MarketBeat: Week in Review 10/3-10/7

Key Points

• The September jobs report is fueling a sell-off to end the week.
• All eyes are turning to next week's PPI and CPI reports.
• Next Friday will bring retail sales and consumer confidence data. 
• Oh, and earnings season begins as well. 

The September jobs report is fueling a sell-off in the markets to close the week. It’s another example of good news (i.e. more jobs) being perceived as bad news for stocks. The reason is that the Fed is likely to interpret more jobs as creating demand which will keep inflation high. Speaking of inflation, next week all eyes will be on the PPI and CPI reports. And next Friday, investors will also get the latest reading on retail sales and consumer confidence. And if that wasn’t enough, next week is the start of the third quarter earnings season. The takeaway is that it’s likely to be a volatile week. And you can count on MarketBeat to keep you in touch with the stocks and stories that are affecting your money. Here are some of the most popular articles from this week.

Articles by Jea Yu

There’s been lots of commentary on the strength of the U.S. dollar. Most investors know that the dollar and stocks have an inverse relationship. And in this article for MarketBeat, Jea Yu helps investors understand why that relationship exists. Additionally Yu helps our readers understand what companies will benefit and which ones investors should avoid with the greenback being so strong. The electric vehicle sector is showing signs of charging up again. To take advantage of that trend as well as the broader automotive megatrend, Yu suggests investors take a look at Magna International (NYSE:MGA). The company has contracts with many of the largest automotive brands.  Yu was also looking at Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). The company continues to grow, albeit at a slower pace. But Yu explains why the Amazon effect is still alive and well and why that makes the company an attractive buy.

Articles by Thomas Hughes

You’re crazy to invest in tech stocks right now, am I right? That may be true for “big tech” stocks. However, Thomas Hughes was on the hunt for some cheap tech stocks that have great fundamentals. And Hughes gives our readers three stocks that match this description and may be worth having on your recovery watch list. Keeping on this theme of stocks to watch for signs of a recovery, Hughes suggests investors look at RPM International (NYSE:RPM). The maker of coating and construction products just posted strong earnings and offered solid guidance. But Hughes suggests that investors may want to wait for additional confirmation before diving in. Hughes was more bullish on Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU). Hughes sees the company as a blue-chip tech stock which may have all the bad guidance priced into its stock.

Articles by Sam Quirke

Analyst ratings can play a key role in deciding when to buy or sell a stock. A key upgrade for Box Inc. (NYSE:BOX) was one reason that Sam Quirke believes it’s only a matter of time before the stock will climb to $30 or higher. The company is a SaaS company that provides a cloud content management platform. This allows organizations of all sizes to manage and share content from anywhere and on any device. And the analyst in question believes that Box’s offering are being undervalued by the market which is bullish for the stock price.

Articles by Chris Markoch

One of the most encouraging stories of the week for the world as well as the markets was the encouraging results that Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) had in its clinical trial for Lecanemab. The results spotlight the urgency to come up with effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Chris Markoch picked up on that theme and gave you three stocks to watch as the race for a cure speeds up. Markoch was also looking at the renewed interest in the EV sector but cautioning patience for Rivian (NASDAQ:RIVN) and Ford Motor (NYSE:F) investors. In both cases, it’s not about anything the companies are doing wrong, but the current macroeconomic conditions make hitting revenue targets extremely uncertain.

Articles by Kate Stalter

As the world transitions away from fossil fuels, the ability to mass produce electric vehicle batteries will be crucial. With that in mind, Kate Stalter was writing about Freyr (NYSE:FREY) a Norwegian company that is seeing its stock price climb sharply on news that it has started construction of a factory in its home country. This will be the largest such factory outside of China and sets the company up for international expansion. Another dominant theme right now is food security. And Stalter wrote about the role Archer Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) is playing. The stock price movement won’t get many investors excited. But the company continues to grow its dividend (49 years and counting) which makes it worth having on your radar. This week, Stalter also gave readers a trio of mid-cap stocks that have been outperforming the S&P 500 and appear to have room to move higher.