To The Moon

Last week, on Friday (12 July), the stock market ended on a positive note, with the S&P 500,DJIA, and NASDAQ each rising by 0.6%, and the Russell 2000 gaining 1.1%. Despite pulling back from session highs, all indices has produced solid gains.

The strength in the semiconductor sector has help the market to gain upward momentum. The PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) posted a 1.3% gain.

Bank Stocks Performance Lagged After Results From Major Banks

After their quarterly results, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) lost -1.2%, Citigroup (C) lost-1.8%, and Wells Fargo (WFC) also lost -6.0%. Despite their earnings beat estimates, the market responses is negative and hence, the bank stocks performance lagged.

The S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary Sector rose by 0.96% leading the pack, with information technology sector gaining 0.92% to be among the top performers. The S&P 500 financial sector only managed a modest 0,2% gain, just managed to stay above the only negative performance of -0.75% from the communication services sector.

Stock Market Little Reaction From Positive CPI and PPI Data

We have the PPI and CPI data came in last week, with June PPI reported a +0.2% higher than expected of +0.1%) while the previous was revised to 0.0% from -0.2%.

June Core PPI also came in higher at +0.4% than expected +0.1% with the previous revised to 0.3% from 0.0%.

The latest data show us that the year-over-year rate for PPI and Core PPI accelerated for the fifth time in six months, with rising service prices outweighing falling goods prices in June.

Next we have the July University Of Michigan Consumer Sentiment (Preliminary) coming in at 66.0 lower than the expected of 67.5, while the previous was recorded at 68.2. This show that there is little change from June as consumers remained burdened by high prices, though inflation expectations dipped slightly.

The equity market showed little reaction to the hotter-than-expected Producer Price Index (PPI) for June and upward revisions for May. We are expecting the NY Fed Empire State Manufacturing Index for July on Monday when it is scheduled to be released at 8.30am Eastern Time.

Note Yield Silent Response to CPI and PPI Data

Despite see year-over-year rate for PPI and Core PPI accelerated for the fifth time in six months, with rising service prices outweighing falling goods prices in June.

The treasuries also have a silent response to the data, The 10-year yield remained unchanged at 4.187%, while the 2-year note yield dropped by five basis points to 4.464%.

Stocks To Watch

$EVgo Inc​.(EVGO)$ experienced a remarkable 19% surge in its stock, marking its seventh consecutive day in the green. This rally was driven by positive delivery numbers from EV makers such as Lucid (LCID) and $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$, as well as a bullish analyst note. Benchmark raised its price target for EVgo by 67% to $5, citing increased charging network utilization and positive market sentiment.

If we looked at the chart below, the potential buy opportunity actually started much earlier than the seventh consecutive day gains, the signal appear on 24 June 2024, when we saw a bullish MACD crossover and KDJ also presented a BUY signal with J value started to stay above.

While we saw a slight dip in early July, now we are seeing strong upside presented from MACD, but the KDJ is showing a sideway move. So can EVGO continue its consecutive day gain, I think we need to monitor the price action.

$Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$ saw a 1.7% decline in its stock after Edgewater Research highlighted ongoing weaknesses in the company's ad performance. Analysts noted that direct response campaign efficiency remains under pressure, with weaker-than-expected conversions in META's core direct-to-consumer/e-commerce channel. This trend suggests a potential weakening in consumer behavior.

From the technical, actually we are seeing META presenting a signal of downside started from 10 July, this is when there is a decline from both the MACD and KDJ J value, and now it is in a downward trend, so I would think it is best to avoid looking at META now.

Goldman Sachs has released a list of 25 top tactical stock picks for the next three months. The list identifies out-of-consensus opportunities, with analysts projecting a 9% upside for the average S&P 500 stock over the next year. The firm expects hedge funds to increase short positions in fundamentally weak companies due to declining single stock options volumes.

A recent poll of Seeking Alpha subscribers identified $Amgen(AMGN)$ as a potential major player in the obesity market, alongside current leaders Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NVO). Despite the dominance of Lilly and Novo, more than 20% of respondents believe Amgen has significant upside potential in the development of anti-obesity drugs.

If you have been monitoring AMGN last week, you will notice that it is showing signs of upside forming on Tuesday (09 July 2024), when the KDJ J value started to trend upside and at the same time, we saw MACD bullish crossover formed on 10 July, I think it is a good time to look at loading AMGN as part of the defensive strategy in our portfolio, in the events that tech stocks might suffer another selling.

Summary

While last week (12 July) ended on the positive note, there might be some sectors which are lagging behind, and this week, we are having some major chip makers, like $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ and $ASML Holding NV(ASML)$ reporting their earning.

We could see some strong performance driven by semiconductor sector.

Appreciate if you could share your thoughts in the comment section whether you think this week we could see some stellar performance from the semiconductor stocks?

@TigerStars @Daily_Discussion @Tiger_Earnings @TigerWire appreciate if you could feature this article so that fellow tiger would benefit from my investing and trading thoughts.

Disclaimer: The analysis and result presented does not recommend or suggest any investing in the said stock. This is purely for Analysis.