Monday’s Biggest S&P 500 Movers
2 hours 58 minutes ago
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Significant damage from Hurricane Milton, which is expected to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast this week, weighed on insurance stocks. Shares of Everest Group (EG), a provider of insurance and reinsurance contracts, fell 8.5%, the biggest decline among stocks in the S&P 500. Shares of fellow Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurer Arch Capital Group (ACGL) fell 6.2%, while auto, lifestyle and home insurer Assurant (AIZ) fell 5.5%. Employees board their workplaces ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, Monday, October 7, 2024.
Tristan Wheelock/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Shares of Texas-based power generation company Vistra (VST) fell 5.2%. Monday’s decline marked a reversal from a series of highs the stock hit last week amid optimism about the company’s opportunity to power its artificial intelligence data centers with nuclear power. Vistra stock continues to be a top performer on the S&P 500 in 2024, rising more than 240% year over year. Deckers Outdoor (DECK) shares fell 4.8% after Seaport Research downgraded the stock from “buy” to “neutral.” Analysts said interest in the company’s footwear brands Ugg and Hoka waned as competing brands took market share during the recent back-to-school shopping season.
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Shares of server and data storage provider Super Microcomputer (SMCI) jumped 15.8% to be the best performer on the S&P 500 on Monday. Supermicro reported strong shipments of graphics processing units, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence products. The company also launched new direct liquid cooling products for servers that help AI companies reduce energy costs. Air Products & Chemicals (APD) shares rose 9.5% on news that activist investor Mantle Ridge has amassed a stake worth more than $1 billion in the industrial gas maker. The investment firm reportedly plans to drive various changes at Air Products, including its capital allocation strategy and succession planning. Shares of Generac Holdings (GNRC), which makes home generators and other emergency power products, soared 8.5% to a two-year high as Hurricane Milton approaches the southeastern United States. Earlier this season, Helen and Beryl’s stock prices rose as well as they prepared for the impact of the hurricane.
-Michael Blomberg
Keep an eye on Exxon prices as stock prices hit new highs again
4 hours 14 minutes ago
Exxon Mobil (XOM) stock hit another all-time high on Monday as investors bid up energy stocks on growing concerns that escalating tensions in the Middle East could disrupt global oil supplies. .
Exxon stock rose 0.4% to $125.37 to close Monday, after rising as high as $126.34 during trading.
Last week, the stock broke above the upper trendline of the symmetrical triangle on increased volume.
Source: TradingView.com.
Investors should keep an eye on key upside targets near $134 and $138 on Exxon’s charts, while also keeping an eye on key support areas near $118 and $112.
Read the full technical analysis here.
-Timothy Smith
Generac soars to two-year high as Hurricane Milton intensifies
5 hours 11 minutes ago
Shares of Generac Holdings (GNRC), which makes home generators and other emergency power products, soared again on Monday as another hurricane approaches the southeastern United States.
Hurricane Milton is expected to rapidly advance to a Category 5 storm starting Monday and make landfall in Florida by Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Generac shares rose more than 9% late Monday, trading at their highest since October 2022. The stock price has increased 35% so far in 2024.
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The generator maker experienced a similar spike in its stock price in the wake of Hurricane Helen a few weeks ago, rising about 10% the week the storm made landfall.
-Andrew Kessel
Wall Street withdraws bets on deep interest rate cuts
6 hours 17 minutes ago
Investors continued to scale back expectations for rate cuts on Monday after Friday’s better-than-expected jobs report.
Market participants had been pricing in a small possibility that the Fed would leave interest rates unchanged at its next meeting in November, but this outcome was unlikely to be on the table last week.
Last week’s jobs report could make this week’s consumer inflation report more important to both the Federal Reserve and Wall Street.
Read the full text here.
-Colin Laidley
Super microcomputers are rapidly increasing due to strong demand for AI
7 hours 45 minutes ago
Super Microcomputer (SMCI) shares soared on Monday after the server maker reported strong shipments of graphics processing units (GPUs) driven by demand for artificial intelligence (AI).
The company recently said it has deployed 100,000 GPUs with its liquid cooling technology into “some of the largest AI factories ever built.” Super Micro Computer also announced a new line of direct liquid cooling products for servers that could help AI companies reduce energy costs.
CEO Charles Liang said the company’s liquid cooling solutions are “currently cooling large, state-of-the-art AI factories, reducing costs and improving performance.” Liang added that data center operators are coming to Super Microcomputer “to meet their technical and financial goals for both the construction of greenfield sites and the modernization of existing data centers.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (left) and Super Micro Computer CEO Charles Liang at the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, June 5, 2024.
Annabelle Chee/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Super Micro Computer stock is up nearly 15% in recent trading and is up about 67% in 2024. Shares of AI chip maker Nvidia (NVDA), a partner of Super Micro Computer, also rose on Monday, rising more than 3%.
-Bill McCall
Duckhorn doubles on PE acquisition news
8 hours 46 minutes ago
Napa Valley winemaker Duckhorn Portfolio (NAPA)’s stock price doubled on Monday after it agreed to be taken private by private equity firm Butterfly for $1.95 billion.
Duckhorn Portfolio at the Grand Tasting during the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One at Pier 76 on October 13, 2023 in New York City. Southern Glazer Wine & Spirits Trade Day hosted by Wine Spectator.
John Lamparski/Getty Images for NYCWFF
Duckhorn, whose brands include Decoy and Paraduxx, said the deal gives investors $11.10 in cash for each share they own, a 106% increase from Friday’s closing price.
The company also reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.14 and revenue of $107.4 million, an increase of 7.3% year over year. Both beat the consensus estimates of analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha.
Duckhorn Portfolio stock hit an all-time low on Friday, but today’s big rally puts it back in positive territory for the year.
-Bill McCall
Pfizer rises on Starboard stock report
9 hours 52 minutes ago
Shares of Pfizer (PFE) rose on Monday after news that activist investor Starboard Value had acquired about $1 billion in stock in the troubled drug company.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Starboard has approached Pfizer’s former chief executive Ian Reid and former finance chief Frank D’Amelio to help the company plan to improve its performance.
The hedge fund sees Pfizer, led by current CEO Albert Bourla, who took over from Mr. Reid in 2019, as lacking the M&A discipline of his predecessor, the report said.
Since its acquisition by Bourla, Pfizer has spent billions of dollars acquiring companies involved in making cancer drugs, including the $43 billion acquisition of biotech Seegen last year.
The company’s stock rose nearly 3% on Monday morning, making it one of the biggest gainers in the S&P 500.
Pfizer’s stock price has nearly halved since the peak of the pandemic in 2021 as demand for its coronavirus vaccine slumped. That’s little changed this year, compared to the S&P 500’s 21% gain.
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-Nisha Gopalan
Jefferies downgrades Apple to hold
10 hours 10 minutes ago
Apple (AAPL) stock stalled in early trading Monday after Jefferies cut its stock price, arguing that iPhone sales estimates were too high.
The bank lowered Apple’s rating from “buy” to “hold,” but raised its price target to $212.92 from $205.00.
“Smartphone hardware will need rework before full-scale AI is possible, with a likely timeline of 2026/27,” analysts wrote in a note to clients.
He added, “High expectations for iPhone 16/17 are premature.”
Analysts say Apple’s fourth-quarter fiscal 2024 net sales outlook is below Wall Street consensus, and the tech company’s full-year adjusted price-to-earnings ratio of 33 times is close to being met. He pointed out that Best ever.
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Apple stock fell 0.6% in recent trading. The stock price rose 17% in 2024.
-Bill McCall
Noteworthy levels of SPDR Dow ETF
11 hours 9 minutes ago
The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) weighs on the Dow’s decline after hitting a record close on Friday following a strong September jobs report that strengthened investors’ confidence in the strength of the economy. Combined, Monday started slightly lower.
The fund’s price is trading in an upward channel, but lackluster volume could indicate that the upward momentum is slowing.
Source: TradingView.com.
Investors should keep an eye on the ETF’s chart for key support levels near $377, $350, and $325, as well as any observed price targets above the $483 ascending channel.
Read the full technical analysis here.
-Timothy Smith
Major indexes scheduled to start early Monday
12 hours 26 minutes ago
Futures, which track the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 0.4%.
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S&P 500 futures also fell 0.4%.
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Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.5%.
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Correction—October 7, 2024: This article has been amended to reflect that Super Micro Computer has reported that it has introduced 100,000 graphics processing units (GPUs).
