Stocks are shedding their premarket gains at midday, and are now looking to extend yesterday's major selloff. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) is 113 points lower this afternoon, erasing an earlier 500-point lead, after a dip in the transports sector stoked recession fears. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) are also lower, though the tech sector is seeing tailwinds from a cooling 10-year Treasury yield. While earnings season is tapering off, investors will unpack reports from Coinbase (COIN) and Roblox (RBLX) after today's closing bell.

Upstart Holdings Inc (Nasdaq: UPST) is getting blasted in the options pits today. So far, 110,000 calls and 93,000 puts have been exchanged, or sis times the volume that is normally seen at this point. Most popular are the 5/13 40-strike call and 30-strike put, with new positions being opened at both. The security is sinking today, last seen down 59.4% to trade at $31.35, after the company posted a dismal current-quarter forecast, which overshadowed better-than-expected first-quarter earnings. In turn, the security attracted two downgrades, one from Piper Sandler to "neutral" from "overweight," in addition to one from Stephens to "underweight" from "equal weight," as well as four price-target cuts. Upstart stock is now trading at ITS lowest level since going public in December 2020 and carries an 80% year-to-date deficit.

At the top of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today is Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co Ltd (NYSE: BHVN), last seen up 70.6% to trade at $141.83 after Pfizer (PFE) announced it will buy the drug maker for roughly $11.6 billion in an all-cash deal. Plus, the company reported a first-quarter revenue beat, though it saw wider-than-expected losses of $2.97 per share. The shares are now eyeing their best settlement since February while trading at their highest level since November. Year-over-year, BHVN is up 104.8%.

Meanwhile, Pegasystems Inc. (Nasdaq: PEGA) is towards the bottom of the tech-heavy Nasdaq. The equity is down 36.7% to trade at $41.71 after a U.S. court directed the software concern to pay $2.04 billion in damages to Appian (APPN) for trade secret misappropriation. As a result, Pegasystems stock earlier fell to a roughly five-year low of $36.50 and is now well below recent overhead pressure at its 40-day moving average. In the last nine months, PEGA has shed 66.8%.