the Learn & Work program at UVU, Mitzi Fox said, I landed the job of my dreams.

Funded by the CARES Act, the Learn & Work program offered free, short-term training to workers displaced by COVID-19 and to those looking to improve their career prospects. Fox expressed gratitude for how much she learned through Learn & Work, emphasizing that it gave her the confidence she needed to apply for a position that I thought was way above me.

It wasnt long after completing her program that Fox was offered a senior position at a financial firm. As an annuity operations specialist, Fox will oversee distribution, marketing and IT and help bring new annuity products to the public sector.

Foxs participation in the Learn & Work program has improved her professional skill set and increased her confidence in her own capabilities. She notes with pride that taking the data analytics program and landing a better job has significantly increased her earnings.

Lenora Chase described herself as being in a bit of a rut when she was unable to find work after losing her job to the impacts of COVID-19. Despite being an experienced software engineer who had owned her own business, she said, Chase discovered that contracts were no longer available and the companies that were hiring were looking for experience she didnt have. Thats when she found the Learn & Work Program at UVU.

For Chase, the software testing program offered through UVU Executive Education was ideal because, as she explains, It covered everything I had largely skipped over during my career as an independent developer. She reports that the instructors assured us that they would provide us with everything we needed to know in order to acquire a QA (quality analyst) position upon completion. And according to Chase, the class delivered on that promise.

As a participant in the program, Chase emphasizes that her class was integral in helping her land her current job. During my first interview, she said, I used everything I had learned from the program to answer many questions I would not have been prepared for otherwise. I was also given multiple tests to demonstrate my knowledge on the spot and was very proud of my performance each time.

In her new position as a QA specialist, Chase reports that she is enjoying the comfort, peace of mind and financial stability I had been seeking for a very long time.

This fall, Learn & Work in Utah programs offered at UVU include:

Qualified applicants are accepted and placed as they apply until the programs are filled, so interested individuals are encouraged to apply early. The application deadline has been extended to Saturday.

For more information on eligibility, requirements, course information and how to apply, visit the UVU Learn & Work in Utah page at http://uvu.edu.

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UVU offers second year of tuition-free specialty courses - Daily Herald

CNBC.com's Pippa Stevens brings you the day's top business news headlines. On today's show, CNBC.com's MacKenzie Sigalos reports on ethereum's London hard fork update and what it means for miners. Plus, President Joe Biden announces a new electric vehicle initiative with carmakers, but Tesla is left out of the event.

Ethereum's much-hyped and somewhat controversial "London" hard fork has just activated.

So far, news of the successful upgrade has coincided with a runupin the price of ether, the native token of ethereum's blockchain. The cryptocurrency is at $2,620,up 3.9% in the last 24 hours.

A big part of the enthusiasm has to do with the fact that the software upgrade means a few big and necessary changes are coming to the code underpinning the world's second-biggest cryptocurrency.

It has always been a tough go for ethereum users. The blockchain has a long-standing problem with scaling, and its highly unpredictable and sometimes exorbitant transaction fees can annoy even its biggest fans.

The problem has become worse in recent months thanks to a surge in interest in nonfungible tokens, which are mostly built on ethereum's blockchain, as well as an explosive growth in the world of decentralized finance, or DeFi, which also largely uses the ethereum blockchain.

Targetsaid Wednesday it will offer new perks to woo workers: a debt-free way to get a college degree and payments toward graduate programs.

Starting this fall, the big-box retailer said it will cover the cost of tuition, fees and textbooks for part- and full-time workers who pursue a qualifying undergraduate degree at more than 40 institutions. It will also fund advanced degrees, paying up to $10,000 each year for master's programs at those schools.

The national retaileris the latest company to dangle perks to attract job candidatesin a competitive labor market. With the move, Target joins other retailers and restaurant chains includingChipotleandStarbucks that have programs that help employees pay for college.Walmartrecently announced it wouldcover the full cost of college tuition and booksfor its employees, after previously requiring them to pay $1 a day.

President Joe Biden will set a new national target on Thursday for the adoption of electric vehicles, calling for them to represent half of all new auto sales by 2030, according to senior administration officials.

The target is expected to be supported by companies such asGeneral Motors,Ford MotorandStellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler. Executives of the Detroit automakers are scheduled to attend an event Thursday at the White House and pledge EV sales of between 40% and 50% by 2030.

Though the president will sign an executive order, the sales target is not mandatory. Instead, the document encourages the U.S. auto industry and government to promote legislation and the adoption of electrified vehicles. The target includes zero-emission vehicles powered byfuel cellsand batteries as well as plug-in hybrid models with internal combustion engines.

The order "doesn't function as a mandate, but it does create the conditions for us to meet that goal," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday. "We have got to act, the transportation sector is the biggest part of our economy emitting greenhouse gases, and cars and trucks are one of the biggest parts of that."

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Ethereum upgrade marks beginning of the end for traditional ether mining: CNBC After Hours - CNBC

SAP customers need to change the way they operate to shift their ERP systems to the cloud, according to the CEO of the Americas' SAP Users' group (ASUG).

Responding to the results of a joint survey between ASUG and German-speaking user group DSAG, which showed some scepticism towards SAP's lift-and-shift package, Geoff Scott said users would have to look again at how they had customised their SAP ERP systems to fit their business processes.

"The traditional on-prem, highly customised ERP solution, absolutely, positively has to give way to a more SaaS-based ERP solution," he said.

SAP launched its RISE package in January with the hope that, working in tandem with service partners, it could convince users to move existing, customised ERP systems to cloud infrastructure, then, in a second step, create new processes and business transformation to make it onto a more standardised, configured system.

But Scott warned it might be a lengthy process, where there is much more to consider than just software and IT infrastructure.

"You need to spend some careful time looking at how your business is operating and perhaps the way you've operated a certain business process five years ago is not the way you want to operate it today," he said. "Thinking about how your business is operating in a post-pandemic world, there could be a lot of opportunities for you to take a look at."

Scott's comments echo those of Oliver Betz, SVP head of product management for SAP S/4HANA, who told customers they could not have the modifications they have in the on-premises world with the move to software-as-a-service. "That's not how the cloud works," he said.

The joint DSAG/ASUG research found that 24 per cent of American users view the RISE with SAP product as somewhat of value or high in value but only 12 per cent of their German-speaking counterparts say the same. Meanwhile, 39 per cent of DSAG members see RISE with SAP as having little value or no value at all, the 443-response survey found.

Jens Hungershausen, DSAG chairman, told a joint webinar hosted by the two user groups that past experiences of problems integrating cloud-based enterprise software led to some of the doubts about RISE with SAP.

"German-speaking users' experiences with old on-premise SAP systems have been really good," he said. "They got a lot of things done. They have good processes, but they also experienced some problems with integrating with cloud technology, and I think that's one of the reasons why our membership is a little bit cautious about RISE with SAP, right now, because they just want to see if that's really going to work. The experiences they've had were not so good all time. It's up to SAP to prove they are a cloud company and can deliver on their promises."

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Get ready to make processes fit the software when shifting to SAP's cloud, users told - The Register

Furthermore, this large community contributes non-stop with traffic reports, so others can know in advance when theyre approaching a speed trap, roadkill, a construction zone, or simply a traffic jam that could slow them down.

The community-driven engine has turned Waze into a must-have weapon in the modern arsenal of a daily driver, and this is how the Google-owned app ended up becoming one of the most downloaded on both iPhone and Android.

But on the other hand, Waze has long been pretty much the only app offering such capabilities, despite smaller developers in the development of their own alternatives, sometimes to no avail. Its not easy to build a large userbase that can contribute with live reports and suggest map edits, so only a company with proven experience in the navigation software market can do this.

TomTom is one of the giants ready to get involved in a battle against Waze, as its AmiGO navigation app proposes a similar approach based on the power of the community.

The company says its userbase counts half a billion drivers that can contribute with real-time updates, therefore providing users with up-to-date traffic info, alerts, online routing, and everything else.

Similar to Waze, AmiGO allows users to report essential traffic data, such as jams, speed camera locations, blocked and closed roads, accidents, and more, and TomTom says it analyzes and verifies the information to make sure only accurate data is offered to others.

In other words, TomTom AmiGO should offer only super-accurate reports that help generate a faster and safer route to a destination, all while avoiding sections of the road flagged by others.

TomTom says AmiGO is and will remain completely free, with no plans to ever introduce ads or start selling user data. The app is available on both iPhone and Android, and more recently, it also received support for Android Auto.

At the end of the day, competition is a boost to innovation, and as far as Waze is concerned, this is a must-have, especially as the Google-owned company has long been the only solid choice in this side of the navigation software market. The only thing AmiGO needs right now is to grow bigger, especially in smaller countries where its userbase isnt as large as Wazes.

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A Free Alternative to Waze Is Finally Available and the World Seriously Needs It - autoevolution