The futures were lower after a decidedly mixed start to the holiday-shortened trading week. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed higher on Tuesday, after opening down big before a huge reversal in the afternoon, which left only the Dow Jones industrials in the red at the closing bell. Recession fears were cited across Wall Street for the early weakness, and with good reason. The latest data from the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracker is now in negative territory, predicting second-quarter real GDP growth of −2.08% as of July 1, down from +0.30% on June 27.
If that is indeed the case (and as we have said for some time), we will indeed be in a recession, which by definition is two straight quarters of negative GDP. Remember that the final first-quarter numbers last week were revised down to −1.60%.
The buyers returned to the Treasury market, as yields were down across the curve, with the benchmark 30-year long bond closing at a 3.03% handle. Clearly the Treasury market is sensing a recession, as yields have dropped dramatically over the past two weeks. One bright spot for beleaguered consumers is that both Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude closed down over 8%, both right near the $100 mark, while natural gas dropped almost 4%. Gold was down almost 2%, while Bitcoin was slightly higher.
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.
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These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Wednesday, July 6, 2022.
AGCO Corp. (NYSE: AGCO | AGCO Price Prediction): Oppenheimer maintained an Outperform rating with a $156 target price. The consensus target is $156.64. The stock closed over 4% lower on Tuesday at $96.56.
Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI): Zacks selected this video game leader as its Bear of the Day, citing that the shares have underperformed the S&P 500 by a fair margin. The stock has traded as high as $95.27 apiece in the past year but closed most recently at $78.87. That is down about 2% in the past 90 days.
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American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP): Goldman Sachs slashed its $220 target price to $170 while maintaining a Buy rating. The consensus target is $195.48. The stock was last seen on Tuesday trading at $139.65.
Antero Resources Corp. (NYSE: AR): Truist Financial raised its Hold rating to Buy and boosted the $42 target price to $50. The consensus target is $49.36. The stock closed almost 5% lower on Tuesday at $29.23.
APA Corp. (NASDAQ: APA): Goldman Sachs lowered its $52 target price on the Neutral-rated energy giant to $41. The consensus target is $56.21. Tuesday’s close was at $32.73, down almost 8% on the day as crude prices were crushed.
Chewy Inc. (NYSE: CHWY): Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating with a $60 target price. The consensus target is just $44.36. The stock closed Tuesday at $40.54, up over 9% for the day on no news we could source.
Discover Financial Services Inc. (NYSE: DFS): Whiled Goldman Sachs maintained a Buy rating, it also cut the $138 target price to $120. The consensus target is $137.76. Tuesday’s close was at $97.97.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY): Baird trimmed the $55 price target to $54 while keeping an Outperform rating. The consensus target is $57.28. The final trade on Tuesday was reported at $43.93.
Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating with a $110 target price objective. The consensus target is $105.91. The last trade on Tuesday came in at $79.13 a share.
Excelerate Energy Inc. (NYSE: EE): Wells Fargo upgraded the shares from Equal Weight to Overweight with a $29 price target. The consensus target is $32.00. The stock closed over 7% higher on Tuesday at $20.52 on basically no news.
Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS): Baird maintained an Outperform rating on the popular retail chain while lowering the price target to $42 from $53 after the deal to be acquired by Franchise Group fell through. The consensus target is $47.45. The stock closed Tuesday at $29.41, which was up close to 3% on the day.
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Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR): Zacks has named this as its Bull of the Day stock, with the analyst pointing out that the retailer has been on a blazing-hot earnings streak, exceeding bottom-line expectations in 10 consecutive quarters. Shares last closed at $47.23, and the consensus price target of $55.04 represents more than 16% potential upside.
Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: LYV): Though Macquarie raised its Neutral rating to Outperform, it lowered the $117target price to $105. The consensus target is $125.23. Tuesday’s close at $85.44 was up almost 3% for the day.
Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST): Roth Capital started coverage of the energy drink heavyweight with a Neutral rating and a $100 target price. The consensus target is $101.74. The shares ended trading on Tuesday at $96.11. As it is trading just shy of a 52-week high, this is likely a valuation call.
NetEase Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES): Macquarie started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $129 target price. The shares have traded as high as $118.19 apiece in the past year but closed on Tuesday at $92.32.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY): Goldman Sachs lowered the $79 price target on the energy titan to $70. That compares with a $77.30 consensus target, and Tuesday’s closing print of $59.11.
PerkinElmer Inc. (NYSE: PKI): Evercore ISI’s downgrade was from Outperform to In line with a $150 target price. The consensus is $178.64. The shares were last seen Tuesday at $144.56.
Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP): JMP Securities started coverage with a Market Perform rating. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $29.72 to $176.29 and have an $85.09 consensus target. The stock closed over 8% higher on Tuesday at $34.
Signature Bank (NASDAQ: SBNY): Goldman Sachs lowered its $265 price target to $230 while keeping a Buy rating. The consensus target is a surprising $319.75. The last trade for Tuesday was recorded at $189.44.
Symbotic Inc. (NASDAQ: SYM): Needham initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and an $18 target price. The consensus target is $17.20. The last trade on Tuesday was reported at $14.26, up a stunning 21% on zero news.
Talaris Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: TALS): Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight. It also slashed the $20 price target to $8, well below the consensus target of $15.25. The shares closed 26% higher on Tuesday at $2.90. The company recently posted a Phase 3 clinical data update.
Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating on the electric vehicle giant and has a $1,291 target price. The consensus target is just $893.72. The final trade Tuesday hit the tape at $699.20, up close to 3% on the day.
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See why one key analyst is pumping the brakes on Huntington Bancshares, Keycorp and other financial stocks. And check out Bank of America’s top 10 picks for the third quarter.
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Tuesday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Canopy Growth, Constellation Brands, Equifax, FedEx, Franklin Resources, Micron Technology, Paramount Global, RH and T-Mobile. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Dollar General, HP, Texas Instruments and more.
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