Unchanged interest rates still garnered Fed fatigue
Oil was still one of the main characters on Wall Street this week, though it was swiftly overshadowed by the buzz surrounding Wednesday's Federal Reserve meeting, which left interest rates unchanged, as anticipated. Though stocks were muted on Monday, by Tuesday they began a multi-day slide amid Fed fatigue. Thursday marked a third day of losses for the broader indexes, as Treasury yields surged.
The Nasdaq Composite (IXIC), Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), and S&P 500 Index (SPX) were all pacing for weekly losses at the time of this writing, but seemed poised to snap a collective three-day losing streak. All three major benchmarks were also eyeing their worst weeks in over a month.
Oil Continues to Garner Attention
There was a big focus on oil prices this week, which kicked off Monday with a jump to 10-month highs amid Saudi Arabian and Russian supply worries. Meanwhile, a historic "buy" signal was flashing for Northern Oil & Gas (NOG), which could send the security closer to 2023 highs. Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White also took a dive into what the recent spike in oil could mean for stocks in the coming months.
Analysts Circle Buzzworthy Stocks
Analysts were busy adjusting their positions and initiating new ones this week. On the pessimistic end of things, J.P. Morgan Securities slammed Dollar General (DG) with a bear note to "market perform," while Evercore downgraded two farming industry giants.
On the brighter side, Barclays initiated coverage of Super Micro Computer (SMCI) with an "overweight" rating, while this banking mogul enjoyed a boost to "outperform" from "neutral" by Exane BNP Paribas. Dell Technologies (DELL) also had a run higher, after Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded to "outperform" from "market perform" on potential artificial intelligence (AI) tailwinds.
Inflation Indicators on Deck
Lastly, Senior V.P. of Research Todd Salamone dug into support and resistance levels to watch on the SPX during September trading. Next week will start off slow, but end with a bang as September comes to a close with key inflation indicators and retail data. While the earnings docket remains quiet, notable reports will come from Accenture (ACN), CarMax (KMX), Carnival (CCL), Cintas (CTAS), Costco (COST), Micron Technology (MU), and Nike (NKE).