Despite a better-than-expected jobs report, U.S. equities couldn’t build on this week’s momentum. Investors saw the S&P 500 lose about 0.5% in the stock market today, as bulls simply couldn’t keep the market from unwinding a bit on Friday.
After shedding almost 2% on Friday Jan. 31 and testing down into the 50-day moving average, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) underwent a massive bounce this week, with four straight gap-up sessions that eventually led to new all-time highs.
In that respect, it’s hard to see much wrong with the SPY losing 0.5% on Friday, even if the economy did add 225,000 jobs in January. That was well ahead of economists’ estimates for 160,000, while prior results were revised higher as well. The unemployment rate came in at 3.6% against estimates of 3.5%, but overall, this was a solid report.
Movers in the Stock Market Today
Ford (NYSE:F) is naming a new chief operating officer, as current COO Joe Hinrichs is retiring. Jim Farley will be taking his place. Farley formerly served as the CEO of Ford Europe and is the current president of New Businesses, Technology and Strategy at Ford.
AT&T’s (NYSE:T) Warner Bros is supposedly in the final stages of a deal for a reunion special with the cast of Friends. Each of the cast members would reportedly getting around $2.25 million to $2.5 million and it would likely land on the launch of AT&T’s new streaming platform, HBO Max.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson would not go as far as to confirm the reunion on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” show. However, he did say, “HBO Max will be one of the most exciting streaming products in the market.”
World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE:WWE) has had a rough start to the year, with its stock already down more than 30% in 2020. But potentially good news could be coming for the company, according to Needham analyst Laura Martin. She says WWE would be a solid acquisition for Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), which is looking to continue growing its video content and could make handy use of WWE’s recent fall.
The news didn’t help much, with WWE stock falling 4.5% on the day.
Despite the fall in the stock market today, Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) ran to strong gains. The stock climbed 9.5% after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. Is there more room to run though? The company beat on earnings, revenue, monthly active users, revenue per users and full-year guidance, yet gave up almost half of the session’s gains.
There are reasons to be bullish on PINS.
Uber (NYSE:UBER) stock also jumped higher on the day. The company reported a smaller-than-expected loss in the fourth quarter, while revenue grew 37% year-over-year to $4.1 billion. Bulls’ confidence to bid shares up by 9.5% came from management’s commentary that it expects to be profitable on an EBITDA basis sooner than expected.
The price targets are pouring in now too. MKM analysts assigned a $45 price target, while Wedbush went from $50 up to $52. Mizuho climbed to $50, Canaccord went to $55 and JMP Securities went all the way up to $56.
Heard on the Street
We had some noteworthy analysts calls in the stock market today. That starts with General Electric (NYSE:GE), which was upgraded from “sell” to “neutral” by long-time bear John Inch of Gordon Haskett. He also raised his price target from $7 to $11. While GE finished ultimately lower on the day, shares hit a new 52-week high.
Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) stock was hammered on Friday, falling 7% at one point after a double downgrade at Cowen. Analysts cut the stock from “outperform” to “underperform” and slashed their price target from $27 down to $18. They believe the 5G opportunity will take longer than expected.
Domino’s Pizza (NYSE:DPZ) slipped 1.4% on Friday, despite Goldman Sachs analysts upgrading the stock to “buy” from “neutral” and assigning a $320 price target. From current levels, that represents more than 16% upside.
Goldman Sachs didn’t stop there, sending Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) higher by 2.4% after adding the stock to its Conviction List. They maintain a “buy” rating and $211 price target on the stock.
Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long PINS and AMZN.