U.S. stocks continued to rally on Friday while Asian stocks stood put following Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s comments that kept the U.S. dollar in check. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6%, while the S&P 500 crawled 0.6% higher at Friday’s close.
As we head into the new week, investors should keep tabs on American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT).
Here’s why these companies might be on the move Monday:
American Express Company (AXP)
American Express Company shares may lose ground in the new week as the company could lose an important business partner.
Marriott International Inc (NASDAQ:MAR) is closing in on the acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc (NYSE:HOT) — a company that currently has the AmEx Starwood Preferred Guest card.
This credit card amounts to 4% of the company’s loans and 2% of its total spending. American Express’ services to Starwood would be replaced by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) and Visa (NYSE:V) as Marriott has a partnership with the financial services companies.
This follows the recent losses of partnerships including Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) and JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU)
AXP shares are already off more than 12% year-to-date.
Apple Inc.
Credit Suisse just raised its price target on Apple shares from $140 per share to $150, and also added shares to the CS “U.S. Focus List.”
According to analyst Kulbinder Garcha, Wall Street might be “underestimating the GP contribution from Services, but more important, underappreciates its growth potential and the annuity-type business it drives in terms of retention and replacement across the business.”
That GP Services figure currently stands at $14.5 billion, or 15% of the group, and Credit Suisse believes that could expand to $33.7 billion, or 29% of GP, by 2020.
Apple stock is up 1% in Monday’s premarket trading, and is about 5% in the black for the YTD.
Fitbit Inc (FIT)
The developer of fitness tracking devices could enjoy some momentum heading into this week after last week’s good news on the product front.
Fitbit has received criticism recently as some believe the company’s products can no longer compete with the likes of Apple Watch and other fitness trackers. However, the company’s two newest devices have each sold more than 1 million units.
The $200 Fitbit Blaze was revealed at CES 2016 in January; the gadget offers a number of new features including heart rate monitors, connected GPS and color touch screens. The company also launched the Alta, a fitness device that is more suited for the luxury crowd.
Selling more than 2 million units of these devices indicates that Fitbit is not as dead and buried as critics believe.
While FIT stock is down 12% YTD, it has rebounded some 20% off its February trench.
EDITOR’S NOTE: An incomplete version of this report was posted earlier. We have corrected this, and we apologize for the error.
As of this writing, Karl Utermohlen did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
