Take a look at the companies making headlines in midday trading: Chip equipment stocks – Global chip equipment stocks rose on news that the Biden administration is considering further sanctions on sales of semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence memory chips to China, which is less stringent could be than previous proposals. Shares of US-based companies Applied Materials and KLA Corporation rose about 2% each, while Lam Research rose 3.2% after the Bloomberg report. Dutch equipment manufacturer ASML climbed about 2.4%. Robinhood — The brokerage firm ended 0.3% lower, giving back earlier gains after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved startup 24 Exchange's creation of a 24-hour exchange, paving the way for 24-hour trading. Robinhood soared 66% to a record high in November as investors piled into the company, seen as a major beneficiary of the incoming Trump administration's deregulation plans. Advance Auto Parts – Shares fell 7% after credit rating agency Moody's Ratings downgraded the auto parts company's senior unsecured debt to Ba1, below investment grade, according to FactSet. “The downgrade reflects our expectation of continued very high lease-adjusted leverage, weak interest coverage and negative free cash flow over the next twelve to eighteen months,” Moody's said. Hasbro – Shares rose 2% after Elon Musk raised the prospect of acquiring the toymaker to secure the rights to Dungeons & Dragons. Retail Stocks – Major retail stocks rose fractionally higher as Black Friday shopping kicked into high gear in the US. The target rose 1.7% and wholesaler Costco rose 1.1%. Meanwhile, Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, rose 0.7% to a record high. Zeta Global Holdings — Marketing Software shares rose 5.5% after the company's CEO on Wednesday called a recent short-seller report “erroneous” on CNBC's “Closing Bell.” The stock is still down more than 20% this month. Crypto Stocks – Stocks tied to the price of Bitcoin rose as the cryptocurrency moved closer to the $100,000 mark. MicroStrategy, which has an aggressive bitcoin buying strategy, fell 0.4%, giving up earlier gains. Mara Holdings, a bitcoin miner and another buyer of the cryptocurrency, rose almost 2%. Coinbase fell 5%. – CNBC's Yun Li, Jesse Pound, Hakyung Kim, Sarah Min, Sean Conlon, Pia Singh and Tanaya Macheel contributed reporting.