The futures were lower as traders returned from the long MLK holiday weekend for yet another shortened trading week and a deluge of S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings reports. The major indexes closed higher last Friday, following through on the consumer-price-index report rally from last week. While the major banks all posted solid results to kick off the earnings season, the reality is these banks have set aside a stunning $4 billion dollars collectively in anticipation of a recession and all that can come with it, like loan and credit-card defaults and a massive overall slowdown in economic activity.
Yields were higher across the Treasury curve Friday, after a big rally in the government market last week that sent the 10-year down to the lowest yields since last fall. The sellers pushed the benchmark note back up to a 3.51% close on Friday. The inversion with the two-year paper remains in place, as it closed at 4.22%. Bond traders see the inversion as a recession sign.
Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude both closed higher on Friday, capping a strong 9% move higher last week for the two benchmarks after some sizable selling to start the year off. While demand concerns remain at the forefront, the potential for China to reopen more as the year proceeds can be just the tailwind energy traders are looking for. Natural gas was down almost 8% Friday to finish a very volatile week. Gold and Bitcoin closed higher, with the cryptocurrency giant closing back over the $20,000 level for the first time since November.
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 Tuesday, January 17, 2023.
Aon PLC (NYSE: AON): Credit Suisse started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $363 target price. The consensus target is just $318.75, and the stock closed on Friday at $317.17.
Armstrong World Industries Inc. (NYSE: AWI): Evercore ISI’s upgrade was to In Line from Under Perform, though it also trimmed its $84 target price to $80. The consensus target is $89.70. The stock closed on Friday at $75.04.
Bally’s Corp. (NASDAQ: BALY): Citing negative earnings estimate revisions, Zacks selected this as its Bear of the Day stock. Shares have traded as high as $37.21 in the past year but closed most recently at $20.83. That is down 38% or so in the past year.
Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. (NYSE: BBW): Zacks named this stock as its Bull of the Day. The analyst points out that it is one of the few that not only finished 2022 in positive territory but surged to multiyear highs. The stock last closed at $24.33 a share.
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