American Express (NYSE:AXP): RBC Capital upgrades to outperform from sector perform. PT up 1.5% to $200.
Avalonbay Communities (NYSE:AVB): BMO Capital Markets downgrades to outperform from market perform. PT down 2.3% to $210.
Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB): Morgan Stanley maintains an overweight/attractive rating with a target price raised from $363 to $381.
Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI): Wolfe Research maintains its outperform rating with a raised target price of $143.
Capital One (NYSE:COF): RBC Capital maintains its sector perform rating with a reduced target price of $113.
Csx Corp (NASDAQ:CSX): Wolfe Research maintains its outperform rating with a target price raised from $38 to $42.
Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS): RBC Capital maintains its outperform rating with a reduced target price of $120.
Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY): Berenberg maintains a buy recommendation with a target price raised from $500 to $600.
Essex Property (NYSE:ESS): BMO Capital Markets downgrades to underperform from market perform. PT up 2.2% to $235.
Fox Corp (NASDAQ:FOX): Rosenblatt Securities Inc. maintains a neutral recommendation with a target price raised from $33 to $34.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ): Guggenheim maintains a neutral recommendation with a reduced target price of $169.
Keysight Tech (NYSE:KEYS): Goldman Sachs upgrades its recommendation from neutral to buy, with a target price increase from $146 to $164.
Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW): Bernstein upgrades its recommendation from market perform to outperform and raises the target price from $252 to $282.
Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU): Bernstein upgrades its recommendation from underperform to market perform. The target price is raised from $328 to $366.
Mid American Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA): BMO Capital Markets maintains its market perform recommendation with a reduced target price of $158.
Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC): Wolfe Research maintains its outperform rating on the stock with a revised target price of USD 265, up from the previous target of $255.
Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL): Barclays upgrades its recommendation from equalweight to overweight and raises its target price from $126 to $150.
Spotify (NYSE:SPOT): Canaccord Genuity maintains a buy recommendation with a target price raised from $170 to $180.
Synchrony Finance (NYSE:SYF): RBC Capital downgrades to sector perform from outperform. PT reduced from $41 to $37.
Don’t Trade Without Seeing The Orderbook
U.S. stock futures started the holiday-shortened week with marginal declines, retracing some of the strong gains from the previous week.
As of 06:35 ET, the Dow Jones Futures contract remained mostly unchanged, while S&P 500 Futures edged 5 points, or 0.1%, lower, and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 35 points, or 0.2%.
Last week, Wall Street’s major indices performed well, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 1.4%, the Nasdaq Composite rising 3.3%, and the S&P 500 climbing 2.5%, marking their best weekly performances since July.
Global data signals economic weakness. However, investor sentiment has become more fragile as U.S. investors returned from their long weekend to evidence of a global economic slowdown.
In August, Chinese services sector activity expanded at a slower-than-expected pace, as indicated by the Caixin services purchasing managers’ index, which showed its weakest reading in eight months.
Similar negative news came out of Europe, with data revealing that the decline in eurozone business activity accelerated faster than initially estimated last month, leading the bloc’s dominant services industry to contract.
HCOB’s Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index, a reliable gauge of overall economic health, dropped to its lowest level since November 2020.
Goldman lowers odds of U.S. recession Later in the session, factory orders for July are expected to show a 2.5% decline, but the U.S. economy is still considered a global hopeful.
Goldman Sachs has become more confident that the U.S. economy will avoid a significant contraction in the near term. The investment bank reduced the probability of a U.S. recession in the next 12 months from 20% to 15%, citing positive inflation data and last week’s labor market report. Goldman highlighted Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s cautious approach to future rate decisions as an indicator that a September rate hike is less likely.
Throughout the week, investors will hear from several Fed speakers, beginning with Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s Wall Street Highlights: Goldman Sachs, Airbnb, Tesla, Novo Nordisk, and more
Disney and Charter dispute in the spotlight: In corporate news, attention is likely to be on the entertainment sector, as Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) encouraged Spectrum cable service customers of Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) to consider switching to a live television option from Hulu. This comes as the media companies remain at odds over a new distribution deal. Disney expressed hope for an agreement to restore access to Disney-owned channels that have been blacked out on Charter’s service since Thursday.
Crude oil drops on weak Chinese economic data: Oil prices declined on Tuesday due to weak Chinese services activity data, which indicated further challenges for the world’s second-largest economy and the largest crude importer.
Despite these losses, expectations that major OPEC+ members Saudi Arabia and Russia will agree to extend their output cuts this week have limited the decline, potentially leading to a tighter market.
As of 06:40 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.4% lower at $85.22 a barrel, close to levels last seen in November, while the Brent contract fell 0.8% to $88.31, near its highest level since late January.
Furthermore, gold futures dipped 0.5% to $1,957.55 per ounce, and the EUR/USD currency pair traded 0.4% lower at 1.0746.
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