MarketBeat Week in Review – 2/13 - 2/17

Key Points

• Markets, particularly the NASDAQ, are trending lower heading into a long holiday weekend.  
• The market is pricing in the possibility of a larger interest rate hike than expected. 
• Next week, investors will get their first look at some key retail stocks.  
• Here are some of the top stories our analysts were writing this week.  

Retail sales were up … a lot more than expected. Inflation was also up … and also a lot more than expected. The truth is likely to be somewhere in between, but we won’t know that for several months. For this week, the bears are having none of it as expectations for a 50 basis point rate hike by the Federal Reserve in March are growing. Markets shot down quickly on January’s red-hot PPI number and the tech-heavy NASDAQ is continuing the sell-off before the holiday weekend. Next week will bring more earnings reports, including the start of some retail names like Walmart Inc. NYSE: WMT and TJX Companies Inc. NYSE: TJX. As always, you can count on the MarketBeat team to stay on top of the news that affects the markets. Here are some of the top stories they were following this week.  

Articles by Jea Yu 

Every quarter, shareholders have been asking the same question of Palantir Technologies, Inc. NYSE: PLTR. When will the company be profitable on a GAAP basis? But as Jea Yu wrote this week, investors will have to find a new question. Palantir delivered its first GAAP profitable quarter which, along with other catalysts may make it time to buy PLTR stock. Yu also had his eye on the EV sector, specifically the latest production numbers for Rivian Automotive Inc. NASDAQ: RIVN. The company is walking a tightrope as it is attempting to increase production before it runs out of available cash. And if the market volatility has you looking for a nap, Yu suggests you may want to look at Tempur Sealy International Inc. NYSE: TPX. The company’s stock is up 21% for the year which is leading its sector and may have higher to climb. 

Articles by Thomas Hughes 

Thomas Hughes gave investors his outlook for the S&P 500. But they may not like what he had to say. Hughes explains why inflation remains a threat to earnings and until that narrative can be disproved, the broader market may be range bound as the S&P 500 continues to find strong resistance. If you’re looking for a place to hide out in this market, Hughes suggests looking to the Consumer Staples sector and specifically to The Kraft Heinz Company NASDAQ: KHC. The stock is falling after weak guidance, but Hughes points out that the stock is still offering investors deep value. And it wouldn’t be a week if there wasn’t news about one of MarketBeat’s most searched stocks, Mullen Automotive, Inc. NASDAQ: MULN. Hughes writes about the fascinating tug-of-war between Mullen bulls and bears and why the bulls may be gaining the upper hand.  

Articles by Sam Quirke 

Before the PPI data took away the punch bowl, markets were cheering a strong retail sales number that showed consumers were resilient in the face of sticky inflation. That may add to the bullish case for Affirm Holdings Inc. NASDAQ: AFRM. The stock was beaten down last year as consumer spending dipped. But Quirke suggests the buy now, pay later (BNPL) stock may be a speculative buy for forward-looking investors. But for investors who are looking to find a place to invest right now, Quirke writes about two cruise stocks that are receiving bullish upgrades that are sending their stocks soaring. Speaking of stocks on fire, Quirke wrote about the reasons behind the recent price action in Tesla, Inc. NASDAQ: TSLA. The stock is up 100% for the year and there are reasons to believe it can even go higher.  

Articles by Chris Markoch 

Chris Markoch was looking at two stocks that are trending lower for different reasons. In the case of AbbVie Inc. NYSE: ABBV, Markoch writes that the dividend king delivered mixed results and lowered its guidance. Caution will remain because nobody is really sure how much revenue the company will lose as they lose patent protection on Humira. With Generac Holdings, Inc. NYSE: GNRC the stock is down from its post-earnings high as analysts are taking a wait-and-see approach to management’s forecast of an earnings surprise in 2023. On the other hand, analysts are having no problems getting excited about Deere & Co. NYSE: DE stock which is up 6% after blowing out earnings expectations and offering bullish guidance for 2023.  

Articles by Kate Stalter 

If you watched the State of the Union address, you heard unflattering things about a company like Chevron Corporation NYSE: CVX and its share buyback program. But as Kate Stalter writes, share buybacks are an important reason that Chevron may stand out among the stocks in the oil sector even as those record profits may be a little smaller this year. If you’re looking for a company that’s below the radar, Stalter suggests that investors look at Parker-Hannafin Corp. NYSE: PH. The industrial company just beat on revenue and earnings and issued bullish full-year guidance. That makes the stock a watchlist candidate for growth and momentum investors. The pet sector is another sector where investors may find some welcome growth. And that means you should pay attention to Zoetis Inc. NYSE: ZTS, which, as Stalter writes, is “the leading animal health company in the U.S., based on revenue. 

Articles by MarketBeat Staff 

The January rally may have some investors ready to take a “risk-on” posture. But as the MarketBeat staff wrote this week, that may be premature. The large-cap rally is focused on three stocks that carry about 4% of the weight in the S&P 500 Index. With that said, speculation is still making a comeback and one place investors might not have expected is the return of meme stocks. The staff identified three meme stocks that are trying to mount a comeback in 2023. Another speculative sector that always draws investors’ attention is penny stocks. But this week, the MarketBeat staff wrote about a rare find for investors: large-cap penny stocks. Read their article to learn how to invest in these hard-to-find stocks.