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.
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