The futures were lower as we get ready to finish of a very positive January for investors. All three major market indexes finished higher last week. the Nasdaq Composite jumped 4.3% to post the fourth straight week of gains for the tech-heavy index, while the S&P 500 gained 2.4% and the Dow Jones industrials closed up 1.8%. Despite the solid rally since the start of the year, many across Wall Street feel that this is nothing more than a bear market short-covering move and that, down the road, things could get decidedly more dangerous for investors.
Treasury yields across the curve were flat to modestly higher on Friday. The 10-year note finally pushed back through the 3.50% level to close at 3.52%. When compared to the two-year paper closing at 4.20%, that keeps the ongoing (and widest in years) inversion firmly in place. Bond market aficionados maintain, and history shows us, that the inversion between the two securities is a precursor to a recession.
Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude both closed lower Friday, with WTI slipping back below the $80 level to close at $79.68, down close to 2% on the day. After a very strong move for both benchmarks over the past 10 days, this was likely some profit-taking for faster money accounts.
Friday’s big winner was natural gas, which closed the day up close to 6% at $3.11. After slipping below $3 per metric million British thermal units for the first time since May of 2021 last week, the futures rallied big-time, with frigid weather expected to move across North America this week. Likely a large amount of short covering pushed natural gas higher. Gold and Bitcoin both finished the day modestly higher after making solid moves higher last week.
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, January 30, 2023.
Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI): Wedbush resumed coverage on the shares with an Outperform rating and a $95 target price. The consensus target is $91.88. The stock closed on Friday at $76.61, which was up close to 2% for the day.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL): BofA Securities reiterated a Neutral rating but trimmed its $154 target price to $153. The consensus target is up at $171.23. Friday’s final trade came in at $145.93.
Bill.com Inc. (NASDAQ: BILL): Citigroup initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $131 target price. The consensus target is higher at $166.72. Friday’s close at $119.91 was up almost 6% for the day on the strong analyst comments and coverage.
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