The futures were higher after a back-and-forth trading day Wednesday in which all the major indexes ended lower again, except for the Dow Jones industrials, which closed barely in the green. The narrative across Wall Street is becoming increasingly bearish, with BofA Securities’ Michael Hartnett warning clients of the potential for a job collapse in 2023 that could lead to a retest of the lows printed earlier this year, down in the 3,490 range on the S&P 500. Add in the fact that the “higher for longer” narrative is getting stronger, and so is the potential for a terminal rate that is above the current 5.00% to 5.25% target.
Yields across the Treasury curve plummeted yet again on Wednesday, with the 10-year note closing at the lowest yield since early September at 3.41%. The inversion with the two-year note remains at the widest point in 40 years, as the shorter maturity closed Wednesday at 4.26%.
Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude closed lower on Wednesday, and Brent has erased all the 2022 gains for the oil benchmark. One astounding statistic is that the difference between the highest and lowest price at which Brent has traded over 2023 is $64, which is the largest range since 2008. Natural gas posted a solid gain on the day, up almost 5% to $5.72. Gold finished the day modestly higher, while Bitcoin closed down close to 2%.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week with a goal of finding fresh ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of these daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. Remember that no single analyst call should ever be used as a basis to buy or sell a stock. Consensus analyst target data is from Refinitiv.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Thursday, December 8, 2022.
Airbnb Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB): Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to Underweight from Equal Weight and cut its $100 target price to $80. The consensus target is higher at $130.72. The stock closed on Wednesday at $91.50.
Alliant Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: LNT): BofA Securities cut its Buy rating to Neutral and clipped the $57 target price to $56. The consensus target is $56.88. Wednesday’s close was at $54.50.
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: MDRX): Argus upgraded the shares from Hold to Buy with a $26 target price. The consensus target is $21.10, and Wednesday’s close was at $18.33.
Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT): Loop Capital initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $125 target price. The consensus target is $117.94. The stock closed at $106.11 on Wednesday.
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