Reddit Stocks: What meme stocks are trending today? – July 24, 2023

US futures

• Dow Jones Industrial Average is flat
• S&P 500 is up 0.1%
• Nasdaq 100 is up 0.2%

US futures are cautiously higher ahead of a very busy week of markets, headlined by earnings and central bank meetings.

‘Wednesday’s FOMC decision sits at the top of the pile, and if the Fed’s message is not clear enough we have a GDP and PCE inflation report to drive expectations for their August meeting. The ECB and BOJ also hold their monetary policy decisions, and Australia’s quarterly inflation report could become a proxy RBA hike if it remains ‘too high’ for the RBA’s liking,’ said our analyst Matt Simpson. You can find out what to expect on the macro side of things in the Week Ahead.

Meanwhile, it is also a big week for earnings and there is a cautious mood following the pullback we saw last week when Tesla and Netflix failed to impress and saw their valuations tested. Big Tech earnings season begins with results out from Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta. Telecoms has been under the spotlight lately and it will remain there with results out from Verizon and AT&T, as well as T-Mobile and Comcast. Payments giants Visa and Mastercard, oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron, travel stocks Southwest Airlines and Royal Caribbean, carmakers General Motors and Ford, and apps Spotify and Snap are among the other updates to watch this week. Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Boeing and Intel are also among those scheduled to report. Find out what to expect by reading our mini previews in Earnings This Week.

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. AMC Entertainment
2. Tesla
3. C3.ai
4. NVIDIA
5. Microsoft
6. UPS
7. Apple
8. Amazon
9. Sirius XM Holdings
10. Carvana

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. AMC Entertainment
2. Nikola
3. Tesla
4. Rivian
5. Lucid Group
6. Marathon Digital
7. Riot Platforms
8. Palantir
9. Apple
10. Sculptor Capital Management

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

Microsoft is up 0.6% at $345.93 this morning among those that will be reporting results when it updates the markets on Tuesday. The company has proven more resilient than its Big Tech rivals thanks to its diversified business model and it appears to be carving out an early lead in the race for artificial intelligence supremacy. Earnings are expected to grow at their fastest pace in 18 months thanks to easier comps and a tighter grip on costs. Its cloud computing arm is already processing AI workloads and it has recently outlined pricing plans for its first commercial AI tools, showing it is ready to monetise. Still, investors have not yet assigned huge value to Microsoft’s valuation. Meanwhile, markets are more confident than ever that Microsoft will complete its takeover of Activision Blizzard, even if they have had to extend the deadline as they try to overcome the last of the regulatory hurdles. You can find out more in our Microsoft Q4 Earnings Preview. Goldman Sachs raised its price target on Microsoft to $400 from $350 this morning.

Alphabet is up 0.9% and also reports on Tuesday. The company has risen almost 36% since the start of the year but has underperformed its Big Tech rivals and the broader Nasdaq 100 due to its dependence on advertising and its failure to convince the markets that AI is an opportunity and not a threat. This should be a turning point, with earnings set to grow for the first time in 18 months. Sales growth is starting to accelerate thanks to easier comps but the ad market remains vulnerable. Google Cloud will please investors if it can turn out its second consecutive quarter of profits, an aptly-timed move as the industry suffers from a slowdown in spending. Alphabet must demonstrate it can be a leader in AI and convince markets that the technology will be a catalyst, with markets worried after Microsoft declared war on Google’s search engine. It recently merged its DeepMind and Brain units together – which should fuel future product launches - and it has recently relaunched its Bard AI chatbot in Europe after addressing security concerns, while also introducing it into other countries like Brazil. You can read more in our Alphabet Q2 Earnings Preview.

Meta is up 0.4% ahead of results out on Wednesday. This could be a big quarter for Meta, and one that could be needed to maintain the stellar gains booked in 2023 following the heavy selloff we saw last year. Earnings are forecast to grow for the first time in 18 months as comps are ironed-out and it reaps rewards from its aggressive cost-cutting. Its new Threads platform is taking off as it leverages its Instagram base. Plus, there is a chance Meta could stir up some excitement about its AI prospects amid reports it is preparing to launch a commercial version of its own AI model that can create text, imagery and code. 

Apple is up 0.5% at $192.94 and reports results next week. The company is aiming to produce about 85 million iPhone 15s this year, roughly in-line with what it produced the year before, according to unnamed sources speaking to Bloomberg. Revenue may still rise in the face of flat volumes as Apple is considering raising the price of its Pro models. Suggestions that iPhone volumes could stay flat comes at a time when demand for its other devices still under pressure. Wells Fargo raised its price target on Apple this morning to $225 from $210.

Amazon is up 0.3% and also reports next week. The outlook for Amazon is becoming rosier as the volatile comps seen in recent years finally starts to normalise, although most of its businesses remain highly sensitive to the economy and it is still struggling with inflationary pressures. It will be influenced by how Microsoft’s cloud-computing arm performs this week, especially as AWS is suffering from a slowdown.

NVIDIA is up 0.9% at $447 after Mizuho bumped up its target price to $530 and said the chipmaker could unlock $300 billion in AI-related revenue by 2027! Analyst Vijay Rakesh said NVIDIA is ‘dominating’ the market for AI servers and that he expects it to maintain a significant slice of the market even as competition catches up. The broker said NVIDIA could earn $25 billion to $30 billion in AI revenue this year.

Tesla is down 1.7% at $255.71, marking a July-low, after UBS downgraded the electric carmaker to Neutral from Buy and raised its target price to $270 from $220. Tesla shares have pulled back since releasing earnings last week, when CEO Elon Musk said more price cuts could be on the way to prompt fears that margins have not bottomed-out as hoped. Analyst Patrick Hummel said the risk-reward balance over the next year ‘looks balanced’.

Smaller EV makers also remain among the most traded before the bell. Nikola is down 7.2% and Lucid Group is down 0.4%. Rivian is down 0.4%.

Spotify is up 0.2% after increasing the price of its premium subscription in the US by $1 in an effort to boost profitability.

Johnson & Johnson is up 1% and at its highest level since January after introducing an exchange offer that will allow investors to exchange their J&J shares for stock in Kenvue, the consumer health business that was spun-off and listed not too long ago. Shareholders will be trade in their J&J shares and get Kenvue shares at a 7% discount. J&J still owns a large controlling stake in Kenvue, but this move will help it reduce it. Both companies beat earnings expectations last week and raised their full year outlooks. Kenvue shares are down 1% today.

UPS is down 1.2% and falling from three-month highs. The delivery giant is set to resume talks on Tuesday with the Teamsters union that represents over 300,000 of its workers. Talks started back in April and UPS is racing to strike a new deal before the existing one runs out at the end of this month.

Domino’s is up 0.3%. EPS rose to $3.08 from $2.82 the year before in the latest quarter and came in ahead of the $3.05 estimate. Revenue was down 3.8% at $1.02 billion while US same-store sales were up 0.1%, both coming in below the $1.07 billion and 0.2% increase pencilled-in by Wall Street. Investors hope its recent deal that will see it sell pizza through Uber Eats and Postmates can accelerate growth in the second half.

AMC Entertainment is up 38% and at its highest level in over four months while its APE preferred shares are down 3.1%. That is in response to a Delaware court judge blocking the company’s proposed deal that would have seen AMC pay holders of ordinary shares in return for approval for its plans to convert APE shares into ordinary stock and potentially dilute existing shareholders. The judge said it was unfair because it would settle future legal claims from preferred shareholders, some of which were not included in the lawsuit.

C3.ai is trading marginally higher before the bell at $38.05 after JMP Securities raised its target price to $40 from $38 and maintained its Outperform rating on the stock.

Sirius XM Holdings is down 3.7% as it continues to freefall following last week’s surge, when a short-squeeze resulted in an explosion in trading volumes.

Carvana is down 1.5% this morning. Markets had grown confident it can make a comeback after posting a surprise positive adjusted Ebitda and announced a deal to restructure its debt, although brokers have warned that it popped too high and this has tempered the buying spree and caused it to reverse.

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