The futures traded higher as we get set to close out a wild February. All the major indexes finished the day higher on Monday to bounce back from last week, which was the worst week for the stock market in 2023. In addition, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were both down for the third straight week. The rally came despite a rising bearish tone across Wall Street as interest rates look to continue higher and the inflation outlook, while better than in 2022, is still stubbornly higher than the Federal Reserve is willing to tolerate.
Treasury yields were modestly lower Monday, which gave a slight tailwind to the rally, after relentlessly marching higher over the last couple of weeks. The yield on the 10-year note closed the day at 3.92%, after getting close to the 4% level last week. The two-year paper also closed modestly lower in yield at 4.78%. So the wide inversion remains in place, and it often portends a pending recession.
Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude kicked off the week lower, with both of the major benchmarks down under 1%. This is despite a top energy trading CEO saying he expects prices will be in the $90 to $100 a barrel range in the second half of 2023. Natural gas carved out a nearly 7% gain to finish at $2.73, as futures hit a one-month high. Gold finished Monday higher, while Bitcoin closed down almost 1% at $23,367, following through on last week’s losses.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.
American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT): BofA Securities maintained a Buy rating with a $240 target price. The consensus target is $248.06. The stock closed on Monday at $195.08.
Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY): When Telsey Advisory downgraded shares of the retailer to Market Perform from Outperform, it trimmed its $88 target price to $83. The consensus target is $84.35, and the stock closed at $82.63 on Monday.
Celsius Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CELH): Stifel maintained a Buy rating with a $115 target price. The consensus target is higher at $122.50. Monday’s final trade was reported at $90.02.
Chart Industries Inc. (NYSE: GTLS): Stifel has a Buy rating, and the stock is on the Select List of top picks. The firm’s $224 target price is well above the $198 consensus target. Monday’s close was at $135.14.
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