The futures were lower Monday, after a dreadful and massive risk-off Friday in which all the major indexes, along with the transports and the utilities, closed much lower. The overall market closed down for the second week in a row, and the selling was driven by the hawkish tone that Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell presented Friday in his speech at the economic symposium in Jackson Hole.

The risk-off avalanche started when Powell said in his speech “another unusually large increase could be appropriate at our next meeting.“ That all but tells the market another 75-basis-point increase is on the way when the Federal Open Market Committee meets late in September unless there is a sharp drop in the inflation data, which is very unlikely.

Treasury yields were flat to higher across the curve on Friday, after Powell said the Fed would hold the line on inflation. The two-year and 10-year inversion widened some, with the latter closing at a 3.04% yield and the former at 3.38%. Widely seen as a recession indicator, the U.S. curve has inverted before each recession since 1955, with a recession following between six and 24 months, according to a 2018 report by researchers at the San Francisco Fed.

Both Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude closed modestly higher Friday, after a solid week overall for the black gold. Natural gas, which has been on fire recently, was down slightly on the day. Gold and Bitcoin both closed lower Friday.

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, August 29, 2022.

Affirm Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: AFRM): Goldman Sachs raised its $22 target price on the “buy now, pay later” company to $25 while keeping a Neutral rating on the shares. The consensus target is $36.26. The stock closed down 21% on Friday at $24.57.

Altra Industrial Motion Corp. (NASDAQ: AIMC): Loop Capital initiated coverage on the shares with a Buy rating and a $58 price target. The consensus target is $54.47. The last trade on Friday was reported at $40.01.

Arco Platform Ltd. (NASDAQ: ARCE): Credit Suisse’s downgrade to Neutral from Outperform included a price target cut to $18 from $27. The consensus target is $24.26. The stock was last seen Friday at $13.45, which was down close to 8% on the day.
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG): Argus initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $215 price target. The consensus target is $198.15. Friday’s close was at $187.70.

AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN): Argus upgraded the pharmaceutical giant from Hold to Buy with a $75 target price. The consensus target is $73.38. The last trade on Friday came is at $66.32.

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating and $720 target price on the chip giant in front of this week’s earnings report. The consensus target is $671.52. The stock closed trading Friday at $520.86, which was down over 5% for the day.

Burlington Stores Inc. (NYSE: BURL): Baird reiterated an Outperform rating but trimmed the $205 price target to $200. The consensus target is $183. The shares were last seen Friday at $144.81.

Centene Corp. (NYSE: CNC): When Wells Fargo downgraded the shares to Equal Weight from Overweight, it also trimmed the $103 target price to $99. The consensus target is $105.05. The stock closed over 6% lower on Friday at $89.94.

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL): Goldman Sachs reiterated a Neutral rating and cut the $52 price target to $43. The consensus target is $59.74 for now. The stock closed on Friday at $21.43, down almost 14% after posting so-so results and giving a very weak forward outlook.

Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG): Goldman Sachs increased its $258 price target on the Buy-rated stock to $296. The consensus target is $261.83. The stock closed almost 4% lower on Friday at $236.32.

Elastic N.V. (NYSE: ESTC): BofA Securities reiterated a Buy rating and raised its target price to $105 from $96. The consensus target is $101.93. The shares closed on Friday at $82.96.

GDS Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: GDS): RBC Capital Markets cut its Outperform rating to Sector Perform and lowered its $41 target price to $33. The consensus target is $50.90. The stock closed on Friday at $29.07.

Hibbett Inc. (NASDAQ: HIBB): Seaport Research Partners upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy with a $75 target price. The consensus target is $74.33. The stock closed at $61.19 on Friday.

Marvell Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL): Goldman Sachs increased its $55 price objective on the Buy-rated stock to $62. That compares with the higher $78.81 consensus target and Friday’s close at $50.17, which was down 9% for the day after the company gave a weak sales forecast.

Medical Properties Trust Inc. (NYSE: MPW): Stifel trimmed its target price to $23 from $25 while keeping a Buy rating on the REIT. The consensus target is $18.85, and shares closed on Friday at $14.97.

Middleby Corp. (NASDAQ: MIDD): Benchmark started coverage with a Buy rating and a $190 target price. The consensus target is $177.75. Friday’s close was at $147.95.
Patrick Industries Inc (NASDAQ: PATK): D.A. Davidson started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $65 target. The consensus target is $79.50. The stock closed down 6% to $56.69 on Friday.

Ternium S.A. (NYSE: TX): BofA Securities lowered its Buy rating to Neutral and cut its $53 price objective to $40. The consensus target is $51.75. The stock closed almost 6% lower on Friday at $32.21.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA): Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating on the electric vehicle giant and has a $350 price target, following the company’s three-for-one stock split. The consensus target is $306.10. The stock closed on Friday at $288.09.

Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA): Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating and hiked the $427 target price to $491. The consensus target is $458.95. Friday’s close was at $411.47.

Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP): Daiwa Securities downgraded the railroad giant to Neutral from Outperform. It also raised its $235 price target to $242, closer to the $241.23 consensus target. The shares ended trading Friday at $231.31, down over 3% for the day.

Verona Pharma PLC (NASDAQ: VRNA): Piper Sandler initiated coverage with an Overweight rating and a $31 target. The consensus target is $23.67. The closing share price on Friday was $10.55.

VTEX (NASDAQ: VTEX): BofA Securities upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral and lifted the $4.50 target price to $6.50. The consensus target is higher at $7. On Friday, the shares closed at $4.19, an 8% gain on the day.

Workday Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY): Goldman Sachs reiterated a Buy rating with a $260 target. The consensus target is just $219.21. The shares closed on Friday at $166.46, up close to 3% after the company posted solid second-quarter results.

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Friday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Danaher, Exact Sciences, First Majestic Silver, First Solar, Illumina, KB Home, NetApp, Nvidia, Salesforce, Snowflake, Splunk and TechnipFMC. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Burlington Stores, Forge Global, Gap, Ulta Beauty, Zoom Video Communications and more.

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