Top 10 things to watch Monday, Sept. 25
- The Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are lower early Monday as bond yields resume their march higher. On the horizon, a federal government shutdown looms ahead of fiscal year-end on Sept. 30. All three stock benchmarks finished lower Friday for their fourth session in a row and enter the final week in September down for the month.
- In his Sunday column, Jim Cramer looks at the market in a way that makes stocks winners no matter what the Fed or bonds do. In the week ahead, Club name Costco (COST) reports its quarter after the closing bell Tuesday. Meta Platforms (META) hold its annual Connect conference on Wednesday and Thursday. It will focus on artificial intelligence and virtual, mixed and augmented realities.
- After nearly 150 days on strike, the Hollywood writers union reaches a preliminary agreement with the studios, including Club name Disney (DIS), Paramount (PARA), Comcast (CMCSA)-owned Universal, and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). Final language on the deal between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is still being drafted.
- While the United Auto Workers expanded walkouts at General Motors (GM) and Chrysler-parent Stellantis (STLA), the union says it’s making progress with Club name Ford (F). The UAW is still striking just one Ford plant. Meanwhile, auto union workers in Canada voted to ratify a new contract with Ford.
- Club name Amazon (AMZN) says it will invest as much as $4 billion in Anthropic and take a minority stake in the artificial intelligence firm. Anthropic, founded about two years ago by former OpenAI executives, has recently put out a ChatGPT rival. Club holding Microsoft (MSFT) backs OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT.
- Guggenheim upgrades Microsoft (MSFT) to neutral from sell. The analysts also remove their price target, saying the generative AI narrative is “too positive a force to contend with.” The upgrade removes that last MSFT sell rating on Wall Street and comes after Guggenheim put the sell rating on in late July.
- Demand strengthens for the iPhone 15, according to Morgan Stanley. Lead times — how long the new device from Club name Apple (AAPL) gets to consumers — continues to get longer, the analysts wrote. Lead times are ahead of the iPhone 14 cycle, with new Pro and Pro Max models at “record highs,” adds Morgan Stanley, which keeps overweight (buy) rating and $215-per-share price target.
- Club name Oracle (ORCL) gets a price target cut to $130 per share from $132 at BMO Capital, which keeps market perform (hold) rating. The analysts still see questions around the company’s capability to grow revenue. However, they did point out that attendance at Oracle’s CloudWorld was up 20%, indicating increased interest the company’s cloud buildout.
- Jefferies downgrades Club name Foot Locker (FL) to hold from buy and cuts price target to $18 per share from $28. The analysts think consumers will pull back spending due to headwinds such as the resumption of student loan payments. Jefferies also downgraded Nike (NKE), ahead of the Dow stock reporting its quarter after the bell Thursday.
- Citi lowers price target on Club name Starbucks (SBUX) to $104 per share from $112. Keeps neutral rating. The analysts see “risk greater listlessness” in the stock even after earnings that are set to be reported on Nov. 2 after the market close.
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