The futures were mixed Thursday after Federal Reserve Chair Powell delivered a speech and commentary at the Brooking Institute Wednesday that was pretty much in line with the recent hawkish commentary. While he indicated that rate hikes may be lower in the future, the terminal rate, or ending point for rate hikes, now appears to be locked onto the 5.00% to 5.25% range.
The pending lower rate increases were all the risk-off crowd needed and stocks took off, with all the major indexes closing much higher. The Nasdaq jumped 4.4% by the close. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrials were up big as well. Now all eyes on Wall Street will be focused on Friday’s nonfarm payroll report for November.
Treasury yields were mixed across the curve after Powell’s remarks reinforced what many bond traders have been anticipating: that rate hikes will indeed be smaller. Top analysts on Wall Street noted that the spread between the 10-year note and the two-year Treasury yield has been inverted for 102 trading days. This year’s current streak ranks as the sixth longest in data going back to 1977.
Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude roared higher on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a huge 12.6 million barrel draw for the week that ended November 25. The agency also reported that at the current 419.1 million barrels, oil inventories are 8% below the five-year average for this time of the year. Natural gas ended the day down almost 4% at $6.97. Both gold and Bitcoin closed higher on Wednesday.
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 Thursday, December 1, 2022.
Allogene Inc. (NASDAQ: ALLO): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating with a $32 target price. The consensus target is $25.00. The shares closed on Wednesday at $9.86.
AppLovin Corp. (NASDAQ: APP): Jefferies initiated coverage with a Hold rating and a target price of $14. The consensus target is $28.22. Wednesday’s $14.47 close was up close to 8% for the day.
Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB): Goldman Sachs maintained a Buy rating with a $370 target price. The consensus is lower at $311.30. The stock closed almost 5% higher on Wednesday at $305.17 after positive clinical data on its Alzheimer’s drug candidate Lecanemab.
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