The futures traded down on Thursday, following another wild session of selling Wednesday that felt like the continuation of the pullback that started Tuesday afternoon. Once again, the biggest narrative seems to be the increasing fear of rising inflation and rising interest rates as government bonds were sold off across the curve. Another big drag on risk sentiment appears to be the massive sell-off in Bitcoin, which at one point had dropped almost 50% from highs posted just 10 days ago before rebounding some.
Despite the concerns across Wall Street for tapering of the quantitative easing program and clear building 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. Note 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 Thursday, May 20, 2021.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD): KeyBanc Capital Markets started coverage on the semiconductor leader with a Sector Perform rating. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $48.42 to $99.23 and has a consensus price target of $104.30. The final trade for Wednesday came in at $76.23, which was up almost 3% for the day.
AmBev S.A. (NYSE: ABEV): Itau BBA downgraded the stock to Market Perform and has a $3.60 price target. The consensus target is $3.36, and the shares closed Wednesday at $3.35.
American Campus Communities Inc. (NYSE: ACC): JPMorgan raised its Underweight rating to Neutral and has a $46 price target. The posted consensus target is $48.43, and Wednesday’s last trade came in at $45.94 a share.
Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI): Bernstein upgraded the chip giant to Outperform from Market Perform and raised the price target to $185. The consensus target is $182.63, and the shares ended trading on Wednesday at $153.12, up almost 5% on the day.
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