Futures traded lower again Wednesday after a miserable day to start the holiday-shortened trading week on Wall Street. All the major indices were crushed. The Dow Jones industrials dropped over 250 points to close at 37,361.12, while the S&P 500 closed down 0.37% at 4,765.98 and the Nasdaq finished the session at 14,944.35. Strategists cited the fading hope for interest rate cuts in March and the massive rally to end 2023 that has left the market overbought.
Bonds
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One reason for the sharp equity decline was Treasury yields spiking higher across the curve, with the 10-year note surging up almost 12 basis points to close at 4.07% while the two-year paper closed the session at 4.23%. With the prospect of rate cuts potentially moving to the summer at the earliest, the sellers had the upper hand Tuesday.
Commodities
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Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude closed lower despite some production shutdowns in North Dakota due to the weather and the ongoing increase in hostilities in the Middle East. Brent closed trading at $77.74, down 0.52%, while WTI finished the session down 1.17% at 71.83. Despite frigid temperatures across the country, natural gas was down a massive 14% to close at $2.84.
Gold wasn’t spared the Tuesday selling, as the February contract closed trading at $2,032.10, down almost 1%. Many across Wall Street cite Bitcoin, which closed up nearly 2% at $43,320.80, as a potential rival to gold as a hedge against volatility and stock losses. This seems to be a strange conclusion for a volatile asset class with substantial price swings. (The biggest celebrity cryptocurrency losers.)
Here are the top Wall Street analyst upgrades and downgrades for Wednesday, January 17, 2024.
Upgrades
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CNH Industries N.V. (NYSE: CNHI) from Neutral to Buy with a price target of $19 at Goldman Sachs.
Instacart (Maplebear) Inc. (NASDAQ: CART) from Peer Perform to Outperform with a price target of $35 at Wolfe Research.
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) from Neutral to Buy with a price target of $27 at BTIG Research.
Nutanix Inc. (NASDAQ: NTNX) from Market Perform to Outperform at William Blair. No price target was given.
Downgrades
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Fisker Inc. (NYSE: FSR) from Outperform to Market Perform, with the price target slashed from $11 to $1, at TD Cowen.
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) from Buy to Neutral with a price target of $12 at UBS.
SolarEdge Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SEDG) from Equal Weight to Underweight, and the $74 price target lowered to $50, at Barclays.
Spirit Airlines Inc. (NASDAQ: SAVE) from Neutral to Negative at Susquehanna, which also cuts its $15 price target to $5.
Initiations
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Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) at Goldman Sachs with a Buy rating and price target of $33.
AutoNation Inc. (NYSE: AN) at Evercore ISI with an Outperform rating and price target of $185.
EchoStar Corp. (NASDAQ: SATS) at J.P. Morgan with a Neutral rating and an $18 price target.
Lithia Motors Inc. (NYSE: LAD) with an Outperform rating and a price target of $400 at Evercore ISI.
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