The futures were higher to open the new trading week, following Friday’s action that saw the Dow Jones industrials and the S&P 500 finish higher, while the Nasdaq was the loser on the day. Despite the solid close, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finished their worst week since December, and with earnings winding down, and expectations going forward being tempered lower, this week could bring yet another tug-of-war between the bulls and the bears.
Treasury yields jumped higher across the curve to finish a week of selling with the five-, 10- and 30-year paper all ending at highs for the week and moving back toward the levels printed at the end of 2022. With the short two-year note closing at 4.53% (also a multiweek high), the inversion with the 10-year remains at the widest spread since 1981, a sign recession may be on the way.
Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude were the big winners on Friday after Russia announced it would be cutting production by a stunning 500,000 barrels per day starting in March to boost prices in response to sanctions and dwindling revenue. The two major benchmarks both closed the day up over 2%.
Natural gas joined the energy party, closing up over 3% at $2.51. Gold ended modestly higher on the day, while Bitcoin was down for the third day in a row, over 1%, as the cryptocurrency giant finished the day at $21,564.
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 Monday, February 13, 2023.
AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV): SVB Securities upgraded the stock to Market Perform from Underperform and lifted its $135 target price to $153. The posted consensus target is $163.38, and the stock closed on Friday at $152.05.
Affirm Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: AFRM): Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight, and its $46 price target plummeted to $15. The consensus target is $16.49. The stock closed down another 7% on Friday, after posting horrible results last week.
Black Hills Corp. (NYSE: BKH): RBC Capital Markets cut its Outperform rating to Sector Perform, and cut its $81 target price dropped to $68, near the $68.14 consensus target. The shares closed on Friday at $64.15.
Bloom Energy Corp. (NYSE: BE): J.P. Morgan downgraded the shares to Neutral from Overweight. The analyst also trimmed the $29 target price to $27, below the $29.10 consensus target. Friday’s close was at $24.05.
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