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These 20 stocks soared the most in 2023

(Updated with Friday’s closing prices.)

The 2023 rally for stocks in the U.S. accelerated as more investors bought the idea that the Federal Reserve succeeded in its effort to bring inflation to heel.

The S&P 500
SPX
ended Friday with a 24.2% gain for 2023, following a 19.4% decline in 2022. (All price changes in this article exclude dividends). Among the 500 stocks, 65% were up for 2023. Below is a list of the year’s 20 best performers in the benchmark index.

This article focuses on large-cap stocks. MarketWatch Editor in Chief Mark DeCambre took a broader look at all U.S. stocks of companies with market capitalizations of at least $1 billion, to list 10 with gains ranging from 412% to 1,924%.

The Fed began raising short-term interest rates and pushing long-term rates higher in March 2022 by allowing its bond portfolio to run off. That explains the poor performance for stocks in 2022, as bonds and even bank accounts because more attractive to investors.

The central bank hasn’t raised the federal-funds rate since moving it to the current target range of 5.25% to 5.50% in July, and its economic projections point to three rate cuts in 2024.

Investors are anticipating the return to a low-rate environment by scooping up 10-year U.S. Treasury notes
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y,
whose yield ended the year at 3.88%, down from 4.84% on Oct. 27 — the day of the S&P 500’s low for the second half of 2023.

Read: Treasury yields end mostly higher but little changed on year after wild 2023

Before looking at the list of best-performing stocks of 2023, here’s a summary of how the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 performed, with the full index and three more broad indexes at the bottom:

Sector or index	2023 price change	2022 price change	Price change since end of 2021	Forward P/E	Forward P/E at end of 2022	Forward P/E at end of 2023
Information Technology	56.4%	-28.9%	11.5%	26.7	20.0	28.2
Communication Services	54.4%	-40.4%	-7.6%	17.4	14.3	21.0
Consumer Discretionary	41.0%	-37.6%	-11.4%	26.2	21.7	34.7
Industrials	16.0%	-7.1%	8.0%	20.0	18.7	22.0
Materials	10.2%	-14.1%	-4.9%	19.5	15.8	16.6
Financials	9.9%	-12.4%	-3.4%	14.6	13.0	16.3
Real Estate	8.3%	-28.4%	-21.6%	18.3	16.9	24.7
Healthcare	0.3%	-3.6%	-3.3%	18.2	17.7	17.3
Consumer Staples	-2.2%	-3.2%	-5.4%	19.3	20.6	21.4
Energy	-4.8%	59.0%	51.8%	10.9	9.8	11.1
Utilities	-10.2%	-1.4%	-11.4%	15.9	18.7	20.4

S&P 500 SPX	24.2%	-19.4%	0.4%	19.7	16.8	21.6
Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA	13.7%	-8.8%	3.8%	17.6	16.6	18.9
Nasdaq Composite COMP	43.4%	-33.1%	-3.5%	26.9	22.6	32.0
Nasdaq-100 NDX	53.8%	-33.0%	3.5%	26.3	20.9	30.3
Source: FactSet

A look at 2023 price action really needs to encompass what took place in 2022 for context. The broad indexes haven’t moved much from their levels at the end of 2022 (again, excluding dividends). We have included current forward price-to-earnings ratios along with those at the end of 2021 and 2022. These valuations have declined a bit, which may provide some comfort for investors wondering how likely it is for stocks to continue to rally in 2024.

Biggest price increases among the S&P 500

Here are the 20 stocks in the S&P 500 whose prices rose the most in 2023:

Company	Ticker	2023 price change	2022 price change	Price change since end of 2021	Forward P/E	Forward P/E at end of 2022	Forward P/E at end of 2021
Nvidia Corp.	NVDA,	239%	-50%	68%	24.9	34.4	58.0
Meta Platforms Inc. Class A	META, -1.22%	194%	-64%	5%	20.2	14.7	23.5
Royal Caribbean Group	RCL, -0.37%	162%	-36%	68%	14.3	14.9	232.4
Builders FirstSource Inc.	BLDR, -1.02%	157%	-24%	95%	14.2	10.7	13.3
Uber Technologies Inc.	UBER, -2.49%	149%	-41%	47%	56.9	N/A	N/A
Carnival Corp.	CCL, -0.70%	130%	-60%	-8%	18.7	41.3	N/A
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.	AMD, -0.91%	128%	-55%	2%	39.7	17.7	43.1
PulteGroup Inc.	PHM, -0.26%	127%	-20%	81%	9.1	6.3	6.2
Palo Alto Networks Inc.	PANW, -0.24%	111%	-25%	59%	50.2	38.0	70.1
Tesla Inc.	TSLA, -1.86%	102%	-65%	-29%	66.2	22.3	120.3
Broadcom Inc.	AVGO, -0.55%	100%	-16%	68%	23.2	13.6	19.8
Salesforce Inc.	CRM, -0.92%	98%	-48%	4%	28.0	23.8	53.5
Fair Isaac Corp.	FICO, -0.46%	94%	38%	168%	47.1	29.3	28.7
Arista Networks Inc.	ANET, -0.62%	94%	-16%	64%	32.7	22.3	41.4
Intel Corp.	INTC, -0.28%	90%	-49%	-2%	26.6	14.6	13.9
Jabil Inc.	JBL, -0.45%	87%	-3%	81%	13.5	7.9	10.3
Lam Research Corp.	LRCX, -0.81%	86%	-42%	9%	25.2	13.5	20.2
ServiceNow Inc.	NOW, +0.57%	82%	-40%	9%	56.0	42.6	90.1
Amazon.com Inc.	AMZN, -0.94%	81%	-50%	-9%	42.0	46.7	64.9
Monolithic Power Systems Inc.	MPWR, -0.23%	78%	-28%	28%	49.1	27.3	57.9
Source: FactSet

Click on the tickers for more about each company.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

Don’t miss: Nvidia tops list of Wall Street’s 20 favorite stocks for 2024

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December 30, 2023

Greedflation is not letting up. Here’s what companies are saying about it.

The second-quarter earnings season so far is showing that one trend that featured in the first quarter has not gone away.

“Greedflation,” or the practice of companies raising prices to protect their profit margins, is alive and well, based on the number of companies that have so far acknowledged raising prices yet again, even as inflation readings have come down and as some acknowledge that their input costs are falling.

At the same time, companies continue to emphasize on earnings calls that their customers are showing signs they are weary of higher prices and are shopping more frequently at more stores, while spending less per trip.

See: Consumers are shopping in more stores than ever before to save money

“Across industries, we’ve seen the same story over and over the last two years,” said Liz Zelnick, director of economic security and corporate power at Accountable.US, a liberal-leaning consumer-advocacy group.

“CEOs claim outside forces made them gouge consumers, then turn around and give themselves raises and boast of record profits and billions in new investor handouts,” she said, referring to the billions of stock buybacks and dividend payouts the same companies have made.

See: U.S. inflation slows again, CPI shows, as Fed weighs another rate hike

Also read: U.S. wholesale inflation slows to a crawl, PPI shows

Procter & Gamble Co.
PG,
-1.10%,
for example, said it raised prices by up to 9% in its latest quarter, after raising them up to 10% the previous quarter and up to 10% in the same quarter in 2022.

On a call with analysts, Chief Executive Jon Moeller signaled more price increases to come, which he attributed to the company’s innovation pipeline, which is creating must-have products.

“If you look back historically, pricing has been a positive contributor to our top-line growth for something like 48 out of the 51 last quarters and again as we strengthen our innovation program even further, that will provide opportunities to continue to benefit from modest pricing,” said Moeller, according to a FactSet transcript.

The company blew past earnings estimates with adjusted per-share earnings of $1.37, ahead of the $1.32 FactSet consensus, and sales of $20.6 billion, versus the $20 billion FactSet consensus.

Gross margin increased 380 basis points from a year ago, driven by 340 basis points of pricing benefit and 290 basis points of productivity savings.

Coca-Cola Co.
KO,
-1.51%
also swept past estimates and raised guidance after the drinks and snacks giant increased prices by 10%. The company’s adjusted operating margin rose to 31.6% from 30.6% a year ago.

Conagra Brands Inc.
CAG,
-0.62%
raised prices by up to 17%, which Chief Executive Sean Connolly described as “inflation-justified.” The parent of brands such as Birds Eye, Duncan Hines, Hunt’s, Orville Redenbacher’s and Slim Jim also reported that its customers are buying less food to stretch their budgets.

For more, see: Consumers are now ‘hunkering down’ rather than ‘trading down’ on groceries, Conagra says

Oreo cookie maker Mondelez International Inc.
MDLZ,
-1.82%
raised prices in North America by 10.4 percentage points in the second quarter and raised prices for all developed markets by 12.4 percentage points. That’s after raising North America prices by 15 percentage points and prices in developed markets by 13.4 percentage points in the first quarter.

The company’s second-quarter gross margins expanded by 3.1 percentage points to 39.4%. Revenues rose 17%, while volumes were flat.

At Campbell Soup Co.
CPB,
-1.05%,
sales for its fiscal third quarter were up 5%, led by “favorable net price realization,” as the company disclosed as the very first bullet point in its release. Campbell raised prices of meals and beverages by 9% and if snacks by 15%, after raising them by 15% and 13%, respectively, in the second quarter.

However, volumes were down in the third quarter as shoppers proved sensitive to higher prices.

Kraft Heinz Co.
KHC,
-0.82%
on Tuesday said it too has lost business because it raised prices more than its competitors, but it’s not planning to cut prices to try to get those customers back anytime soon.

“[W]hile we did lose share in the quarter, as price gaps have stayed wider for longer than we would have liked, we are managing the business for the long term and still generated mid-single-digit top-line growth within the range of what we expected,” Chief Executive Miguel Patricio said.

The company, parent to brands including Kraft Mac and Cheese, Heinz Ketchup, Jell-O and Lunchables, indicated on the post-earnings conference call with analysts that rather than increasing discounting, or just cutting prices, it will remain focused on protecting margins, which has been allowing it to accelerate investment in the business, particularly in marketing, research and development and technology.

Besides, as Chief Financial Officer Andre Maciel said, the gaps between Kraft’s prices and those of competitors are not getting worse. “If anything, they are slightly getting better,” Maciel said, according to an AlphaSense transcript.

Considering the market-share losses and with inflation coming down, “do you think you took too much price, given you said you took price ahead of competitors, and they have not followed?” UBS analyst Cody Ross asked on the conference call.

CEO Miguel Patricio’s answer was simple: “No.”

“I mean, we had very high inflation. And we are leaders in the vast majority of categories where we play. And it’s our role as leader to try to compensate … this inflation with price increases,” Patricio said. “So I would do everything again. I mean we can always go back on price if we think we have to or when we have to. But we had to lead price increases.”

All of that leaves families to foot the bill for higher food prices, said Accountable.US’s Zelnick.

The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund
XLP
has gained 1.2% in the year to date, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF
XRT
has gained 10.3%. The S&P 500
XRT
has gained 17%.

Tomi Kilgore contributed.

Source link

August 4, 2023

Greedflation is not letting up. Here’s what companies are saying about it.

The second-quarter earnings season so far is showing that one trend that featured in the first quarter has not gone away.

“Greedflation,” or the practice of companies raising prices to protect their profit margins, is alive and well, based on the number of companies that have so far acknowledged raising prices yet again, even as inflation readings have come down and as some acknowledge that their input costs are falling.

At the same time, companies continue to emphasize on earnings calls that their customers are showing signs they are weary of higher prices and are shopping more frequently at more stores, while spending less per trip.

See: Consumers are shopping in more stores than ever before to save money

“Across industries, we’ve seen the same story over and over the last two years,” said Liz Zelnick, director of economic security and corporate power at Accountable.US, a liberal-leaning consumer-advocacy group.

“CEOs claim outside forces made them gouge consumers, then turn around and give themselves raises and boast of record profits and billions in new investor handouts,” she said, referring to the billions of stock buybacks and dividend payouts the same companies have made.

See: U.S. inflation slows again, CPI shows, as Fed weighs another rate hike

Also read: U.S. wholesale inflation slows to a crawl, PPI shows

Procter & Gamble Co.
PG,
+0.18%,
for example, said it raised prices by up to 9% in its latest quarter, after raising them up to 10% the previous quarter and up to 10% in the same quarter in 2022.

On a call with analysts, Chief Executive Jon Moeller signaled more price increases to come, which he attributed to the company’s innovation pipeline, which is creating must-have products.

“If you look back historically, pricing has been a positive contributor to our top-line growth for something like 48 out of the 51 last quarters and again as we strengthen our innovation program even further, that will provide opportunities to continue to benefit from modest pricing,” said Moeller, according to a FactSet transcript.

The company blew past earnings estimates with adjusted per-share earnings of $1.37, ahead of the $1.32 FactSet consensus, and sales of $20.6 billion, versus the $20 billion FactSet consensus.

Gross margin increased 380 basis points from a year ago, driven by 340 basis points of pricing benefit and 290 basis points of productivity savings.

Coca-Cola Co.
KO,
-0.49%
also swept past estimates and raised guidance after the drinks and snacks giant increased prices by 10%. The company’s adjusted operating margin rose to 31.6% from 30.6% a year ago.

Conagra Brands Inc.
CAG,
-0.75%
raised prices by up to 17%, which Chief Executive Sean Connolly described as “inflation-justified.” The parent of brands such as Birds Eye, Duncan Hines, Hunt’s, Orville Redenbacher’s and Slim Jim also reported that its customers are buying less food to stretch their budgets.

For more, see: Consumers are now ‘hunkering down’ rather than ‘trading down’ on groceries, Conagra says

Oreo cookie maker Mondelez International Inc.
MDLZ,
+0.09%
raised prices in North America by 10.4 percentage points in the second quarter and raised prices for all developed markets by 12.4 percentage points. That’s after raising North America prices by 15 percentage points and prices in developed markets by 13.4 percentage points in the first quarter.

The company’s second-quarter gross margins expanded by 3.1 percentage points to 39.4%. Revenues rose 17%, while volumes were flat.

At Campbell Soup Co.
CPB,
-0.95%,
sales for its fiscal third quarter were up 5%, led by “favorable net price realization,” as the company disclosed as the very first bullet point in its release. Campbell raised prices of meals and beverages by 9% and if snacks by 15%, after raising them by 15% and 13%, respectively, in the second quarter.

However, volumes were down in the third quarter as shoppers proved sensitive to higher prices.

Kraft Heinz Co.
KHC,
-1.75%
on Tuesday said it too has lost business because it raised prices more than its competitors, but it’s not planning to cut prices to try to get those customers back anytime soon.

“[W]hile we did lose share in the quarter, as price gaps have stayed wider for longer than we would have liked, we are managing the business for the long term and still generated mid-single-digit top-line growth within the range of what we expected,” Chief Executive Miguel Patricio said.

The company, parent to brands including Kraft Mac and Cheese, Heinz Ketchup, Jell-O and Lunchables, indicated on the post-earnings conference call with analysts that rather than increasing discounting, or just cutting prices, it will remain focused on protecting margins, which has been allowing it to accelerate investment in the business, particularly in marketing, research and development and technology.

Besides, as Chief Financial Officer Andre Maciel said, the gaps between Kraft’s prices and those of competitors are not getting worse. “If anything, they are slightly getting better,” Maciel said, according to an AlphaSense transcript.

Considering the market-share losses and with inflation coming down, “do you think you took too much price, given you said you took price ahead of competitors, and they have not followed?” UBS analyst Cody Ross asked on the conference call.

CEO Miguel Patricio’s answer was simple: “No.”

“I mean, we had very high inflation. And we are leaders in the vast majority of categories where we play. And it’s our role as leader to try to compensate … this inflation with price increases,” Patricio said. “So I would do everything again. I mean we can always go back on price if we think we have to or when we have to. But we had to lead price increases.”

All of that leaves families to foot the bill for higher food prices, said Accountable.US’s Zelnick.

The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund
XLP
has gained 1.2% in the year to date, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF
XRT
has gained 10.3%. The S&P 500
XRT
has gained 17%.

Tomi Kilgore contributed.

Source link

August 3, 2023

These Drilling Stocks Could Be Gushers as the Oil Industry Rebounds

Offshore oil drillers were about the worst place to be in 2020 as oil prices were falling and demand for crude seemed to be seeping away. Now, the stocks may be the ones to own as investors realize that oil will be needed to make the world go around for decades.

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June 26, 2023

Tesla, Apple, Ciena, and More Stock Market Movers

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https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-movers-6acba64b

Updated March 6, 2023 5:37 am ET / Original March 6, 2023 5:07 am ET

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Stock futures traded mostly flat Monday as Wall Street kicked off a week that includes testimony before Congress from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and the U.S. jobs report for February.

These stocks were poised to make moves Monday:

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March 6, 2023

Royal Caribbean Beats Earnings Estimates and Signals Strong Bookings

Royal Caribbean Group

did better than anticipated in the fourth quarter, turning in a narrower-than-expected loss and saying bookings were nearing record highs at higher prices.

The stock surged more than 6% in early trading Tuesday. It is now up close to 50% so far in 2023.

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February 7, 2023

These 20 stocks led the January rally

The initial version of this story had incorrect price changes for 2023. It is now updated with information as of the market close on Jan. 31.

Investors staged a January rally, with solid gains for the S&P 500 and an even better showing for technology stocks that led the dismal downward action in 2022.

This…

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January 31, 2023

18 stock picks in a ‘Goldilocks’ scenario for U.S. consumers

It may not have been a surprise to see the consumer discretionary sector of the S&P 500 get hammered last year amid talk of a looming recession while the Federal Reserve jacked up interest rates to push back against inflation.

But the stock market always looks ahead. Following a decline of 19.4% for the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.42%
in 2022 and a 37.6% drop for the benchmark index’s consumer discretionary sector, this may be the time to begin looking for bargains.

And now, analysts at Jefferies have lifted the sector to a “bullish” rating.

In a note to clients on Jan. 10, Jefferies’ global equity strategist, Sean Darby, wrote: “A Goldilocks scenario might be unfolding for the U.S. consumer — falling inflation but steady employment conditions.”

He sees consumer confidence improving, in part because “households are still sitting on [about] $1.4 trillion of Covid savings.”

Darby pointed to a list of 18 consumer discretionary stocks favored by Jefferies analysts that was published on Jan. 6. Those are listed below, along with three stocks in the sector the analysts rate “underperform.”

The ratings of the Jefferies analysts for individual stocks is based on their 12-month outlooks for the companies, in keeping with Wall Street tradition.

So we have added another list further down, showing which companies in the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector are expected by analysts polled by FactSet to increase sales the most through 2024.

The Jefferies 18

Here are the 18 consumer discretionary stocks recommended by Jefferies analysts with “buy” ratings on Jan. 6, sorted by how much upside the firm sees for the shares from closing prices on Jan. 9:

Company	Ticker	Jan. 9 price	Jefferies price target	Implied 12-month upside potential	Three-year estimated sales CAGR through 2022	Two-year estimated sales CAGR through 2024
Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp.	MODG, -0.22%	$20.76	$56	170%	32.8%	10.0%
Bloomin’ Brands Inc.	BLMN, +3.87%	$22.08	$35	59%	2.4%	3.7%
Coty Inc. Class A	COTY, +1.23%	$9.38	$14	49%	-7.1%	3.7%
MGM Resorts International	MGM, +1.71%	$37.64	$56	49%	-0.1%	6.6%
Chewy Inc. Class A	CHWY, +1.63%	$40.13	$57	42%	28.0%	10.6%
Planet Fitness Inc. Class A	PLNT, +0.69%	$82.36	$115	40%	10.4%	13.9%
Molson Coors Beverage Co. Class B	TAP, +0.67%	$50.21	$69	37%	0.5%	1.4%
Fox Factory Holding Corp.	FOXF, +3.95%	$99.90	$135	35%	28.1%	6.6%
Hasbro Inc.	HAS, +0.99%	$63.70	$85	33%	9.1%	3.6%
Hostess Brands Inc. Class A	TWNK, +0.33%	$23.10	$30	30%	14.2%	5.0%
Lowe’s Cos. Inc.	LOW, +0.08%	$199.44	$250	25%	10.6%	-1.9%
Walmart Inc.	WMT, -0.27%	$144.95	$175	21%	4.9%	3.3%
Dollar General Corp.	DG, -0.26%	$241.05	$285	18%	10.9%	6.7%
Church & Dwight Co. Inc.	CHD, -1.17%	$82.25	$97	18%	7.0%	4.6%
McDonald’s Corp.	MCD, +0.39%	$267.25	$315	18%	2.4%	4.0%
Estee Lauder Cos. Inc. Class A	EL, +0.39%	$261.63	$304	16%	2.8%	5.8%
Mondelez International Inc. Class A	MDLZ, -0.04%	$67.24	$75	12%	6.3%	4.1%
Tapestry Inc.	TPR, +0.73%	$41.25	$45	9%	3.3%	3.2%
Sources: Jefferies, FactSet

Click on the tickers for more information about the companies.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

The two right-most columns on the table show estimated compound annual growth rates (CAGR) for the companies over the past three calendar years and expected sales CAGR for two years through calendar 2024, based on the companies’ financial reports and consensus estimates among analysts polled by FactSet.

(We used calendar-year numbers, some of which are estimated by FactSet for prior years, because some companies have fiscal years or even months that don’t match the calendar.)

The stock pick with the highest 12-month upside potential, based on Jefferies’ price target, is Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp.
MODG,
-0.22%.
This company has the highest estimated three-year sales CAGR on the list, and has the third-highest projected sales CAGR through 2024, after Planet Fitness Inc.
PLNT,
+0.69%
and Chewy Inc.
CHWY,
+1.63%.

On Jan. 6, the Jefferies analysts also listed three stocks in the sector they rated “underperform.” Here they are, sorted by how much the analysts expect the stocks to decline over the next 12 months:

Company	Ticker	Jan. 9 price	Jefferies price target	Implied 12-month upside potential	Three-year estimated sales CAGR through 2022	Two-year estimated sales CAGR through 2024
Lululemon Athletica Inc.	LULU, +2.98%	$298.66	$200	-33%	26.3%	14.6%
Williams-Sonoma Inc.	WSM, +1.75%	$122.17	$98	-20%	14.1%	-0.3%
Harley-Davidson Inc.	HOG, +0.35%	$43.25	$39	-10%	-2.8%	4.4%
Sources: Jefferies, FactSet

Screen of consumer discretionary sales growth

A look head at which companies are expected to increase sales the most over the next two years might serve as a good starting point for your own research.

Bear in mind that some of the companies in travel-related industries suffered declining sales for three years through 2022 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some of those are on this new list of 20 stocks in the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector expected to show the highest two-year sales CAGR through calendar 2024:

Company	Ticker	Two-year estimated sales CAGR through 2024	Three-year estimated sales CAGR through 2022	Share “buy” ratings	Jan. 9 price	Consensus price target	Implied 12-month upside potential
Las Vegas Sands Corp.	LVS, +1.59%	59.2%	-32.6%	79%	$52.78	$53.53	1%
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.	NCLH, +1.67%	39.6%	-9.3%	44%	$13.78	$16.96	23%
Carnival Corp.	CCL, +1.64%	35.2%	-14.7%	30%	$9.47	$10.11	7%
Tesla Inc.	TSLA, -1.83%	34.3%	49.7%	64%	$119.77	$232.43	94%
Wynn Resorts Ltd.	WYNN, +2.01%	29.3%	-17.5%	53%	$94.33	$96.07	2%
Royal Caribbean Group	RCL, +2.22%	28.4%	-6.8%	53%	$57.29	$66.43	16%
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.	CMG, -0.17%	13.4%	15.9%	71%	$1,446.74	$1,778.81	23%
Amazon.com Inc.	AMZN, +2.61%	12.2%	22.1%	92%	$87.36	$133.76	53%
Booking Holdings Inc.	BKNG, +0.37%	11.9%	3.9%	63%	$2,208.41	$2,307.67	4%
Aptiv PLC	APTV, +1.66%	11.9%	6.4%	70%	$97.98	$117.23	20%
Starbucks Corp.	SBUX, +1.28%	11.2%	7.2%	42%	$104.74	$103.44	-1%
Etsy Inc.	ETSY, +3.56%	11.1%	45.3%	50%	$120.99	$124.04	3%
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.	HLT, +0.06%	10.1%	-2.9%	38%	$129.08	$146.17	13%
Expedia Group Inc.	EXPE, +0.39%	9.0%	-0.9%	50%	$93.77	$125.65	34%
NIKE Inc. Class B	NKE, +0.68%	8.1%	5.8%	62%	$124.85	$126.15	1%
Marriott International Inc. Class A	MAR, +0.47%	7.5%	-1.2%	30%	$152.53	$172.81	13%
BorgWarner Inc.	BWA, +1.82%	7.1%	15.3%	53%	$42.24	$46.93	11%
Tractor Supply Co.	TSCO, +1.06%	6.8%	19.0%	61%	$217.48	$232.34	7%
Yum! Brands Inc.	YUM, -0.76%	6.7%	6.4%	47%	$129.76	$137.79	6%
Dollar General Corp.	DG, -0.26%	6.7%	10.9%	67%	$241.05	$267.54	11%
Source: FactSet

Among the companies on this list that didn’t suffer sales declines from 2019 levels, Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
-1.83%
is expected to achieve the highest two-year sales CAGR through 2022.

Dollar General Corp.
DG,
-0.26%
is the only company to appear on this list based on consensus sales growth estimates and the Jefferies recommended list.

Don’t miss: These 15 Dividend Aristocrat stocks have been the best income builders

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January 10, 2023

U.S. stocks waver in choppy trade, S&P 500 on pace for 5-day losing streak as economic growth worries linger

U.S. stock indexes are wavering between small gains and losses on Wall Street Wednesday, struggling to gain ground after a four-day losing streak amid worries about the chances of an economic downturn in coming months.

How are stock-index futures trading

S&P 500
SPX,
-0.16%
dropped 14 points, or 0.3%, to 3,927
Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.08%
shed 70 points, or 0.2%, to 33,528, after rallying over 145 points earlier in the session
Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-0.50%
fell 83 points, or 0.8% to 10,931

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 351 points, or 1.03%, to 33596, the S&P 500 declined 58 points, or 1.44%, to 3,941, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 225 points, or 2%, to 11,015.

What’s driving markets

A four-day losing streak, during which the S&P 500 index has lost 3.4%, showed little sign of being snapped Wednesday as investors continued to assess the potential economic damage inflicted by high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s campaign to damp it by raising interest rates. U.S. stock indexes extended losses in midday trade despite regaining some ground in the morning session.

MarketWatch Live: S&P 500 on pace for 5-day losing streak as stocks turn negative heading into midday

“The recent run of macro data points in the U.S. continues to underscore relatively solid economic trends. And combined with the recent easing in financial conditions, it may trigger a need for the Fed to push back in December. Put another way, the dove camp is feeling some pain,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

Jim Reid, strategist at Deutsche Bank , noted that the S&P 500 had now lost ground in the last seven out of eight sessions. “In fact, the latest moves for the S&P mean it’s now unwound the entirety of the rally following Fed Chair Powell’s [supposedly dovish] speech last week, which makes sense on one level given he didn’t actually say anything particularly new.”

The S&P 500 has fallen 17.2% in 2022 as the Federal Reserve has driven borrowing costs sharply higher in an effort to tame inflation that has been running at the fastest pace in 40 years.

See: BNP Paribas studied 100 years of market crashes — here’s what it says is coming next

The Fed’s monetary tightening alongside stubborn inflation may deliver a marked economic slowdown, senior bankers such as JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon warned this week.

“Fears are growing that economies are in for a rough time ahead as feverish inflation and the bitter interest rate medicine being used to bring it down take effect,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Worries deepened amid warnings from U.S. banking and media sectors that navigating through the storm would not be easy, while the latest data has shown China’s trade has been sideswiped by a drop in global demand and zero-COVID policies. Despite today’s easing of restrictions it’s clear China’s COVID nightmare is not at an end,” Streeter added.

China on Wednesday announced a series of measures rolling back some of its most draconian anti-COVID-19 restrictions. People who test positive for the virus will be able to isolate at home rather than in overcrowded and unsanitary field hospitals, and schools where there have been no outbreaks must return to in-class teaching, according to the National Health Commission.

The Hang Seng index
HSI,
-3.22%
in Hong Kong fell 3.2%, while the CSI 300
000300,
-0.25%
dropped 0.2%, suggesting investors had already discounted Beijing’s more relaxed COVID stance.

See: A speedy reversal of China COVID-19 restrictions could cause 1 million winter deaths: report

However, long time bull Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat, reckons equities will benefit in coming weeks as investors start to get greater clarity on when the Fed may stop tightening policy.

“We don’t think the end of the inflation war in 2022 is the Fed cutting rates. It is when Fed and markets see sufficient progress in inflation to remove the upside risks to higher rates. We think this could happen as early as the November CPI report. This will be released on 12/13,” Lee wrote in a note.

“And if November CPI is soft, we think this will support a strong year-end rally. Admittedly, a 10% move between now and [year end] seems a stretch given the S&P 500 is around 4,000 but… the broader point is we see stocks having positive skew given the cautious positioning of investors and the possibility of very favorable incoming inflation reports,” Lee added.

On the U.S. economic front, nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output change per worker, rose at a 0.8% annualized rate last quarter, the Labor Department said on Wednesday. Unit labor costs, the price of labor per single unit of output, climbed by a smaller 2.4% annual pace in the third quarter, compared to the preliminary 3.5% increase.

What companies are in focus

Carvana Co.
CVNA,
-31.45%
shares slumped 33% after creditors led by Apollo Global Management Inc. and Pacific Investment Management Co. inked an agreement to team up in credit talks with the used car dealer in a move to avoid the conflicts that have arisen in other debt restructurings.
Campbell Soup Co.
CPB,
+5.19%
shares were up 3.7% on Wednesday after the company topped expectations with its latest results and increased its full-year forecast.
Toll Brothers Inc.
TOL,
+6.33%
rose 4.1% after reporting higher fiscal fourth-quarter revenue as it delivered more homes in the recent period.
Lowe’s
LOW,
+3.05%
shares gained 2.1% after the company announced a new $15 billion share repurchase program and the home improvement retailer reaffirmed its full-year forecast.
Chinese electric vehicle stocks NIO Inc.
NIO,
-4.87%
and XPeng Inc.
XPEV,
-7.74%
dropped over 6.2% and 8.2%, respectively, despite news of the country easing some COVID-19 restrictions on production and travel.

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December 7, 2022

Weekly tally of COVID cases and deaths continues to fall; Moderna lowers vaccine-sales outlook by as much as $3 billion

The global tally of COVID-19 cases fell 17% in the week through Oct. 30 from the previous week, while the death toll fell 5%, the World Health Organization said in its weekly update on the virus.

The omicron variant BA.5 remained dominant globally, accounting for 74.9% of cases sent to a central database. WHO reiterated that newer sublineages of omicron, including BQ.1 and XBB, still appear no more lethal than earlier ones and do not warrant the designation of “variant of concern.”

But BQ.1 rose in prevalence to 9.0% globally from 5.7% a week ago, while XBB rose to 1.5% from 1.0%.

“WHO will continue to closely monitor the XBB and BQ.1 lineages as part of omicron and requests countries to continue to be vigilant, to monitor and report sequences, as well as to conduct independent and comparative
analyses of the different omicron sublineages,” the agency wrote.

WHO has cautioned that changes in testing and reduced surveillance of the virus are making some of the numbers unreliable and has urged leaders to renew efforts to monitor and track developments.

In the U.S., known cases of COVID remain at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where data are not being collected.

The daily average for new cases stood at 39,090 on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker, up 3% versus two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was up 2% to 27,161, while the daily average for deaths was down 6% to 345.

But cases are climbing in some states, raising concerns among health experts. In Nevada, cases are up 92% from two weeks ago, followed by Missouri, where they are up 75%, Tennessee, where they are up 69%, Louisiana, where they are up 68%, and New Mexico, where they have climbed 54%.

Physicians are reporting high numbers of respiratory illnesses like RSV and the flu earlier than the typical winter peak. WSJ’s Brianna Abbott explains what the early surge means for the coming winter months. Photo illustration: Kaitlyn Wang

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• COVID vaccine maker Moderna
MRNA,
-2.21%
posted far weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Thursday and lowered full-year sales guidance by up to $3 billion. The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech firm said advance purchase agreements, or APAs, for delivery this year are now expected to total $18 billion to $19 billion of product sales, down from guidance of $21 billion that it provided when it reported second-quarter earnings. The FactSet consensus is for full-year sales of $21.3 billion. For fiscal 2023, Moderna has APAs of $4.5 billion to $5.5 billion. The FactSet consensus for 2023 sales is for $9.4 billion.

• Virax Biolabs Group Ltd.
VRAX,
+36.26%
stock jumped after the biotechnology company said its triple-virus antigen rapid test kit, which tests for RSV, influenza and COVID, has been launched in the European Union, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The test kit, which can be used in both at-home and point-of-care settings, has also been launched in other markets that accept the CE mark, Virax Biolabs said.

Testing sewage to track viruses has drawn renewed interest after recent outbreaks of diseases like monkeypox and polio. WSJ visited a wastewater facility to find out how the testing works and what it can tell us about public health. Photo illustration: Ryan Trefes

• Royal Caribbean Group
RCL,
+4.11%
posted its first quarterly profit since the start of the pandemic, but the cruise-line company said it expected a loss for the current quarter, sending its stock lower on Thursday. Load factors were 96% overall and booking volumes were “significantly higher” than in the same period of prepandemic 2019, as the easing of testing and vaccination protocols provided a boost. For the fourth quarter, the company expects adjusted per-share losses of $1.30 to $1.50, compared with the FactSet loss consensus of 71 cents, and projects revenue of “approximately” $2.6 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $2.7 billion.

• The death of a 3-year-old boy in northwestern China following a suspected gas leak at a locked-down residential compound has triggered a fresh wave of outrage at the country’s stringent zero-COVID policy, CNN reported. The boy’s father said in a social media post on Wednesday that COVID workers tried to prevent him from leaving their compound in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, to seek treatment for his child, resulting in what he believes was a fatal delay. The post was met with an outpouring of public anger and grief, with several related hashtags racking up hundreds of millions of views over the following day on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 631.4 million on Thursday, while the death toll rose above 6.59 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 97.6 million cases and 1,071,582 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.9 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.4% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

So far, just 22.8 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 7.3% of the overall population.

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November 3, 2022

Tag: paints

Biggest price increases among the S&P 500

The Jefferies 18

Screen of consumer discretionary sales growth

How are stock-index futures trading

What’s driving markets

What companies are in focus