Stock Market Today: Stocks Hit Snooze Ahead of Earnings

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It was a snooze-fest in the stock market today, with investors seemingly missing the note that equities were open on Monday. While bond markets and banks were closed for Columbus Day, the stock, futures and options markets were open. Not that one could hardly tell.

Stock Market Today

On Friday, equities put together a robust rally for most of the session, as headlines continued to paint the trade situation with a colorful brush. With just minutes left before the close though, details continued to leak out that the deal may not be signed for several more weeks.

While not all that unexpected, it did cause some hesitancy among investors to go long into the weekend. Instead, they chose to de-risk, knowing all too well what a few headlines or tweets can do to the futures market on Sunday night.

Instead, we opened cautiously lower on the day, rallied to positive territory, then bobbled around flat for the day. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY), SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) and PowerShares QQQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) all finished lower on the day, but were within 13 basis points of flat.

For those that need some action though, don’t worry. JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and others will kick off earnings on Tuesday before the open.

Movers in the Stock Market Today

Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) shares were on the move Monday, putting in a mixed finish after the company announced it would stop production and deliveries of its electric bike. The move comes after the company discovered an issue with the bike’s charging equipment. It’s not yet known when deliveries will start back up again.

Volkswagen (OTCMKTS:VLKAY) is considering a move with its Lamborghini brand in an effort to free up cash for its electric vehicle program. Previously, the automaker seemed set on keeping its brands under one umbrella — ranging from Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche, Volkswagen, Audi and others.

Perhaps after seeing the multiples that most auto companies receive vs. the valuation that Ferrari (NYSE:RACE) has garnered, management is rethinking that strategy. Would a company like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) be interested in a brand like Porsche or Audi if it were made available? This strategy would not be consistent with Apple’s history. However, it has yet to abandon its autonomous driving efforts.

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) was one of the few red names on Friday after a bearish report from Goldman Sachs. On Monday, it was hammered again, falling about 10% after another bearish report, this time from Citi. The analyst used a $43 price target, suggesting new lows are coming for the stock.

CRWD and HOG were two stocks in the Top Stock Trades column Monday.

New issue SmileDirectClub (NASDAQ:SDC) also fell about 13% on Monday and hit new lows after a new bill in California will make it harder for the company. Assembly Bill 1519 makes bone imaging a requirement for orthodontics. That creates additional hurdles and costs for SDC’s customers, which are “unnecessary” according to the company.

Shares are down more than 55% from the IPO price, although analysts were bullish earlier this month.

Heard on the Street

Xilinx (NASDAQ:XLNX) stock was raised to a “buy” at Nomura Instinet. The analysts also assigned a $115 price target, implying about 20% upside to the name.

The quiet period for Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG) has ended, as analysts publish their reports on the name. There are a few “holds” and several “buy” ratings, but no sell-equivalent ratings. Two hold-equivalent ratings come from Morgan Stanley and Jefferies, who assigned price targets of $39 and $34.

Some of the buy-equivalent ratings come from Stifel, JPMorgan, Barclays and Needham. Stifel is using a $40 price target while the latter three analysts all have a Street-high target of $45.

Despite all of this, shares fell more than 7% to $33.09 on the day.

Even with all the negativity surrounding General Motors (NYSE:GM) due to the UAW strike, some analysts believe there could be upside. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas doesn’t believe the situation will “radically” impact GM’s 2020 outlook and argues that the auto market in general could have a strong finish to the year.

He maintained his overweight rating and $46 price target.

Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long AAPL. 

Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2019/10/stock-market-today-stocks-hit-snooze-ahead-of-earnings/.

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