The futures were higher across the board on Wednesday, as investors surveyed the wreckage of a brutal Tuesday in which all the major indexes, except the Dow Jones industrial average, closed lower after big technology stocks were hammered, leading the tech-heavy Nasdaq to almost a 2% drop. The biggest data point this week continues to be Friday’s release of the April payroll numbers, and estimates across Wall Street range from the 965,000 consensus estimate to some as high as 2.1 million. While many across Wall Street remain very positive, some think we could be looking at a “sell in May and go away” scenario.
Despite clear inflationary pressures, the Federal Reserve is vowing to keep interest rates contained, which could be one reason for the continued moves higher in the equity markets, even after sell-offs. It also should be noted that money markets continue to see massive inflows, which is another big plus.
With major Wall Street firms still warning of the potential for impending 5% to 10% correction across the board, it makes sense for investors to continue building some cash reserves into the market strength while repositioning portfolios for the balance of the second quarter and the rest of 2021.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week with a goal of finding new 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 Wednesday, May 5, 2021.
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN): Oppenheimer raised the stock to Outperform from Market Perform and has a $205 price target. The consensus target is lower at $175.23. The last trade for Tuesday was reported at $168.49.
Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX): Zacks selected this as its Bear of the Day stock and pointed out that rising costs are a problem for this former pandemic winner. Shares last closed at $182.60, and the consensus price target is $192.46.
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