Stocks were indicated handily lower on Wednesday, both in the United States and abroad, based on new trade war fears after President Trump signaled a higher $200 billion targeted for tariffs against China. This is after two days of strong gains this week. The prior “buy every dip and sell-off” effort from investors has been less reliable during most of 2018. Many investors have been concerned about how they want their investments positioned ahead of the midterm elections and also for the longer-term into 2019 and beyond.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new investing and trading ideas. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy and some cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional color and commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst reports. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Wednesday, July 11, 2018.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $23 price target (versus a $17.35 prior close) at Imperial Capital.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) was started as Underperform and assigned a mere $29 price target (versus a $32.50 close) at Credit Suisse, with AT&T being called out as a convergence conglomerate after its recent acquisitions.

Altice USA Inc. (NYSE: ATUS) was started as Outperform with a $21 target price at Credit Suisse.

Cinemark Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $46 price target (versus a $36.73 close) at Imperial Capital.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) was started as Neutral with a $36 price target at Credit Suisse.

Conn’s Inc. (NASDAQ: CONN) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $45 price target (versus a $35.90 close) at Stifel.

Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight with a $66 price target (versus a $69.60 close) at Barclays.

Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ: JACK) was added to the Best Ideas List at Wedbush Securities. The formal call is a reiterated Outperform rating with a $115 price target (versus an $86.17 close). The firm sees same-store sales growth expectations as realistic, with remodels assisting and margins benefiting at the same time wages are rising.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: JAZZ) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $183 price target (versus a $180.57 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MSI) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $138 price target (versus a $118.64 close) at Cowen.

Myers Industries Inc. (NYSE: MYE) was started as Neutral with a $21 price target at Robert W. Baird, and JPMorgan started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $22 price target.

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