Reddit Stocks: What meme stocks are trending today? – September 8, 2023

US futures

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

US futures are trading lower today and set to book their biggest weekly decline in three weeks as strong services data and a smaller rise in jobless claims this week suggests the US economy is still proving very resilient but also injecting fears that inflation could prove stickier for longer, requiring interest rates to stay elevated.

Speeches from several Federal Reserve members yesterday added to the concerns about rates as New York Fed president John Williams and Dallas Fed president Lorie Logan both left the door open to further rate increases in the future.

Strategists at Bank of America warned today that interest rates staying higher-for-longer poses a risk to equities over the next two months. They described the risk of a ‘hard landing’ at about 20% but said the recent rise in oil and bond yields, a stronger US dollar and tighter financial conditions “remain the September-October risk”.

The economic calendar is light for the remainder of the day, but world leaders are meeting at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India. Most of the attention is on a meeting between Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and US president Joe Biden, where the hot topic of discussion is expected to be China, whose president Xi Jinping will not be in attendance.

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. Apple
3. Tesla
4. AMC Entertainment
5. Meta
6. C3.ai
7. Visa
8. Disney
9. Novavax
10. Intel

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. Apple
2. Tesla
3. Nikola
4. Palantir
5. AMC Entertainment
6. IonQ
7. DocuSign
8. Marathon Digital
9. NVIDIA
10. Plug Power

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.

Apple stock: Will China ban the iPhone?

Apple shares are down 0.2% and building on the selloff that has wiped over $190 billion off its market cap in just two days as markets fret over reports China is banning government workers from using iPhones at work.

That has triggered fears that Apple’s sales in China, which accounts for 17% to 18% of company’s revenue, will come under pressure if consumers decide it’s easier to switch to a domestic brand. Domestic competitors such as Huawei, which has just unveiled a new flagship phone boasting speedy data transfers and 5G speeds, are eagerly waiting to welcome any customers that abandon the iPhone. 

Bank of America has said the move could see Apple sell 5 million to 10 million fewer iPhones in China each year, while Wedbush is far more bullish and believes it could knock just 500,000 units off annual sales in the country. Based on estimates from the two brokers that it sells around 45 million to 50 million iPhones in China each year, those warnings suggests the ban could knock anywhere between 1% to 20% off its annual volumes in China.

That has soured the mood ahead of the launch of the iPhone 15 next week, with pressure building for the new model to revive demand following the recent decline in sales of the iPhone 14 in recent quarters.

You can read more on what to expect from the event and the implications of the threat stemming from China, as well as our latest technical analysis, in How Will the New iPhone 15 Impact Apple Stock and the Nasdaq 100 Outlook?

Apple woes spread to suppliers and peers

The worries around Apple are also spreading to its suppliers. On the US side, companies like Skyworks and Qualcomm are down 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively. Chinese suppliers like Luxshare Precision Industry have also been hurt, as has the likes of Taiwan’s TSMC, which is down 0.3% in New York today.

The news of a ban of the iPhone in China is part a broader effort to purge foreign-made technology amid rising geopolitical tensions with the US, with both countries trying to stymie the others tech sectors after years of wrangling.

The latest reported move by China represents another level of escalation after years of disputes that has seen tariffs and exclusions hurt companies on both sides. We have seen the US ban vital telecommunications equipment from Chinese firms like Huawei and ZTE and new restrictions on the semiconductor industry from selling their most advanced chips to Chinese firms. Meanwhile, China has been pushing domestic players ahead of foreign rivals for years and has also excluded some US companies from supplying key equipment.

With this in mind, other megacap tech stocks like Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tesla have also suffered as markets worry about the ability of US tech companies to operate in China, which remains at the centre of the growth story for many firms.

Meta earnings to grow in 2024

Meta shares are up 0.6% at $300.51. Morgan Stanley said it believes Meta can deliver 13% revenue growth in 2024 and said it predicts annual EPS will rise to around $18.50, while “also laying the path to $20”. For context, Meta is forecast to deliver EPS of around $13.30 in 2023 and that prediction is ahead of the average $16.80 forecast taken from a Bloomberg consensus of over 42 brokers.

Morgan Stanley is Overweight on Meta and has a $375 price target on the stock. The bullish view is down to the improving monetisation of Reels, although admitted the performance of the wider business has been choppy in recent years.

Meta’s average target price set by 60 brokers currently sits at $363, according to a consensus from Refinitiv, implying there is around 21% potential upside potential from here.

Notably, Meta shares have tried and failed to close above $300 (which is also aligned with the 50-day moving average) for five consecutive sessions, suggesting this is providing some fierce resistance, and yesterday saw the battle between buyers and sellers intensify as neither side managed to gain the upper hand.

NVIDIA to help build India’s fastest supercomputer

NVIDIA is down 0.5% before the bell after announcing it is working with Reliance Industries to develop a large-language model trained using a variety of languages from across India and provide generative AI services. This will see the pair build AI infrastructure that “is over an order of magnitude more powerful than the fastest supercomputer in India today.”

NVIDIA will be providing its GH200 ‘Superchip’ and its cloud services that will allow Reliance to provide new AI applications and services for its 450 million Jio customers.

Intel’s 9-day rally could snap today

Intel shares are down 0.5% in premarket trade. The chipmaker has stormed higher for nine consecutive sessions, representing its longest winning streak in almost three years, and hit a one-year high yesterday.

The share price has now climbed above its target price of $35 set by Wall Street for the first time since July, while the RSI is on the cusp of entering overbought territory. That is tempering the rally today and may be prompting some profit-taking.

Intel shares fell out of favour back in 2021 but the stock has made a stellar comeback since interest in AI began to take off earlier this year, with the company pointing toward a tailwind from 2024 onwards. The stock is up 53% since bottoming-out at the end of February.

C3.ai suffer worst daily fall in 5 months

C3.ai shares are down another 0.9% at $27.40 today after suffering their sharpest daily fall in five months yesterday, when markets were left unimpressed by its results and outlook as the company failed to live up to all the hype it has built around prospects stemming from AI.

The stock has been a big winner this year as investors flooded into AI plays and C3.ai has been touting its improving prospects for months. However, this is not translating into the stellar growth we have seen at some other companies and it is prompting C3.ai to raise investment, which is now delaying its path to profitability.

“No one should look at this release and think any differently about the overall artificial intelligence industry,” Vital Knowledge said, adding “other than having the best ticker in the industry, the company is on the far, far periphery of the revolution”. Bloomberg Intelligence said C3.ai is struggling to expand thanks to lower IT spending and increased competition. Piper Sandler became the latest to lower its target price on the stock this morning, cutting it to $28.

Tesla gains market share in China

Tesla shares are down 0.3%. We discovered this morning that Tesla’s slice of the electric vehicle market in China jumped to 13.2% in August from just 7.5% in July, as a raft of price cuts and incentives led to deliveries growing over 30% month-on-month.

We already knew it made 84,159 vehicles in China in August but only found out today, thanks to more data from the China Passenger Car Association, that it exported 19,465 of them and sold 64,694 of them domestically.

Elsewhere, the Cybertruck continues to draw more attention ahead of its upcoming release following years of delays. One Tesla investor, the managing partner of Future Fund Gary Black, believes we could get a sneak peek of the Cybertruck, as well as the newly revamped Model 3, at the Detroit autoshow next week.

Rivian says battery costs are declining

Rivian shares are trading marginally lower before the bell today after its CFO Claire McDonough said the cost of producing batteries is improving and that it will start to benefit in the final quarter of 2023 and into 2024 as the price of the vital raw ingredients needed falls from record levels.

She was speaking at a technology conference yesterday and raised hopes that Rivian’s profitability could improve as a result, with the company still deep in the red and burning through cash.

Lucid Group boasts more efficient technology

Lucid Group is up 0.2% at $6 after RBC initiated coverage on the electric vehicle company with a Sector Perform rating. The broker said Lucid’s brand awareness is struggling and lacking momentum but that its technology is ultimately more efficient than its rivals, including Tesla, and that this quality is demonstrated through its licensing deal with British luxury carmaker Aston Martin as it predicted more deals will be struck by Lucid in the future.

Adobe stock hits highest level since start of 2022

Adobe is up 1.9% at $571.24 and at its highest level since January 2022 after Mizuho Securities upgraded the stock to Buy, lifting its target price to $630, after outlining that its fundamentals are improving and rising confidence it can get a boost from AI.

Adobe is scheduled to release third-quarter earnings next Thursday, September 14.

Pinduoduo hit by short seller attack

Pinduoduo is down 1.2% and building on the losses suffered yesterday, when Grizzly Research issued a scathing attack on the company and revealed it is shorting the Chinese ecommerce stock.

Grizzly Research accused PDD’s Temu shopping app as being an aggressive form of malware and spyware and claims it is relying on selling user data stolen from Western users, describing its financials as “notoriously unreliable”.

Disney shares hit lowest level in a decade

Disney shares are trading marginally lower today after closing at their lowest level since 2014 yesterday, with the embattled House of Mouse down almost 19% in the past six months.

Disney is currently in a dispute with Charter Communications and both sides are hoping for a deal but prepared to walk away, with both stocks having suffered. Disney has pulled its channels from Charter’s Spectrum cable service, including its sports content, as the pair fail to agree on fees. That has proven to be a win for some rivals such as FuboTV, which has climbed to one-month highs on hopes it could attract disgruntled Charter customers.

Charter CEO Chris Winfrey apologised to the disruption suffered by customers at a conference yesterday but said pursuing a new deal “was worth it”. “It was the right time and that we had to say ‘enough is enough’ or else we’re going to have to move on to a different model,” he said. Disney issued a statement that it “stands ready” to resolve the dispute.

The ongoing drop in Disney shares is also reviving takeover rumours after more than a dozen past and current Disney executives told CNBC that they believe CEO Bob Iger’s ultimate plan is to sell the company to Apple, which has been long-touted as a potential buyer.

Eli Lilly hits all-time highs on Mounjaro approval

Eli Lilly is up 0.5% and poised to open at fresh all-time highs after its diabetes drug named Mounjaro received approval in the UK, where up to 180,000 patients could benefit.

Mounjaro, as well as competing drugs made by the likes of Novo Nordisk (which is also at all-time highs after becoming Europe’s most valuable company this week), have been given the green light to treat diabetes but the drugs have also gained excitement for their potential to be used for weight loss. The US is expected to decide whether Mounjaro can help treat obesity later this year.

Novavax’s Covid-19 bounce doesn’t last long

Novavax shares are down 1.6% following the heavy selling activity we saw yesterday, when it snapped a three-day winning streak.

The stock, which has found support from news that Covid-19 cases are rising across the US as it prepares to file for approval for its new update vaccine, briefly shifted above the 200-day moving average for the first time since the end of 2021 but this proved too much for sellers to resist, with the stock having now plunged back below this level.

Short interest stands at over 48% of Novavax’s free float, according to Fintel. That may have left short sellers breathing a sigh of relief yesterday, although retail traders attracted to short-squeezes could have different ideas.

DocuSign impresses with higher guidance

DocuSign shares are up 1.6% after nudging up its annual sales target and beating expectations in the latest quarter, sweetened with a new $300 million share buyback.

The company, known for its e-signature software, said revenue rose 11% year-on-year in the second quarter to $687.7 million, which came in ahead of the $677.6 million forecast by analysts. Adjusted EPS of $0.72 rose from $0.44 the year before and also smashed the $0.66 forecast.

DocuSign said it is now expecting annual revenue of $2.73 billion to $2.74 billion, a mild improvement from the previous range of $2.71 billion to $2.73 billion. However, it also upped its billings forecast so it was well ahead of forecasts and led to applause from analysts.

Palantir strikes AI deal with Gemelli

Palantir shares are among the most traded before the bell and are down 0.5%. The company said it has struck a deal with a research facility of Policlinico Gemelli to leverage its AI capabilities to help improve digital medicine research.

This will see the research centre use Palantir’s Foundry platform, which will produce real-time data to help the team discover new drugs, improve patient care and develop new healthcare solutions across Italy and with overseas partners.

Marathon Digital’s bitcoin mining feels the heat

Marathon Digital is down 0.7% after revealing it mined 1,072 bitcoins in August, down 9% from the previous month but more than five times as high as what we saw last year. The decline from last month was largely down to lower production in Texas thanks to extremely hot weather but the company said this is a temporary problem that shouldn’t impact its plans to increase its hash rate going forward.

The company has produced 7,368 bitcoins year-to-date and it has $445 million of bitcoin and cash combined on its balance sheet.

The news came as bitcoin continues to linger around $25,800 mark as it struggles to gain ground in September.

How low can AMC stock go?

AMC Entertainment shares are down another 2.3% this morning after closing at yet another all-time low yesterday. The stock has lost over 80% in less than a month as investors grow frustrated with its fundraising activities that keep diluting their stakes.

Sentiment around the meme stock favourite soured further this week after it revealed plans to sell more shares and dilute shareholders further just weeks after radically shaking-up its capital structure and watering-down investors.

AMC said it will sell up to 40 million of its common stock through an at-the-market offering. It is able to do that because it recently secured the ability to issue up to 390 million new shares. The stock has tanked in recent weeks after converting APE preferred shares into ordinary stock and completing a reverse stock split, and investors are worried that there is much more dilution to come as AMC needs to keep raising cash to fuel its prolonged recovery from the pandemic.

GameStop chairman Cohen draws eye of SEC

GameStop shares are down 1.4% on news that the Securities & Exchange Commission is investigating the company’s chairman and largest shareholder, Ryan Cohen, over his trading in Bed Bath & Beyond shares, according to unnamed sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal.

Cohen is well known among retail traders and surprised the markets last month when he sold his entire stake in the troubled homeware retailer, with reports suggesting he netted over $60 million in profit over seven months. Bed Bath & Beyond’s intellectual property was recently bought and rebranded by Overstock.com after it fell into bankruptcy.

How to trade US stocks

You can trade US stocks and indices with City Index in just four easy steps:

1. Open a City Index account, or log-in if you’re already a customer.
2. Search for the stock or instrument you want in our award-winning platform
3. Choose your position and size, and your stop and limit levels
4. Place the trade

Or you can practice trading risk-free by signing up for our Demo Trading Account.