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Mylan NV shares dropped 6% in extremely heavy midday trade Tuesday on a Bloomberg report that Mylan president Rajiv Malik is the target of a civil investigation by many states into alleged generic drug price collusion. Malik would be the first top executive from a major pharmaceutical company sued in the case, the Bloomberg report said. Mylan said in a statement that it has “found no evidence of price fixing on the part of Mylan or its employees” and that it “had deep faith in the integrity of its President, Rajiv Malik, and stands behind him fully.” Mylan shares have dropped 7.8% over the last three months, compared with a 4.2% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Investment banks’ analysts checked in on Switch Inc. on Tuesday morning and were mostly positive about the data-center company after its booming initial public offering earlier this month.. Seven analysts issued initiations on the stock Tuesday morning, with four buy ratings and three hold ratings, according to FactSet. Price targets on the stock, which closed at $19.35 Monday afternoon, ranged from $19 to $23, with an average of $20.86. The general thesis that emerged from Tuesday’s notes was that data-center operators are a good investment, and Switch is a strong member of that group. “We believe Switch provides a premium data center product at a value price,” wrote JP Morgan analysts, who initiated with an overweight rating and $22 price target. “As Switch expands its geographic reach across multiple markets, we expect it to generate the highest top-line growth of any data center operator we cover over the next 5 years,” Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche wrote while initiating at market perform with a $19 target. Switch shares dropped to about $19 in Tuesday trading, down about 1.8% from Monday’s closing price.

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International Business Machines Corp. said Tuesday its board has approved adding another $3 billion to its stock buyback program. The extra money brings the total authorization to $4.5 billion. IBM shares were down 0.5% Tuesday, and are down 7.5% in 2017. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 18% in the same time frame, while the S&P 500 has gained 15%.

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Shares of General Electric Co. dropped 1.2% in morning trade Tuesday, enough to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s decliners, as they tumbled toward a seventh-straight loss. The stock’s 15.4% drop during the losing streak would be the worst seven-session performance since it lost 16.0% during seven-day stretch ending Aug. 10, 2011. The stock, which is headed toward the lowest close since Nov. 16, 2012, has been falling since Oct. 20, when GE reported the first earnings-per-share miss in 2 1/2 years, and as investors adjusted positions ahead of the Nov. 13 investor meeting, in which new Chief Executive John Flannery is expected to announce details of the company’s transformation plan. In the company’s audited third-quarter 10-Q filed Tuesday, the company said it has repurchased $2.7 billion worth of its stock during the quarter and paid a dividend of 24 cents a share, which based on 8.67 billion shares outstanding would equate to $2.08 billion. GE said it had cash and cash equivalents of $8.0 billion as of Sept. 30. The stock tumbled 36% year to date, while the Dow has rallied 18%.

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Steve Madden Ltd. shares are down 7.6% in Tuesday trading after the company said it forecasts a headwind from its boot business in the fourth quarter and offered weak guidance. “We are therefore taking a prudent approach as we plan the business for the holiday season working closely with our wholesale partners and managing our inventory levels carefully,” said Edward Rosenfeld, Steve Madden’s chief executive, on the Tuesday morning earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript. Rosenfeld said the company’s strong handbag performance was offset by a decline in cold weather gear, as wholesale partners cut their orders and deliveries were pushed back. Steve Madden reported third-quarter results that were in line with the FactSet consensus. Net income of $44.2 million, or 77 cents per share, was up from $43.8 million, or 74 cents per share, for the same period last year. Revenue was $441.2 million, up from $408.4 million last year. The company expects full-year sales to increase 9% to 11% year-over-year, EPS in the range of $2.03 to $2.09, and adjusted EPS in the range of $2.18 to $2.24. The FactSet consensus is for earnings of $2.25. Steve Madden shares are up 18.5% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 21.1% for the period.

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Shares of Micron Technology Inc. shot up 5.7% to a 16-year high in active morning trade Tuesday, as investors position for the memory-chip company’s earnings report due out later this week. The stock, on track for the highest close since Aug. 2, 2001, was the fifth-biggest gainer within the S&P 500 . Volume hit 16.9 million shares, enough to make the stock the second-most actively traded on the Nasdaq exchange, behind fellow chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s stock . Micron announced earlier Tuesday collaborations with China’s Shenzhen Security and Protection Industry Association (SSPIA) and Jinyu Global to speed deployment of new products in the region. Micron is scheduled to report fiscal first-quarter results on Thursday, before the market opens. Micron has beat bottomline expectations the past nine quarters and sales expectations the past five. The results come after chip makers Intel Corp. and AMD both reported last week earnings and revenue that beat expectations. Micron’s stock has doubled year to date, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index has climbed 40% and the S&P 500 has rallied 15%.

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Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. rallied 0.7% in morning trade Tuesday, putting them on track for a fourth-straight gain, ahead of the China-based ecommerce giant’s fiscal second-quarter results, which are scheduled to be released before Thursday’s open. The stock was still 1% below the Oct. 11 record close of $184.69. Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt reiterated his buy rating and $190 stock price target, saying he expects Alibaba to beat revenue expectations as it continues to benefit from core commerce personalization updates and increased promotional activity. “Alibaba remains one of our top picks in our coverage universe as the company continues to execute well in driving growth in core commerce, with a strong opportunity to improve monetization,” Devitt wrote in a note to clients. The stock has more than doubled year to date, while China’s SSE Composite has gained 9.3% and the S&P 500 has climbed 15%

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U.S. stock benchmarks opened slightly higher on Tuesday to close out October, as the Federal Reserve looks poised to kick off a two-day policy meeting, which could help guide trading on the day and into November. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 16 points, or less than 0.1%, at 23,365, the S&P 500 index added 2 points, or 0.1%, at 2,575, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced the most among its equity-benchmark peers, up 0.3% at 6,716. In corporate news, shares of Under Armour Inc. slid on a revenue miss and profit warning, Archer Daniels Midland Co. stock slid after disappointing earnings, while shares of Mastercard Inc. rose on better-than-expected results.

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The British pound jumped to a three-day high versus the U.S. dollar following reports that the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said he was ready to speed up the talks between Brussels and London. At the same time, the British government agreed to hire an additional 5,000 staff for post-Brexit planning, according to reports. The pound rallied to an intraday high of $1.3257, and last changed hands at $1.3247, compared to $1.3207 late Monday. Sterling also strengthened against the euro , with one euro buying £0.8786, down 0.4%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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