Hot Stocks Today: AMRS, RGDX, TEDU Soar 20%

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 reached new records early Thursday, a day after the S&P 500 logged its eighth record high of the year. But by midday, the gains had faded.

Investors remain guarded ahead of Friday's closely watched jobs report, typically a big event for markets. Nonetheless, plenty of stocks were moving higher on corporate news, earnings, and analysts' actions.

Following are 12 of today's hot stocks to watch.

Hot Stocks to Watch Today

Amyris Inc. (Nasdaq: AMRS) shares soared some 20% to $4.88 intraday. Mid-morning, more than 3 million shares changed hands, compared to the stock's average daily volume of 719,000. Sending shares higher was an announcement of a new strain engineering research and development agreement with BASF SF (OTCMKTS: BASFY). Per the agreement, Emeryville, Calif.-based Amyris, a renewable product company, will use its strain engineering technology to develop a microorganism that can produce a target molecule that is identified by German chemical giant BASF. After the initial devolvement program (assuming it's successful), the companies plan to collaborate more on a strain development program and will also consider other joint research agreements. Update: AMRS shares gave back almost all the gains by 2 p.m.

Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE: CAH) shares climbed nearly 1% to $70.74 after announcing it will acquire privately held AccessClosure for $320 million. AccessClosure is a manufacturer and distributor of extravascular closure devices in the United States.

Google Inc.'s (Nasdaq: GOOG) newly issued shares started trading Thursday after a long-awaited 2-for-1 stock split from the Internet behemoth. The new "C" shares, trading under the original GOOG symbol and having no voting rights, rose nearly 3%, or $16, to $586.76 in morning trading. Old Google Class A shares, which kept their voting right and trade with the ticker "GOOGL" were up 2.82%, or $16.03, to $584.04. CRT Capital raised its split-adjusted price target on GOOG to $710. Here's the full story investors need to know about GOOG/GOOGL.

Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) shares rose 1.56% to $26.46 after Piper Jaffray resumed coverage of the chip giant with an "Overweight" and $30 price target. That's a nice 16% upside from its current trading price. INTC has recently been making a heavy push into the wearable tech market.

This next "hot stock today" is up more than 18% this year – but the company has seen better days…