Reddit Stocks: What meme stocks are trending today? – July 17, 2023

US futures

• Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.3%
• S&P 500 is down 0.1%
• Nasdaq 100 is flat

Markets are in a cautious mood following softer-than-expected economic growth in China, with GDP rising 0.8% in the second quarter from 2.2% in the first to suggest the economy is losing momentum. GDP was up 6.3% on a year-on-year basis and accelerated from the 4.5% we saw in the first, but came in way below the 7.3% expected by economists. Industrial output was stronger than anticipated but retail sales and property sales were both softer than hoped.

Traders and investors are also bracing for the wave of earnings scheduled to be released this week as earnings season gets underway. Meanwhile, Finance ministers of the G20 and central bank governors are meeting in Gandhinagar, India, for a two-day meeting.

Most discussed Reddit stocks

Below is a list of the top 10 most mentioned US stocks on the WallStreetBets thread on Reddit over the last 24 hours, according to data from Quiver Quantitative. Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and other instruments have been excluded:

1. Tesla
2. NVIDIA
3. C3.ai
4. UPS
5. Rivian
6. Netflix
7. Eni
8. Visa
9. PayPal
10. Disney

Most active US stocks before the bell

Below are the most active stocks with a valuation of at least $500 million before the bell, based on trading data taken from Bloomberg:

1. Nikola
2. Activision Blizzard
3. Bridgebio Pharma
4. Tesla
5. Lilium
6. Apellis Pharmaceuticals
7. AT&T
8. SoundHound AI
9. Lucid Group
10. Marathon Digital

US premarket winners and losers

Here are the stocks worth at least $500 million experiencing the sharpest movements in premarket trade, according to data from Bloomberg:

Top US stocks to watch

Earnings season gets into full swing this week, putting corporate America under the spotlight. Banks will remain in play following the beat we saw from some of the biggest players on Friday as Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs prepare to update the markets. Chipmaker IBM, Taiwanese firm TSMC, pharmaceutical giant J&J as well as American Airlines and United Airlines are among those also due to report results. You can find our earnings calendar to find out all the stocks to watch this week in Earnings This Week.

The headline earnings event of this week comes from Tesla, which is up 1.9% and at a 10-month high of $286.72 ahead of results out on Wednesday. Tesla delivered a record number of vehicles in the second quarter as price cuts and other incentives keep demand growing, but the number one question this week is what impact this has had on its profitability. Margins are expected to bottom-out in the second quarter. The outlook is rosy for now, with markets anticipating further growth in deliveries and a recovery in margins in the second half, but Tesla will need to keep up with these expectations if it wants to keep on the right trajectory. You can find out everything you need to know in our Tesla Q2 Earnings Preview. Tesla is finding support this morning after confirming the first Cybertruck has been produced at its factory in Texas, installing confidence the eagerly-awaited model can be launched later this year following several lengthy delays and provide a new catalyst. Wells Fargo hiked its price target on Tesla to $265 from $170 this morning.

The news of the Cybertruck rolling off the production line could be weighing on Rivian today, with the smaller rival down 2.5% before the bell. Baird warned that the truck is a ‘fundamental and headline risk’ to Rivian, which makes its own pickup truck called the R1T. The stock is on course to lose ground for a third consecutive session, having pulled back following a rally that sent the stock to 2023-highs.

Netflix is up 0.5% at $444.13 this morning and will also report on Wednesday. Subscriber growth is back on the right path and investors will want to know how its new dual-strategy to revive growth through a crackdown on password sharing and its new ad-supported tier is faring. The fact Netflix has two substantial new catalysts to help keep subscriber numbers climbing to new record highs suggests there is an opportunity for a beat this quarter. On the other hand, a miss would suggest the new plan isn’t taking-off as quick as markets have been banking on this year. Earnings are forecast to decline for a fourth consecutive period in the second quarter but markets believe it will start to reap rewards in the second half and that EPS will begin to grow again, partly helped by easier comparatives from what we saw in the back-end of 2022 – enough so that it is forecast to report record annual earnings in 2023 despite the pressure seen on the bottom-line in the first half. All of that has the potential to keep providing Netflix shares with momentum, but only if it can keep up with market expectations. Markets have bought into Netflix’s new strategy and now it is time to start delivering. You can find out everything you need to know in our Netflix Q2 Earnings Preview. Deutsche Bank raised its target price on the streaming giant to $475 from $410 this morning.

Elsewhere, Disney is down 0.2%. Last week, CEO Bob Iger had his tenure extended for two years to keep him in the hot seat until the end of 2026. He said that the challenges facing Disney’s linear-TV business are greater than initially expected and that the company may look to sell some assets or explore partnerships to help shore them up during an interview with CNBC, while continuing its push into sports programming led by ESPN+. Disney has also been under pressure due to the exposure to the strike action taken by writers and actors in Hollywood, especially as its rival Netflix is thought to be better shielded.

Microsoft is trading marginally higher today while Activision Blizzard is up 4.1% at $93.71, marking a two-year high and within touching distance of Microsoft’s $95 per share offer. We discovered over the weekend that Microsoft has signed a binding licence deal with rival Sony to keep the popular ‘Call of Duty’ title on PlayStation. That comes soon after the US Federal Trade Commission failed to convince a judge that the deal will harm competition. The FTC is appealing, but it means for now that only UK regulators stand in the way and the Competition & Markets Authority has recently warmed to the deal.

Meta is down 0.9% after Norway’s data regulator Datatilsynet said it would fine the company the equivalent of around $100,000 per day between August 4 and November 3 unless it takes immediate action to address privacy breaches, such as using people’s physical location to target adverts at them.

UPS is trading lower before the bell. The delivery firm is at risk of being hit by strike action at the start of next month if it fails to reach a deal with the Teamsters union, which represents over 300,000 UPS workers. The two sides failed to come to an agreement last week as we edge closer to an August 1 deadline, the day after the current contract with workers expires. UPS is hoping to come to terms with the union before then but has started training other workers that are not part of the union to help minimize disruption should a strike go ahead. Teamsters have also told the White House not to intervene should a strike go ahead, according to a report from Bloomberg, amid theories the government could step in.

NVIDIA is up 0.3% at $456.04 after Citi raised its target price on the chipmaker to $520 from $420. Rival AMD is down 0.3% at $115.60 after Citi opened a ’90-day downside catalyst watch’ after warning there are downsides to estimates, sticking with its Neutral rating and $120 target price.

Telecoms firm AT&T is down 1.5% at $14.29 – marking its lowest level since at least 2003 - after being downgraded to Neutral by Citi, which slashed its target price to $16 from $22. The broker downgraded other telecoms firms and warned the industry’s historical use of lead sheathed cabling could continue to overhang the sector for the next few months, or potentially longer.

Visa is trading marginally lower today, having hit two-year highs last week, while rival Mastercard is following after hitting all-time highs last week. Fellow payments firm PayPal is up 0.5% today.

Cryptocurrency stocks are being traded before the bell. Coinbase is down 0.3%, Marathon Digital is up 0.2% and Riot Platforms is trading 0.1% lower. Bitcoin has suffered a heavy fall since Friday and is currently holding above $30,100, having hit as high as $31,800 last week.

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