My top 10 things to watch Wednesday, Oct. 9
1. The S&P 500 is little changed a day after a nearly 1% bounce-back rally. Tuesday’s gains for the market were driven, in part, by a pullback in oil prices, which had been climbing on Mideast tensions. Crude was modestly lower Wednesday morning.
2. The Justice Department is considering asking a federal court to break up Google. The DOJ announcement late Tuesday follows an August ruling that deemed the Alphabet-owned search giant a “monopolist.” I’m not a fan of DOJ’s proposed remedies. They seem overly punitive and designed to hobble the company. We own Alphabet in the Club portfolio.
3. Tesla holds its long-awaited robotaxi event Thursday evening. I think this will be big. Tesla’s presentation will also cast a spotlight on the broader state of autonomous vehicles. Currently, Alphabet’s Waymo is the only commercial robotaxi service operating in the U.S.
4. JPMorgan raised its GE Vernova price target to $285 per share from $240 and kept its buy rating. The analysts see the company as a key beneficiary of the need to expand the U.S. electric load. Watch a Dec. 10 investor event as a catalyst for the stock, which has already more than doubled since its spin-off in April.
5. Don’t look now: Nvidia closed Tuesday at its highest level since July and now sits roughly 2% below its all-time closing high set on June 18. Helping drive the 4% pop in Tuesday’s session was upbeat commentary from management at Nvidia’s AI Summit in Washington.
6. The AI boom is continuing apace, with chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company saying Wednesday that its revenues in September rose an astounding almost 40% year over year. TSMC makes chips for Club names Nvidia, Apple and others.
7. KeyBanc upped its Meta Platforms price target to $655 per share from $560 and kept its buy rating. It’s the third PT hike this week. The reason is basically the same: a strong online advertising business should continue to drive solid growth into next year. Piper Sandler’s teen survey signals an expansion of Meta’s Instagram usage. The teen survey also was lukewarm on Apple’s iPhone 16.
8. Hurricane Milton, currently a category 5 monster, is expected to make landfall as a category 3 near the Tampa area as early as Wednesday night. Rebuilding from Milton and Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago means Club name Home Depot. Loop Capital upgraded Home Depot to a buy rating and boosted its price target by $100 per share to $460.
9. Is Honeywell really getting its due? I think the Club name’s advanced materials division, which the company plans to spin off, could be worth a great deal more. There are estimates it could be worth $10 billion as a standalone. We upgraded Honeywell to our buy-equivalent 1 rating.
10. JMP Securities hiked its Goldman Sachs price target to $550 per share from $525. The analysts kept their buy rating ahead of Goldman’s Oct. 15 earnings report. We own Morgan Stanley, which reports Oct. 16. It’s coming into the print hot. I’m prepared to wait and see but have wished we were in Goldman instead. We also own Wells Fargo, which issues its quarterly results Friday morning.
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