The latest batch of Federal Reserve meeting minutes indicates the central bank is mulling an interest rate hike as soon as June, and that was enough to send the dollar higher and keep stocks mixed Wednesday. The S&P 500 rose 0.02% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.02% and the Nasdaq Composite closed higher with a gain of 0.5%.
Regarding the Fed, it is worth noting that entering this year, many market observers believed the central bank would hike rates four times. But nearly five months into the year and with no borrowing cost boosts as of yet, those expectations have been pared to two rate increases.
While the Fed was in focus, LendingClub Corp (NYSE:LC), Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) and Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) were three of today’s best stocks.
LendingClub Corp (LC)
With interest rates in focus, the financial services sector got a lift, helping boost shares of embattled personal lender LendingClub by nearly 11% on volume that was well above the daily average. LC’s Wednesday surge is all the more impressive when considering regulators in New York subpoenaed LC regarding fees and interest rates.
LC said it is complying with the request. Former LC CEO Renaud Laplanche recently departed the company though the New York subpoena is unrelated to that move, reports CNBC.
Shares of LC are down 77% over the past year.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (LOW)
Home improvement giant Lowe’s climbed 3.3% on volume that was about triple the daily average after the company said fiscal-first-quarter per-share earnings came in at 87 cents, topping analysts’ estimate of 85 cents a share. LOW revenue jumped almost 8% to $15.2 billion while same-store sales increased 7.3%.
LOW forecast fiscal 2016 earnings of $4.11 per share. The North Carolina-based company expects to open 45 new stores this year.
Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA)
Shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors rose nearly 3.2% after Goldman Sachs upgraded TSLA to “buy” from “neutral.”
Goldman also boosted its six-month price target on TSLA to $250, implying significant upside from the Wednesday close for TSLA of just over $211.
“While we believe the volume targets are ambitious, Street and investor expectations seem more grounded and following a 23% decline in the share price post the Model 3 unveil, we do not believe Tesla shares are fully capturing the company’s disruptive potential,” according to part of the Goldman note on TSLA posted by CNBC.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
