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During the wildest year for global markets since 2008, individual investors have been doubling down on stocks. Many professionals, on the other hand, appear to have bailed out.
U.S. equity mutual and exchange-traded funds, which are popular among individual investors, have attracted more than $100 billion in net inflows this year, one of the highest amounts on record in EPFR data going back to 2000.
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Tesla Inc. shares Friday wrapped up their worst week since 2020, as Chief Executive Elon Musk sold billions in stock and faced a call from a prominent investor to step down from the helm of the electric-vehicle maker.
Tesla
TSLA,
stock fell 4.7% Friday for a weekly decline of 16.1%, the fourth-worst week in history for the shares after a series of three weeks in late February and early March 2020, when investors sold stocks in fear of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects. Tesla ended the week with a market capitalization of less than $500 billion for the first time since November 2020, and the share price nearly fell lower than $150 for the first time since that month, ending the week at $150.05.
In-depth: Tesla investors await clues on demand, board actions and weigh downside risks in 2023
The decline occurred as Musk sold stock, which he has done repeatedly since November of 2021. Musk disclosed the sale of more than $3.5 billion in Tesla stock late Wednesday, after performing the trades over the three previous trading sessions, when the price declined a cumulative 12.4%. In total, the Tesla CEO has sold $39.3 billion worth of Tesla stock in the past 13 months, according to calculations from Dow Jones Market Data and MarketWatch.
The recent sales have seemed tied to Musk’s acquisition of the social-media platform Twitter, which he bought for roughly $44 billion this year. It is the second time he has sold stock since closing that deal in October.
See also: Elon Musk’s $5.7 billion mystery gift has been revealed
Musk has reportedly been spending much of his time at Twitter, which seems to have angered some prominent Tesla investors. Leo KoGuan, Tesla’s third-largest individual shareholder, publicly called for a new CEO on Twitter this week, as a chorus of previously boosterish accounts on the service expressed dismay at the stock decline and Musk’s actions.
Bullish analysts have also expressed concerns about Musk’s focus and stock sales. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, who has an outperform rating and $250 12-month price target on Tesla shares, wrote Thursday that “Musk continues to throw gasoline in the burning fire around the Tesla story by selling more stock and creating Tesla brand deterioration through his actions on Twitter.”
“The nightmare of Musk owning Twitter has been an episode out of the Twilight Zone that never ends and keeps getting worse,” Ives wrote. “In late April Musk said he was done selling Tesla stock, instead the exact opposite has happened and put massive pressure on Tesla shares which have significantly underperformed the market since Musk took over Twitter in late October.”
Opinion: Why Tesla investors are the biggest losers in Elon Musk’s Twitter deal
Tesla shares have now declined 57.4% so far in 2022, as the S&P 500 index
SPX,
has declined 18.3%. Tesla’s market cap was $474.4 billion as of Friday’s close.
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Adobe Inc. shares rose in the extended session Thursday after the software company capped off its fiscal year by topping quarterly earnings expectations, and executives predicted the new fiscal year would play out close to Wall Street’s expectations.
Adobe ADBE reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $1.18 billion, or $2.53 a share, compared with $1.23 billion, or $2.57 a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings, which exclude stock-based compensation expenses and other items, were $3.60 a share, compared with…
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Tesla Inc. stock edged higher Thursday, but Wedbush analyst Dan Ives minced no words to decry what he called an ongoing Twitter Inc. “funding nightmare,” accusing Chief Executive Elon Musk to treat the electric-vehicle maker as an ATM machine.
“The nightmare of Musk owning Twitter has been an episode out of the Twilight Zone that never ends and keeps getting worse,” said Ives, a noted Tesla bull, in a note Thursday.
Musk…
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The White House has unveiled a fresh push to increase COVID preparedness heading into the holidays and will again make free tests available to Americans, after a three-month hiatus.
Starting Thursday, households can order four rapid virus tests through covidtest.gov, a senior administration official told the Associated Press.
Cases of COVID-19…
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The numbers: The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits in early December fell to a nearly three-month low of 211,000, indicating layoffs around the holiday season remain low even as the economy softens.
New unemployment filings declined by 20,000 from 231,000 in the prior week, the government said Thursday.
Economists…
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This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/tesla-rivian-lucid-stock-ev-demand-51671055341
Eventually supply and demand realities catch up with everyone—even
Tesla
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas looked into 2023 and sees some concerning signs for electric-vehicle makers.
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Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk just sold nearly $3.6 billion more of the company’s stock, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission released late Wednesday.
Musk sold just under 22 million shares worth $3.58 billion in aggregate from Dec. 12 to Dec. 14, the latest filing shows. Tesla shares TSLA fell in all three of those trading sessions, dropping 12.4% in total over the three-day stretch to finish Wednesday at $156.80.
This…
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The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday voted to propose a package of rule changes, including measures that could affect, but not block, the controversial practice known as payment for order flow.
In this practice, brokers send many small orders from individual investors to market makers or other venues, who compensate the brokers for the order flow. The brokerage industry argues that the practice, which is banned in several countries, offers a net saving to investors, allowing for zero-commission trades and otherwise…
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Delta Air Lines’ stock rose 4.7% before market open on Wednesday after the company raised its earnings guidance.
The carrier
DAL,
said it is executing on its three-year recovery plan, with year-one results ahead of expectations. Delta also highlighted robust demand for air travel as the industry recovers from the widespread disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The carrier raised its 2022 adjusted EPS guidance to $3.07 to $3.12. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were looking for earnings of $2.88 a share. For 2023, Delta Air Lines Inc. forecast a near doubling of adjusted earnings to $5 to $6 a share.
See Now: After too little, too much, there are ‘Goldilocks’ conditions for air travel in 2023
Delta also forecast 2023 revenue growth at 15% to 20% compared with 2022 and said it is on track to meet its 2024 earnings target of more than $7 a share. “Demand for air travel remains robust as we exit the year and Delta’s momentum is building,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian, in a statement.
Delta said it expects to deliver strong topline growth in 2023 and significant operating leverage, boosted by a full restoration of its network and continued improvements in premium and loyalty revenue.
Non-fuel unit costs are expected to decline 5% to 7%, driving Delta’s margin expansion and adjusted earnings growth, the company said. Delta expects to generate more than $2 billion of free cash flow, which it said will enable further debt reduction.
See Now: Delta kicked off airline earnings season with a bang. What does it mean for other carriers?
“2022 is proving to be a pivotal year as we rebuild the world’s best-performing airline,” said Bastian, in the statement.
The company’s robust guidance boosted other airline stocks before market open, with United Airlines Holdings Inc.
UAL,
rising 1.4%, American Airlines Group Inc.
AAL,
gaining 1.3%, and JetBlue Airways Corp.
JBLU,
rising 1.3%.
Delta shares have fallen 14.6% this year, compared with the S&P 500 index’s
SPX,
decline of 15.7% and the U.S Global Jets ETF’s
JETS,
slump of 14.3%.
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To start 2023, investors will have a choice to invest in a brand new $18 billion company with some 50,000 energized employees and a plan to create shareholder value.
To close out 2022, that company—GE HealthCare—is on the road, introducing itself to investors. With each new detail that emerges investors get a better sense of where the new stock should trade.
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The last 12 months was a year of fast-rising inflation, fast-rising interest rates and fast-rising questions about a future recession.
Prices went up while stock markets and savings account balances went down, leaving consumers and investors dizzy and their wallets hurting.
There may be more financial pain, that’s pretty sure — but it might not be as bad as feared, according to Vanguard’s look ahead to 2023.
The likely recession will not send jobless rates charging sharply higher, sticker shock will fade for the price of goods, and the rise in rent and mortgages will also ease, Vanguard said.
“On Tuesday, inflation data for November showed prices are continuing to cool. Analysts say that makes a 50-basis point increase, rather than a 75-basis-point increase, more likely.”
The good news: This opens up chances for stocks to rebound, the asset-manager added.
The outlook, released this week, comes as Americans are trying to guess what 2023 holds for their finances while they manage their holiday shopping budgets, and 2022 investments.
On Tuesday, inflation data for November showed prices are continuing to cool. From October to November, the cost of living nudged up 0.1%, lower than the 0.3% forecast, the Consumer Price Index showed. Year over year, the inflation rate receded to 7.1% from 7.7% in October, according to the CPI data.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its latest decision on interest rate increases. A 50-basis point increase is widely expected after four jumbo-sized 75-basis point hikes from the central bank.
Here’s one roadmap for what’s next, as far as Vanguard’s researchers and experts can see.
Inflation rates during 2022 climbed to four-decade highs. There have been signs of easing, such as smaller-than-expected price increases in October.
“As we step into 2023, early signs of a recovery in goods supply and softening demand could help balance supply and demand for consumption goods and bring prices lower,” the authors noted ahead of Tuesday’s CPI numbers.
But the cost and demand of services are going to prevent a quick fall, they noted. Signs of slowing price increases are already emerging in rents and mortgages, but they will take longer to ease than prices of consumer goods, the authors said.
That echoes the view from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said Sunday there will be “much lower inflation,” absent any unanticipated shocks to the economy.
But while hot inflation will cool, it will still be warm to the touch. The Fed says 2% inflation is its target goal; Vanguard sees 3% inflation by the end of 2023.
As “generationally high inflation” slowed economies across the world, the Fed and other central banks have countered with interest-rate increases to tame price increases. That “will ultimately succeed, but at a cost of a global recession in 2023,” according to Vanguard’s report. Vanguard sees a 90% chance of a recession in the United States by the end of next year.
Vanguard is hardly alone in the recession call, so the question is how bad could the big picture look?
In Vanguard’s view, it’s not so bad. “Households, businesses, and financial institutions are in a much better position to handle the eventual downturn, such that drawing parallels with the 1970s, 1980s, 2008, or 2020 seems misplaced,” the authors wrote.
For now, the jobless rate in a tight labor market is 3.7%, which is just a little above the lowest levels in five decades. That stands against the headline-grabbing list of companies where layoffs are mounting, notably in the tech sector.
When a recession, in all likelihood, lands next year, “unemployment may peak around 5%, a historically low rate for a recession,” the Vanguard outlook said. As interest rates climb, the job losses “should be most concentrated in the technology and real estate sectors, which were among the strongest beneficiaries of the zero-rate environment.”
The unemployment rate going from 3.7% to the 5% vicinity is “a sizable move,” Roger Aliaga-Díaz, Americas chief economist for Vanguard, said in a Monday press conference on the report. “But it is less dramatic of a rise than compared to past recessions perhaps.”
When interest rates go up, bond prices go down. So it’s been difficult for bonds with lower returns and “near-term pain” for investors this year, the Vanguard outlook said.
“However the bright side of higher rates is higher interest payments. These have led our return expectations for U.S. and international bonds to increase by more than twofold,” the report said.
Vanguard said U.S. bond return projections could be 4.1% – 5.1% annually over the next year versus its 1.4% – 2.4% return estimate last year. For U.S. stocks, the forecast could be 4.7% – 6.7% annually, while returns in emerging market equities could be between 7% and 9%.
On Tuesday morning, stock markets are soaring higher on the cooler than expected inflation data, igniting hopes of an end of year Santa Claus rally.
“‘There’s one silver lining of our outlook for a modest global recession. And it’s the clear silver lining of higher expected returns for investors.’”
Still, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
is down nearly 5% year to date. The S&P 500
SPX,
is off 14% in that time and for the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
is down more than 26%.
When the market hits bottom is impossible to know, the outlook said — but it noted “valuations and yields are clearly more attractive than they were a year ago.”
“There’s one silver lining of our outlook for a modest global recession. And it’s the clear silver lining of higher expected returns for investors,” said Joseph Davis, Vanguard’s chief global economist.
“We’re long concerned that the low rate environment was both unsustainable and ultimately a tax and a headwind for savers and long term investors,” Davis said.
But even with all the turbulence this year, “we certainly are starting to see the dividends to higher real interest rates around the world in the higher projected returns that we anticipate for investors over the coming decade.”
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Following a sharp and sustained rise in interest rates, U.S. stocks have taken a broad beating this year.
But 2023 may bring very different circumstances.
Below are lists of analysts’ favorite stocks among the benchmark S&P 500
SPX,
the S&P 400 Mid Cap Index
MID
and the S&P Small Cap 600 Index
SML
that are expected to rise the most over the next year. Those lists are followed by a summary of opinions of all 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA.
Stocks rallied on Dec. 13 when the November CPI report showed a much slower inflation pace than economists had expected. Investors were also anticipating the Federal Open Market Committee’s next monetary policy announcement on Dec. 14. The consensus among economists polled by FactSet is for the Federal Reserve to raise the federal funds rate by 0.50% to a target range of 4.50% to 4.75%.
Read: 5 things to watch when the Fed makes its interest-rate decision
A 0.50% increase would be a slowdown from the four previous increases of 0.75%. The rate began 2022 in a range of zero to 0.25%, where it had sat since March 2020.
A pivot for the Fed Reserve and the possibility that the federal funds rate will reach its “terminal” rate (the highest for this cycle) in the near term could set the stage for a broad rally for stocks in 2023.
Among the S&P 500, 92 stocks are rated “buy” or the equivalent by at least 75% of analysts working for brokerage firms. That number itself is interesting — at the end of 2021, 93 of the S&P 500 had this distinction. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has declined 16% in 2022, with all sectors down except for energy, which has risen 53%, and the utilities sector, which his risen 1% (both excluding dividends).
Here are the 20 stocks in the S&P 500 with at least 75% “buy” or equivalent ratings that analysts expect to rise the most over the next year, based on consensus price targets:
| Company | Ticker | Industry | Closing price – Dec. 12 | Consensus price target | Implied 12-month upside potential | Share “buy” ratings | Price change – 2022 through Dec. 12 |
| EQT Corp. | EQT | Oil and Gas Production | $36.91 | $59.70 | 62% | 78% | 69% |
| Catalent Inc. | CTLT | Pharmaceuticals | $45.50 | $72.42 | 59% | 75% | -64% |
| Amazon.com Inc. | AMZN | Internet Retail | $90.55 | $136.02 | 50% | 91% | -46% |
| Global Payments Inc. | GPN | Misc. Commercial Services | $99.64 | $147.43 | 48% | 75% | -26% |
| Signature Bank | SBNY | Regional Banks | $122.73 | $180.44 | 47% | 78% | -62% |
| Salesforce Inc. | CRM | Software | $133.11 | $195.59 | 47% | 80% | -48% |
| Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. Class A | BIO | Medical Specialties | $418.28 | $591.00 | 41% | 100% | -45% |
| Zoetis Inc. Class A | ZTS | Pharmaceuticals | $152.86 | $212.80 | 39% | 87% | -37% |
| Delta Air Lines Inc. | DAL | Airlines | $34.77 | $48.31 | 39% | 90% | -11% |
| Diamondback Energy Inc. | FANG | Oil and Gas Production | $134.21 | $182.33 | 36% | 84% | 24% |
| Caesars Entertainment Inc | CZR | Casinos/ Gaming | $50.27 | $67.79 | 35% | 81% | -46% |
| Alphabet Inc. Class A | GOOGL | Internet Software/ Services | $93.31 | $125.70 | 35% | 92% | -36% |
| Halliburton Co. | HAL | Oilfield Services/ Equipment | $34.30 | $45.95 | 34% | 86% | 50% |
| Alaska Air Group Inc. | ALK | Airlines | $45.75 | $61.08 | 34% | 93% | -12% |
| Targa Resources Corp. | TRGP | Gas Distributors | $70.42 | $93.95 | 33% | 95% | 35% |
| Charles River Laboratories International Inc. | CRL | Misc. Commercial Services | $201.94 | $269.25 | 33% | 88% | -46% |
| ServiceNow Inc. | NOW | Information Technology Services | $401.64 | $529.83 | 32% | 92% | -38% |
| Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. | TTWO | Software | $102.61 | $135.04 | 32% | 79% | -42% |
| EOG Resources Inc. | EOG | Oil and Gas Production | $124.06 | $158.24 | 28% | 82% | 40% |
| Southwest Airlines Co. | LUV | Airlines | $38.94 | $49.56 | 27% | 76% | -9% |
| Source: FactSet | |||||||
Most of the companies on the S&P 500 list expected to soar in 2023 have seen large declines in 2022. But the company at the top of the list, EQT Corp.
EQT,
is an exception. The stock has risen 69% in 2022 and is expected to add another 62% over the next 12 months. Analysts expect the company’s earnings per share to double during 2023 (in part from its expected acquisition of THQ), after nearly a four-fold EPS increase in 2022.
Shares of Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN
are expected to soar 50% over the next year, following a decline of 46% so far in 2022. If the shares were to rise 50% from here to the price target of $136.02, they would still be 18% below their closing price of 166.72 at the end of 2021.
Read: Here’s why Amazon is Citi’s top internet stock idea
You can see the earnings estimates and more for any stock in this article by clicking on its ticker.
Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.
The lists of favored stocks are limited to those covered by at least five analysts polled by FactSet.
Among components of the S&P 400 Mid Cap Index, there are 84 stocks with at least 75% “buy” ratings. Here at the 20 expected to rise the most over the next year:
| Company | Ticker | Industry | Closing price – Dec. 12 | Consensus price target | Implied 12-month upside potential | Share “buy” ratings | Price change – 2022 through Dec. 12 |
| Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. | ARWR | Biotechnology | $31.85 | $69.69 | 119% | 83% | -52% |
| Lantheus Holdings Inc. | LNTH | Medical Specialties | $54.92 | $102.00 | 86% | 100% | 90% |
| Progyny Inc. | PGNY | Misc. Commercial Services | $31.21 | $55.57 | 78% | 100% | -38% |
| Coherent Corp. | COHR | Electronic Equipment/ Instruments | $35.41 | $60.56 | 71% | 84% | -48% |
| Exelixis Inc. | EXEL | Biotechnology | $16.08 | $26.07 | 62% | 81% | -12% |
| Darling Ingredients Inc. | DAR | Food: Specialty/ Candy | $61.17 | $97.36 | 59% | 93% | -12% |
| Perrigo Co. PLC | PRGO | Pharmaceuticals | $31.83 | $49.25 | 55% | 100% | -18% |
| Mattel Inc. | MAT | Recreational Products | $17.39 | $26.58 | 53% | 87% | -19% |
| ACI Worldwide Inc. | ACIW | Software | $20.75 | $31.40 | 51% | 83% | -40% |
| Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp. | MODG | Recreational Products | $21.99 | $32.91 | 50% | 83% | -20% |
| Dycom Industries Inc. | DY | Engineering and Construction | $86.03 | $128.13 | 49% | 100% | -8% |
| Travel + Leisure Co. | TNL | Hotels/ Resorts/ Cruiselines | $37.98 | $56.00 | 47% | 75% | -31% |
| Frontier Communications Parent Inc. | FYBR | Telecommunications | $25.21 | $36.18 | 44% | 82% | -15% |
| Manhattan Associates Inc. | MANH | Software | $120.06 | $171.80 | 43% | 88% | -23% |
| MP Materials Corp Class A | MP | Other Metals/ Minerals | $31.39 | $44.79 | 43% | 92% | -31% |
| Lumentum Holdings Inc. | LITE | Electrical Products | $54.45 | $76.44 | 40% | 76% | -49% |
| Tenet Healthcare Corp. | THC | Hospital/ Nursing Management | $44.22 | $62.00 | 40% | 80% | -46% |
| Repligen Corp. | RGEN | Pharmaceuticals | $166.88 | $233.10 | 40% | 82% | -37% |
| STAAR Surgical Co. | STAA | Medical Specialties | $59.57 | $82.67 | 39% | 82% | -35% |
| Carlisle Cos. Inc. | CSL | Building Products | $251.99 | $348.33 | 38% | 75% | 2% |
| Source: FactSet | |||||||
Among companies in the S&P Small Cap 600 Index, 91 are rated “buy” or the equivalent by at least 75% of analysts. Here are the 20 with the highest 12-month upside potential indicated by consensus price targets:
| Company | Ticker | Industry | Closing price – Dec. 12 | Consensus price target | Implied 12-month upside potential | Share “buy” ratings | Price change – 2022 through Dec. 12 |
| UniQure NV | QURE | Biotechnology | $22.99 | $51.29 | 123% | 95% | 11% |
| Cara Therapeutics Inc. | CARA | Biotechnology | $11.34 | $23.63 | 108% | 88% | -7% |
| Vir Biotechnology Inc. | VIR | Biotechnology | $25.50 | $53.00 | 108% | 75% | -39% |
| Dynavax Technologies Corp. | DVAX | Biotechnology | $11.22 | $23.20 | 107% | 100% | -20% |
| Thryv Holdings Inc. | THRY | Advertising/ Marketing Services | $18.40 | $36.75 | 100% | 100% | -55% |
| Artivion Inc. | AORT | Medical Specialties | $12.93 | $23.13 | 79% | 83% | -36% |
| Cytokinetics Inc. | CYTK | Pharmaceuticals | $38.33 | $67.43 | 76% | 100% | -16% |
| Harsco Corp. | HSC | Environmental Services | $7.17 | $12.30 | 72% | 80% | -57% |
| Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. | LGND | Pharmaceuticals | $64.80 | $110.83 | 71% | 100% | -35% |
| Corcept Therapeutics Inc. | CORT | Pharmaceuticals | $20.84 | $34.20 | 64% | 80% | 5% |
| Payoneer Global Inc. | PAYO | Misc. Commercial Services | $5.70 | $9.33 | 64% | 100% | -22% |
| Xencor Inc. | XNCR | Biotechnology | $28.69 | $46.71 | 63% | 93% | -28% |
| Pacira Biosciences Inc. | PCRX | Pharmaceuticals | $45.50 | $72.90 | 60% | 80% | -24% |
| BioLife Solutions Inc. | BLFS | Chemicals | $19.72 | $31.38 | 59% | 89% | -47% |
| Customers Bancorp Inc. | CUBI | Regional Banks | $30.00 | $47.63 | 59% | 75% | -54% |
| ModivCare Inc. | MODV | Other Transportation | $92.22 | $145.83 | 58% | 100% | -38% |
| Stride Inc. | LRN | Consumer Services | $32.56 | $51.25 | 57% | 100% | -2% |
| Ranger Oil Corp. Class A | ROCC | Oil and Gas Production | $36.98 | $58.00 | 57% | 100% | 37% |
| Outfront Media Inc. | OUT | Real Estate Investment Trusts | $17.59 | $27.00 | 53% | 83% | -34% |
| Walker & Dunlop Inc. | WD | Finance/ Rental/ Leasing | $82.22 | $125.20 | 52% | 100% | -46% |
| Source: FactSet | |||||||
Here are all 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average ranked by how much analysts expect their prices to rise over the next year:
| Company | Ticker | Industry | Closing price – Dec. 12 | Consensus price target | Implied 12-month upside potential | Share “buy” ratings | Price change – 2022 through Dec. 12 |
| Salesforce Inc. | CRM | Software | $133.11 | $195.59 | 47% | 80% | -48% |
| Walt Disney Co. | DIS | Movies/ Entertainment | $94.66 | $119.60 | 26% | 82% | -39% |
| Apple Inc. | AAPL | Telecommunications Equipment | $144.49 | $173.70 | 20% | 74% | -19% |
| Verizon Communications Inc. | VZ | Telecommunications | $37.95 | $44.60 | 18% | 21% | -27% |
| Visa Inc. Class A | V | Misc.s Commercial Services | $214.59 | $249.33 | 16% | 86% | -1% |
| Microsoft Corp. | MSFT | Software | $252.51 | $293.06 | 16% | 91% | -25% |
| Chevron Corp. | CVX | Integrated Oil | $169.75 | $191.20 | 13% | 54% | 45% |
| Cisco Systems Inc. | CSCO | Information Technology Services | $49.30 | $53.76 | 9% | 44% | -22% |
| UnitedHealth Group Inc. | UNH | Managed Health Care | $545.86 | $593.30 | 9% | 85% | 9% |
| Goldman Sachs Group Inc. | GS | Investment Banks/ Brokers | $363.18 | $392.63 | 8% | 59% | -5% |
| Walmart Inc. | WMT | Specialty Stores | $148.02 | $159.86 | 8% | 72% | 2% |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co. | JPM | Banks | $134.21 | $143.84 | 7% | 59% | -15% |
| Home Depot Inc. | HD | Home Improvement Chains | $327.98 | $346.61 | 6% | 61% | -21% |
| American Express Co. | AXP | Finance/ Rental/ Leasing | $157.31 | $164.57 | 5% | 43% | -4% |
| McDonald’s Corp. | MCD | Restaurants | $276.62 | $288.67 | 4% | 72% | 3% |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | Pharmaceuticals | $177.84 | $185.35 | 4% | 36% | 4% |
| Coca-Cola Co. | KO | Beverages: Non-Alcoholic | $63.97 | $66.62 | 4% | 73% | 8% |
| Boeing Co. | BA | Aerospace and Defense | $186.27 | $192.69 | 3% | 77% | -7% |
| Intel Corp. | INTC | Semiconductors | $28.69 | $29.54 | 3% | 13% | -44% |
| Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. | WBA | Drugstore Chains | $41.06 | $42.24 | 3% | 17% | -21% |
| Merck & Co. Inc. | MRK | Pharmaceuticals | $108.97 | $110.62 | 2% | 65% | 42% |
| Caterpillar Inc. | CAT | Trucks/ Construction/ Farm Machinery | $233.06 | $236.23 | 1% | 41% | 13% |
| Honeywell International Inc. | HON | Aerospace and Defense | $214.50 | $217.35 | 1% | 54% | 3% |
| Nike Inc. Class B | NKE | Apparel/ Footwear | $112.07 | $112.58 | 0% | 64% | -33% |
| 3M Co. | MMM | Industrial Conglomerates | $126.85 | $127.30 | 0% | 5% | -29% |
| Procter & Gamble Co. | PG | Household/ Personal Care | $152.47 | $150.22 | -1% | 59% | -7% |
| Travelers Companies Inc. | TRV | Multi-Line Insurance | $187.11 | $184.24 | -2% | 18% | 20% |
| Amgen Inc. | AMGN | Biotechnology | $276.78 | $264.79 | -4% | 24% | 23% |
| Dow Inc. | DOW | Chemicals | $51.11 | $48.73 | -5% | 15% | -10% |
| International Business Machines Corp. | IBM | Information Technology Services | $149.21 | $140.29 | -6% | 33% | 12% |
| Source: FactSet | |||||||
Don’t miss: 10 Dividend Aristocrat stocks expected by analysts to rise up to 54% in 2023
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Oracle
shares were moving higher late Monday after the company posted better-than-expected financial results for its latest quarter. The enterprise software giant continued to see success in shifting more of its business to the cloud during the period.
“Simply put, we had an outstanding quarter,” Oracle CEO Safra Catz said on a call with analysts. “More and more customers are recognizing our second generation infrastructure cloud as being better architected for higher performance, better security and unmatched reliability” than other cloud providers.
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The U.S. Department of Energy is expected on Tuesday morning to announce a breakthrough in ongoing research for nuclear fusion, long heralded for its potential as a source of zero-emissions and essentially, limitless, energy.
The announcement is scheduled for 10 a.m. Eastern time.
Nuclear fusion, if it can be produced at scale, has long been considered the Holy Grail in the push for clean energy and slowing the global warming that is intensifying natural disasters, acidifying oceans and bringing extreme heat and drought. The U.S. and much of the rest of the developed world have been promoting a combination of solar, wind
ICLN,
hydrogren and nuclear energy to replace the coal, oil
CL00,
and natural gas
NG00,
that send atmosphere-warming emissions into the air.
Many nations, including the U.S., have said their economies must cut emissions by half as soon as 2030 and hit net-zero emissions by 2050.
On Sunday, the Financial Times reported that federally-funded scientists with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produced more energy than was consumed in a fusion reaction for the first time. Other major news outlets confirmed that reporting, although the lab has said it will wait until Tuesday to discuss the project.
“The recent experiment is a first-of-its-kind feat that could lead to an effective process for producing a zero-carbon alternative to fossil fuels and [traditional] nuclear energy,” said Frank Maisano, senior principal focused on energy with the Policy Resolution Group in Washington.
Nuclear fusion is the process of fusing two or more atoms into one larger one, a process that unleashes potentially usable energy as heat, in much the same way the sun heats the Earth. Nuclear power used today is created by a different process, called fission, which relies on splitting atoms and harnessing that energy, while also producing radioactive waste.
Currently, traditional nuclear plants using fission produce about 10% of the world’s electricity, but their proponents have also pushed their expansion as a key to a diverse portfolio of alternative energy.
Daniel Kammen, a professor of energy and society at the University of California at Berkeley, told the Associated Press that nuclear fusion offers the possibility of “basically unlimited” fuel, but only when the technology can be made commercially viable. The basic elements are easily accessible; in fact, they’re available in seawater.
The Livermore lab isn’t the only effort toward a fusion breakthrough, which scientists have worked on for decades.
In Europe earlier this year, a large, doughnut-shaped machine known as a tokamak, developed by scientists working in the English village of Culham, near Oxford, generated a record-breaking 59 megajoules of sustained nuclear fusion energy over five seconds during trials, the scientists revealed. That more than doubled the previous record for generating and sustaining fusion.
While scientists have generated fusion energy before it is sustaining the power that has been difficult to achieve. A magnetic field is required to contain the high temperatures created by the fusion process — some 150 million degrees Celsius, 10 times hotter than the center of the sun.
The Livermore lab uses a different technique than the tokamak, with researchers firing a 192-beam laser at a small capsule filled with deuterium-tritium fuel. The lab reported that an August 2021 test produced 1.35 megajoules of fusion energy — about 70% of the energy fired at the target. The lab said several subsequent experiments showed declining results, but researchers believed they had identified ways to improve the quality of the fuel capsule and the lasers’ symmetry.
In Orange County, California, another contender in the fusion race, TAE Technologies, is on track to develop the first commercial prototype power plant for clean fusion energy by 2030, its CEO Michl Binderbauer told MarketWatch earlier this year. Binderbauer had just attended the first-ever White House Fusion Summit.
At that event, administration officials announced what they called a “bold decadal vision” to accelerate the development of commercial fusion energy.
“There’s a fallacy in thinking that solar and wind can solve everything,” said Binderbauer. “Absolutely, they’re wonderful sources of power where it fits. But there are also limitations. There’s no world that can run on 100% renewables.”
Nuclear industry analysts remind that it will take sustaining and repeating the process, and at scale, for the development to change traditional energy markets anytime soon.
“This doesn’t mean it’s not a big deal, but I still doubt how much this impacts the efforts to bring fusion closer to commercial reality. My sense is fusion is at least a decade or more away from any commercialization,” said Jonathan Hinze, president of UxC, LLC, which tracks the uranium and nuclear markets, in an email to MarketWatch.
The Associated Press contributed.
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Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which faced a colossal collapse this year, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday, and is facing criminal charges in the United States, according to a Bahamian official.
The Attorney General of the Bahamas, through spokesman Latrae Rahming, posted a statement on Twitter detailing the arrest. Bankman-Fried, commonly known as SBF, lives in the Bahamas, where the cryptocurrency exchange was also based.
“SBF’s arrest followed receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against SBF and is likely to request his extradition,” the statement reads.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York later tweeted that his office had filed a sealed indictment, which led to the arrest.
“We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” Damian Williams said in a tweet from the office’s official Twitter account.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department are investigating the company, and the New York Times reported last week that Manhattan-based federal prosecutors are investigating whether Bankman-Fried steered prices of cryptocurrencies TerraUSD and Luna to benefit FTX and his Alameda hedge fund. The former chief executive of FTX was expected to testify remotely in front of a House Financial Services Committee panel on Tuesday.
FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, filed for bankruptcy protection in November, and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO. The new CEO of FTX, John J. Ray III, is expected to testify in front of members of Congress on Tuesday, and in prepared remarks released Monday, he said that Bankman-Fried’s management of FTX was an “utter failure” that lacked any level of financial control.
MarketWatch staff writer Robert Schroeder contributed to this article.
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Oracle Corp. topped Wall Street’s expectations for profit and revenue in its most recent quarter, though the software company is still expected to issue a forecast that could be more fraught.
Oracle
ORCL,
on Monday reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $1.74 billion, or 63 cents a share, on revenue of $12.28 billion, up from $10.36 billion a year ago. After adjusting for stock-based compensation and other costs, Oracle reported earnings of $1.21 a share, even with the same quarter a year ago.
Analysts on average expected adjusted earnings of $1.17 a share on sales of $11.96 billion, according to FactSet. Oracle shares gained nearly 3% in after-hours trading immediately after the results were announced, following a 1.8% increase to $81.29 in regular trading.
Oracle executives did not provide guidance for the fiscal third quarter in Monday’s announcement, but Chief Executive Safra Catz does typically provide a forecast in their conference call, which is scheduled for 5 p.m. Eastern time. Those numbers are likely to affect earnings more than the results, as concerns about an increasing slowdown in business spending have rocked a swath of software companies in recent weeks.
“We believe the darkest days of this downturn are ahead of us,” Monness Crespi Hardt analyst Brian J. White wrote in a preview of Oracle results, later adding that “results across Big Tech, the leading public clouds, and the enterprise software complex paint an increasingly concerning picture for the software world heading into 2023.”
Oracle stock has outperformed the S&P 500 index
SPX,
since executives hosted an event for financial analysts and investors in October, with shares gaining 4.8% in the past three months while the larger index fell 3.9%. Oracle executives promised to grow adjusted earnings by more than 10% every year as revenue growth accelerates, after years of stagnant sales growth led to large share repurchases and constant cuts to improve the software company’s bottom line.
Oracle is experiencing strong revenue growth thanks to the acquisition of healthcare-focused company Cerner, a $28 billion deal that closed in June. There are hopes for organic growth as well, though, as Oracle’s cloud-computing effort starts to show fruit, including winning part of a recent Defense Department contract after suing to halt an earlier version of that award.
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Electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive on Monday said it won’t go forward with a plan to make electric vans in Europe with Mercedes-Benz, just three months after agreeing to the pact.
“As we evaluate growth opportunities, we pursue the best risk-adjusted returns on our capital investments. At this point in time, we believe focusing on our consumer business, as well as our existing commercial business, represent the most attractive near-term opportunities to maximize value for Rivian,” said RJ Scaringe, CEO of Rivian.
Rivian
RIVN,
shares had jumped 11% when the Mercedes deal was first announced.
Rivian shares over this year have tumbled 74%.
Mercedes-Benz
MBG,
says it will continue to pursue the electrification of its vans. It said the ramp-up plan for its EV manufacturing site in Jawor, Poland is not affected.
“We will continue with full speed and determination to scale up electric vehicle production in our first dedicated electric van plant – designed for maximum flexibility and productivity. Exploring strategic opportunities with the team at Rivian in the future remains an option, as we share the same strategic ambition: accelerating the EV adoption with benchmark products for our customers,” said Mathias Geisen, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans.
Mercedes shares slipped 1%.
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Danish biotechnology companies Novozymes AS
NZYM.B,
and Chr. Hansen Holding AS
CHR,
said Monday they have agreed to merge, creating a biological solutions provider with combined annual revenue of around 3.5 billion euros ($3.69 billion).
The companies, which produce products such as enzymes, probiotics and biopharmaceutical ingredients, said the combination between two strategically complementary businesses will drive efficiencies while unlocking potential within biosolutions and providing additional growth opportunities.
“Novozymes and Chr. Hansen share the strong conviction that our combined scale, know-how, commercial strengths, and innovation excellence will drive value for our shareholders, customers and society at large,” said Novozymes Chief Executive Ester Baiget.
The deal will see Chr. Hansen shareholders receive 1.5326 new B-shares in Novozymes for each Chr. Hansen share, reflecting an implied premium of 49% to Chr. Hansen’s closing share price on Friday and valuing each Chr. Hansen share at 660.55 Danish kroner ($93.53) a share.
Novo Holdings AS, the largest shareholder in both Novozymes and Chr. Hansen, will support the proposed merger and exchange its 22% stake in Chr. Hansen at an exchange ratio of 1.0227 new B-shares in Novozymes.
The companies said they see annual revenue synergies of EUR200 million within four years after completion of the deal.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
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