The futures are trading lower Friday morning, as the first full trading week for 2023 is set to end and after all the major indexes closed higher Thursday. The sword of Damocles that was the December consumer price index came in as expected, with prices rising year over year at 6.5%, as inflation dropped for the sixth straight month. While that is very encouraging, the Federal Reserve still will raise rates at its first meeting of 2023 in late January/early February. The question remains whether the increase will be 50 basis points like the December hike or it will be less.
Yields were down double digits across the Treasury curve Thursday, as the buyers returned. Once again, the rush to safe-haven government debt in front of the big bank quarterly results and next week’s start to the deluge of earnings reports from the top S&P 500 companies is raising some eyebrows. The inversion with the 10-year note, which closed at a stunning 3.45% yield, and the two-year paper stayed in place, as the latter closed at 4.13%. Bond traders see the ongoing difference between the two as a sign recession is on the way.
Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude both closed the day over 1% higher, as a slow but steady rally for the two benchmarks continued. The big winner on the day once more was natural gas, which closed up again after being hammered over the past couple of weeks. Gold finished up on the day at a six-month high, while Bitcoin closed back near the $19,000 mark at $18,978.
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 Friday, January 13, 2023.
Advance Auto Parts Inc. (NYSE: AAP): Wedbush downgraded the shares to Neutral from Outperform and has a $145 target price. The consensus target is $167.33. The stock closed on Thursday at $152.19 a share.
American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO): Morgan Stanley resumed coverage with an Underweight rating and a $12 target. The consensus target is up at $16.73. Thursday’s close was at $15.88.
American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT): Deutsche Bank upgraded the cell tower giant to Buy from Hold. Its target price of $254 is higher than the $250.59 consensus target. The stock closed on Thursday at $232.21.
Beigene Ltd. (NASDAQ: BGNE): Daiwa Securities initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $308 price target. The consensus target is just $268.94. Thursday’s last trade came in at $263.23, which was up close to 4% for the day, likely on the new coverage.
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