A customer shops at a Costco store in San Francisco on Oct. 2, 2023.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
My top 10 things to watch Friday, Jan. 5
1. Stock futures down slightly Friday after the December jobs report came in stronger than expected, raising concerns the Federal Reserve will keep rates higher for longer. The three major averages are all on pace to break nine-week winning streaks. Treasury yields rose, with benchmark 10-year trading at around 4.08%.
2. Broadening of the market continues. “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks are likely to take a back seat while rest of market gets stronger. Meanwhile, retail investors have been piling into money funds.
3. Netflix is trying to figure out how to make money from gaming, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Netflix games, which are currently free for all subscribers, were downloaded 81.2 million times globally last year, up from 28.7 million in 2022, the report said.
4. Club holding Costco reported net sales for December rose 9.9% from a year ago. Total comparable sales rose 8.5%. Total and comparable sales saw a 3% bump from December’s extra shopping day. Oppenheimer and Deutsche Bank raise their price targets. Shares of the retail giant rose nearly 1% in the premarket.
5. French supermarket chain Carrefour said it will stop selling PepsiCo products in its stores in France, Belgium, Spain and Italy due to “unacceptable price increases.”
6. Sign of things to come: Barclays raises its price targets for cyclicals. Are these market caps are too small compared to those of the Mag Seven (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla).
7. Rearguard action: Jefferies takes enterprise software company Monday.com to buy from hold. Down 8% for year, but up a lot in last few years for company that provides centralizing software solutions. Analysts also raised price target for HubSpot (mini Salesforce) to $620 from $515, and cloud-based app company Bill to $95 from $66. ServiceNow raised to $775 from $650 to $775 — “must-own for a growth stock portfolio.”
8. Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology reported weak December sales, down 29.6% from November and 26.9% a year ago. This will be regarded as bad for Apple of course. Foxconn is Apple’s biggest assembler of iPhones.
9. Fundraising by U.S. venture capital firms hit a 6-year low in 2023, hitting $67 billion, a 60% drop from 2022 and the lowest since 2017. No kidding: Most have flamed out and the buyers have had it. This is what happens when you flood the stock market with inferior merchandise like was done from 2019 to 2021.
10. JPMorgan raises its price targets for a bunch of regionals — still the place to be? KeyCorp, Huntington Bancshares? Texas Capital, Webster Financial, Cullen/Frost, Comerica … But the firm trims Zion Bancorporation.
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