Reddit Stocks: What meme stocks are trending today? – August 11, 2023

US futures fall

• Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.1%
• S&P 500 is down 0.2%
• Nasdaq 100 is down 0.4%

US futures are in negative territory as we approach the end of the week, dragged down by the latest inflation figures coming in slightly hotter than expected. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 are set to close down for a second consecutive week, with both indices lingering at one-month lows.

US PPI comes in hot

We had fresh US inflation figures out this morning:

• PPI was up 0.3% month-on-month in July, more than the 0.2% forecast. PPI was 0.8% higher on an annual basis, also just above the 0.7% estimate.
• Core PPI – the more closely-watched figure - was up 0.3% in July versus June, above the 0.2% predicted by economists while the annual rise of 2.4% was ahead of the 2.3% forecast.

That hotter than anticipated data comes after the president of the San Francisco Fed, Mary Daly, said the central bank has ‘more work to do’ to bring inflation down after markets become more optimistic following the benign CPI numbers out earlier this week.

The economic calendar for the rest of the day includes the Michigan consumer sentiment and inflation expectations.

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. NVIDIA
2. Visa
3. C3.ai
4. Disney
5. Tesla
6. Apple
7. Alibaba
8. Rivian
9. Upstart Holdings
10. UPS

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. Archer Aviation
2. Nikola
3. Cano Health
4. Pagaya Technologies
5. TG Therapeutics
6. Tesla
7. Lucid Group
8. Palantir
9. IonQ
10. Rivian

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

Let’s have a look at the top stocks to watch today.

Alibaba stock: Impressive beat lifts target price

Chinese giant Alibaba is down 2.3% on the NYSE today and following other Chinese ADRs lower after the Chinese government’s latest stimulus plan fell short of expectations, with markets having hoped it would do more to revive the economy following news the economy entered deflation and that both domestic and internal demand is faltering.

The fall comes just one day after Alibaba’s well-received results out yesterday that led several brokers to raise their target price on the stock today, including JPMorgan to $150, Bernstein to $100, Jefferies to $187, Daiwa Capital Markets to $155 and Citigroup to $151.

Other Chinese stocks on the move today include JD.com, Pinduoduo, Bilibili and Baidu are down 2.6% to 3.5%. Sentiment toward Chinese stocks is also being hurt by fresh concerns over the property market after Country Garden Holdings warned it expects to book billions of dollars in losses in the first half of 2023.

UBS stock: Ends Credit Suisse backstop

Swiss giant UBS is up 4.4% on the NYSE today after it said it no longer plans to lean on the CHF9 billion crutch of guarantees offered by the government as part of its rescue takeover of rival Credit Suisse, and that it also won’t use federal-guaranteed assistance loans of up to CHF100 billion offered by the Swiss National Bank.

The funds were on offer to cover losses that UBS would incur as part of the takeover but the bank has decided against tapping into them, which its CEO Sergio Ermotti said is ‘a testimony to the strength of UBS’ as it looks to manage the financial impact on its own.

UnitedHealth stock: Green light for EMIS takeover

UnitedHealth shares are marginally lower before the bell today after UK regulators gave provisional clearance for its £1.2 billion takeover of EMIS Group this morning, sending the London-listed firm up 25% today.

The Competition & Markets Authority said it found no competition concerns, having previously referred the deal for an in-depth probe after being unsatisfied by UnitedHealth’s remedies to divest of certain businesses to get the deal over the line. A final decision will be made by the CMA by October 5.

Apple stock: China smartphone shipments fall

Apple shares are down 0.2% this morning as they struggle to stage a comeback since losing ground in wake of its last set of results that showed it succumbed to the crunch in smartphone demand, seeing it miss what was a high bar.

With that in mind, we discovered today that smartphone shipments in China were down over 24% from last year in June to 20.9 million handsets, according to the China Academy of Information & Communications Technology. That marked an acceleration from the 9.4% drop we saw in May.

NVIDIA stock: Sinks to 6-week lows

NVIDIA shares are down 1.2% and at six-week lows this morning as the chipmaker finds it more difficult to climb following the AI-induced rally that has caused its valuation to surge this year.

The chipmaker has carved out an early lead in the AI space and become the company of choice for the raft of businesses racing to upgrade their hardware. That has sent NVIDIA’s valuation around 67% above the industry average, although we are starting to see this narrow as investors start to see better value opportunities elsewhere considering AI is too big of a game-changer for one company to monopolise.

Tesla stock: Hit by new crash investigation

Tesla shares are down 1% after federal investigators said they are looking into a fatal crash involving a Tesla SUV and a truck in Virginia, according to media reports. The Fauqier Times said the accident took place on July 19. That is the latest incident to grab the attention of the National Highways Traffic Safety Administration, which is already carrying out several probes into incidents involving Tesla vehicles.

Rivian stock: Rebounding from 5-week low

Rivian shares are up 0.9% as they look to rebound from five-week lows after tumbling heavy since releasing its latest set of quarterly results this week. The company raised its production goal and trimmed its projection for annual losses this week, but that failed to impress the markets that had set a high bar considering the stock had rallied over 87% in the six weeks before the results.

Disney stock: Falling from 2-month highs

Disney shares are down 0.2% and falling from their highest level in almost two months, having jumped after its new cost-cutting plans and narrower streaming losses impressed the markets when it released results this week. The House of Mouse beat expectations in the latest quarter.

UPS stock: Hits 1-month low

UPS shares are trading lower, hitting one-month lows before the bell, as markets fret over profitability following the new deal struck with union workers that will push up wages and costs. The deal has been reached with the Teamsters union but is yet to be formally ratified by members, with the final result due out later this month.

The news may also heighten pressure on rival FedEx to raise wages to ensure it stays competitive, with the stock not far below two-year highs.

Archer Aviation stock: Fresh funding lifts shares

Archer Aviation shares are up over 20% and at their highest level since 2021 after the electric flying car company said it has raised fresh funding and settled a legal dispute with airplane maker Boeing.

The company has secured a $215 million investment from a group of companies including Boeing, United Airlines, Stellantis and ARK Investment Management. That gives it around $1.1 billion in cash, extending its resources as it aims to launch commercial operations in 2025. Boeing has settled a legal dispute with Archer as part of the deal.

Upstart stock: Can it recover from 7-week lows?

Upstart Holdings shares are down 0.8% and at seven-week lows in wake of its latest quarterly results out this week that saw the firm, which uses AI to make lending decisions, warn banks are still ‘super cautious’ about lending. That led to a disappointing outlook. However, it is not bad news for everyone considering short interest standing at over 32% of its float, according to data from Fintel.

Mountain & Co I stock: FC Barcelona to list media unit

Spanish football club FB Barcelona has agreed to publicly-list its content creation business named Barca Media by merging it with a blank-cheque company named Mountain & Co I Acquisition Corp, which is up 1.8% before markets open today.

The club said Barca Media will be valued at about $1 billion as part of the deal and that the business will be ‘an important source of revenue in the coming years’. Existing shareholders will retain about 80% of the company.

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