Investing
Futures dropped significantly overall on Friday, after a wild and tiring week on Wall Street. All eyes and ears on Wall Street were focused on Federal Reserve Chair Powell this week as he confirmed what is commonly known: Interest increases will begin in March and there should be at least four this year, with some speculate that they could be .50. base points each instead of .25 base points.
A very positive gross domestic product report in the fourth quarter helped buffer the end-of-day sales that hit the market on consecutive days, and again on Thursday. All three major indexes ended lower after posting large early gains, with sales boosted by supply chain issues, growth concerns and ongoing inflation concerns.
A big positive for investors and the economy is that the rise of Omicron cases is coming out to throb and start to go down. Also, the corporate stock buyback window opens again, and that could put a supportive bid at the bottom of the market. Some strategists have even noted that stocks perform well against an inflation backdrop.
24/7 Wall St. reviews. dozens of analyst research reports every day of the week with the goal of finding new ideas for investors and traders. Some of this analyst’s daily calls cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to be sold or avoided. Note that no single analyst call should be used as the basis for buying or selling a stock. The consensus analyst’s target data is from Refinitiv.
These are the top upgrades, downgrades, and startups the analyst saw on Friday, January 28, 2022.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT): UBS maintained a Buy rating on the pharmaceutical heavyweight and raised its price target to $ 142 from $ 138. Raymond James repeated an Outperform rating but lowered the $ 150 target price to $ 143. That compares to the $ 144.58 target agreed upon and Thursday’s final print of $ 120.44.
Albemarle Inc. (NYSE: ALB): HSBC Securities upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold and raised the target price to $ 280 from $ 250. The target consensus is $ 261.29. Last trading on Thursday was reported at $ 205.48.
ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT): Goldman Sachs cut the stock to Neutral from Buy. The shares traded in a 52-week range of $ 21.24 to $ 37.87 and had a $ 50.73 agreed target price. Last trading on Thursday was reported at $ 28.68, down nearly 5% for the day.
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T): UBS reiterated a Buy rating on the legacy telecommunications giant and cut the target price to $ 32 from $ 34. Wells Fargo maintained an Equal Weight and lowered its target price to $ 26 from $ 27, while Cowen repeated a Market Perform call and lowered its target price to $ 29 from $ 34. The target consensus is $ 30.30. The last trade for Thursday was for $ 24.12 a share.