Stock futures declined Wednesday after Wall Street began the new year mostly in the red following a rough session for tech stocks following an analyst downgrade of
Apple.
The
Nasdaq Composite
fell 1.6% for its worst day since October. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average,
on the contrary, rose 0.1% on Tuesday to set a fresh record closing high. Investors in the day ahead will be focused on the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s meeting last month, hoping the minutes will provide clues for the path of interest rates in 2024.
These stocks were poised to make moves Wednesday:
Apple
extended losses, falling 0.4% to $184.82, after the iPhone maker closed down 3.6% Tuesday following a downgrade to Underweight from Equal Weight by analysts at Barclays, who noted weakness in sales of iPhones and Mac computers. Apple’s growth has stalled, Barron’s has noted previously, despite the stock’s gain last year of 48%.
SoFi Technologies
was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette and the price target on shares of the financial-technology was reduced to $6.50 from $7.50. The stock was down 6.4% to $9.03.
Keefe Bruyette also downgraded
Rocket Cos.,
the parent of home loan originator Rocket Mortgage, to Underperform from Market Perform and left the price target at $10.75.
Wells Fargo,
meanwhile, downgraded Rocket to Equal Weight from Overweight but raised its price target to $14 from $13. Rocket shares fell 3.5% to $13.78.
Moderna
was rising 1.8% to $114.57, following on from the stock’s surge of 13% on Tuesday after the vaccine maker was upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer with a price target of $142. On Wednesday,
BofA
raised its price target on
Moderna
to $120 from $110 and maintained a Neutral rating on the stock.
Bloomin’ Brands,
the owner of Outback Steakhouse, added two new members to its board as part of an agreement with activist investor Starboard Value. The stock rose 2.6%.
AST SpaceMobile,
which is building a space-based cellular broadband network, was up 6.8% after disclosing that it was seeking to close and fund a previously disclosed strategic investment this month with multiple parties. The company also said it had secured initial ground infrastructure orders from two customers.
Verizon Communications
was upgraded by KeyBanc to Overweight from Sector Weight with a price target of $45. The analysts said the expect “wireless industry competitive intensity being low, which makes us want more wireless exposure,” and that the company should show “better postpaid phone net add performance” in 2024.
Verizon
was rising 1.1% to $39.32.
PGT Innovations
received an unsolicited proposal from Miter Brands to acquire all outstanding shares of the windows and doors company for $41.50 a share in cash. The offer implies an equity value of about $2.37 billion.
PGT
had reached a deal last month to be bought by
Masonite International
for $33.50 in cash and $7.50 in stock. PGT said in a statement that it would review the Miter Brands’ proposal to determine if it was reasonably likely to lead to a superior proposal. Shares of
PGT Innovations
were up 3.2% to $41.50.
Funds of Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest purchased 190,370 shares of
Roku,
the streaming-media company, on Tuesday, according to a trade notification. The stock closed Tuesday at $89 and was down 1.3% to $87.81 on Wednesday.
Rockwell Automation
rose 1.5% after shares of the autonomous technology company were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at
UBS.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com
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