The stock market pulled back to the red territory on Thursday, with all major indices posting significant losses as tariff threats continued to rattle investors.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq posted the largest loss, down 2.61 percent, followed by the S&P 500 with 1.78 percent, and the Dow Jones with 0.99 percent.

On Thursday, 10 micro and small-cap companies defied a broader market decline, with their share prices jumping by as much as double digits. One company stood out, soaring more than 300 percent during the session.

To come up with Thursday’s top performers, we considered the stocks with the highest day change performance.

10. LendingTree Inc. (NASDAQ:TREE)

Shares of LendingTree rose for a third day on Thursday, jumping 22.52 percent to end at $49.34 apiece as investors gobbled up shares following the release of its full-year earnings performance.

While TREE posted a 41-percent drop in net income for the last quarter of 2024 at $7.5 million versus $12.7 million, revenues surged by 95 percent to $261.5 million from $134.4 million.

For full year 2024, net loss narrowed by 66 percent to $41.7 million from $122.4 million year-on-year.

According to TREE Chairman and CEO Doug Lebda, its insurance business delivered an outstanding quarter with revenue growth of 188 percent compared with the same period a year earlier.

“Looking forward, we expect another solid year of AEBITDA growth in 2025 on continued revenue strength and operating expense discipline,” he said.

9. iHeartMedia Inc. (NASDAQ:IHRT)

iHeartMedia snapped a five-day losing streak on Thursday, rising 23.18 percent to finish at $1.86 apiece as investors resorted to bargain-hunting to take advantage of its cheap valuation.

Investor sentiment was helped by the company’s CEO Robert Pittman purchasing 200,000 in IHRT’s shares at a price of $1.6002 apiece for a total amount of $320,000. Including its latest acquisition, Pittman’s direct ownership in the company now stands at 4.2 million.

In other news, IHRT recently partnered with Kidde, a company that has specialized in fire safety for more than 100 years, to promote home safety.

The collaboration aims to close the fire and CO safety education gap and help keep communities safe through local events hosted at designated Home Depot stores and promotional support from iHeartMedia across the country.

The campaign also includes donations to local fire departments for distribution to those in need.

8. ATA Creativity Global (NASDAQ:AACG)

ATA Creativity grew its share prices by 27.16 percent on Thursday to end at $1.03 each as investors repositioned portfolios ahead of its full-year earnings release.

AACG, a China-based international educational services company, is expected to release its full-year earnings performance in the last week of March, based on the company’s historical reporting dates.

In December last year, AACG regained its compliance with the minimum bid price requirement under the Nasdaq Listing Rules. However, it continues to face challenges over minimum stockholders’ equity deficiency, having received a notification letter from Nasdaq on November 27, 2024, notifying that it was not in compliance with the minimum stockholders’ equity requirement.

Nasdaq requires companies listed on Nasdaq Global Market to maintain a minimum of $10 million in stockholders’ equity to remain listed. In its last quarterly result, AACG said its public equity was below $10 million.

AACG was given a deadline of January 13, 2025, to submit a plan to regain compliance on the public float, and if accepted, it will have 180 days to regain compliance.

7. ALX Oncology Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXO)

ALX Oncology saw its share prices increase by 25.96 percent to finish at $1.31 apiece as investors cheered news of better earnings performance in the fourth quarter and full year of 2024.

In a statement, ALXO said net loss in the fourth quarter narrowed by 36 percent to $29.16 million from $45.47 million in the same period a year earlier, while net loss in the full year shrunk by 16 percent to $134.85 million from $160.8 million.

Loss from operations also declined by 36 percent to $30.6 million from $48 million in the same quarter, as well as by 16 percent to $142 million from $170 million in the full-year period.

Looking ahead, ALXO CEO Jason Lettmann said that its multiple ongoing clinical studies are set to position the company for near- and long-term success.

6. Fold Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FLD)

Fold Holdings rallied for a third consecutive day on Thursday, adding 27.44 percent to close at $7.71 apiece as investors gobbled up shares in the company ahead of the cryptocurrency summit at the White House on Friday.

Investors seemed to have repositioned portfolios while looking for more concrete updates from the meeting.

Prior to his return to the White House, President Donald Trump already expressed support for the cryptocurrency industry, promising to establish a US cryptocurrency reserve under his term and make the asset a national priority. The cryptocurrencies to be included in the reserve so far were XRP, SOL, ADA, ETH, and BTC.

On the other hand, FLD, a bitcoin financial services company, recently purchased 10 additional Bitcoins to its portfolio at an average price of $87,500.

“FLD remains dedicated to integrating Bitcoin into our business and treasury strategy,” said FLD CEO Will Reeves. “Like our customers, we aim to take advantage of opportunities to add Bitcoin and expect to continue to build our treasury opportunistically going forward.”

5. Myers Industries Inc. (NYSE:MYE)

Myers Industries snapped a three-day losing streak on Thursday, rising 28.13 percent to finish at $12.48 apiece after it beat analyst estimates on its earnings.

On Thursday, MYE reported a $4.3-million net income for the fourth quarter of the year, or $0.11 per share, higher than the $0.10 as estimated by analysts.

Net income, however, represented a 65.7 percent drop from the $12.5 million registered in the same period a year earlier.

Net sales grew by 6.7 percent to $203.9 million from $191 million fueled by contributions from the acquisition of Signature Systems, and consumer fuel can sales, both of which benefited from hurricane recovery efforts, and were partially offset by weaker Distribution Segment volumes and lower cyclical seed box sales in our Food and Beverage end market.

For full-year 2024, net income dived by 85.3 percent to $7.2 million from $48.9 million, while net sales inched up by 2.9 percent to $836 million from $813 million.

4. Visionary Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:GV)

Visionary Holdings increased its share prices by 32.34 percent on Thursday to end at $4.89 apiece as investor appetite was fueled by news that it reached a $1-billion financing consent letter with the Alfardan Group of Qatar to accelerate research, development, and global expansion of its PEGASUS new energy vehicles.

While details of the financing were not divulged, investors took heart on the recently clinched financing’s potential to support and bolster the company’s business growth.

In the past three trading days alone, GV’s stock price already surged by 260 percent.

Headquartered in Toronto, GV recently announced that it officially launched PEGASUS and that it aims for the latter to be the number one brand in the automotive industry ecosystem of an independently developed brand in Canada.

3. Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:TNXP)

Shares of Tonix Pharmaceuticals jumped for a third day on Thursday, adding 33.49 percent to its valuation to close at $14.63 apiece as investors gobbled up shares in the company ahead of an investor summit next week.

TNXP, a fully integrated biopharmaceutical firm, said that it would present at the 2025 Virtual Investor Summit on Tuesday, March 11, where investors would look out for cues and updates on its TNX-102 SL, a priority product candidate that aims to manage fibromyalgia.

TNXP said it expects to receive the decision of the Food and Drug Administration on the marketing authorization of the product on August 15, 2025.

Apart from TNX-102 SL, its portfolio also includes TNX-1300, a biologic in Phase 2 development designed to treat cocaine intoxication.

2. LZ Technology Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:LZMH)

LZ Technology Holdings, a newly listed company on the stock market, rallied for a fifth straight day on Thursday to achieve a more-than-double growth from its initial public offering (IPO) price.

The company, which trades under the ticker symbol LZMH, rallied by 34.04 percent in the last trading session to close at $9.82 apiece, representing a whopping 145.5 percent increase from its IPO price of $4.

Since its debut on the stock market on February 27, the company’s stock price already saw a surge of 96.4 percent from its first closing price of $5.

Trading in the company may have been buoyed by the continued appetite for Chinese stocks, thanks to the booming artificial intelligence industry in China.

LZMH is a technology and advertising firm operating through its subsidiaries in China. Its business spans three key verticals: Smart Community, Out-of-Home Advertising, and Local Life. Smart Community services provide intelligent access control and safety management systems, installed in thousands of residential communities in China.

1. Plus Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:PSTV)

Plus Therapeutics soared by 311.43 percent on Thursday to finish at $1.44 apiece as investors gobbled up shares in the company following the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s grant of Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) to Rhenium Obisbemeda for the treatment of leptomeningeal metastases (LM) in patients with lung cancer.

The FDA grants ODD status to an investigational drug or biologic intended to prevent, diagnose, or treat a rare disease or condition affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the United States.

According to PSTV, ODD provides certain benefits to drug developers, including seven potential years of market exclusivity, tax credits for qualified clinical trials, and exemptions from significant regulatory fees, including the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) charge of $4.3 million in 2025 and the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) requirements.

While we acknowledge the potential of PSTV as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PSTV but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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