My top 10 things to watch Tuesday, Jan. 16 1. Bank earnings and disappointment over nothing. They were all pretty good. Before the bell, Goldman Sachs beat revenue estimates on better-than-expected asset management results, while Club holding Morgan Stanley reported fourth-quarter sales of $12.90 billion, beating Wall Street expectations of $12.75 billion thanks to strength in investment banking . We will send out a full earnings analysis later today following management’s call with analysts. 2. This could be a big year for health care, a business that can actually grow faster than most of tech and has the possibility of a comeback from the Covid straitjacket that so many of these companies got caught up in. In my Sunday column , I ran through 4 great stock ideas from the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference last week. 3. Abbott Labs is a healthcare stock which had its growth obscured by the pandemic. Wells Fargo raised its price target to $131 from $121 and kept its overweight rating. The firm said Abbott’s 2024 base business growth could accelerate over its pre-pandemic rate of 7%. 4. Microsoft price target raised to $435 from $425 at Wells Fargo. The firm said the Club name has much more AI-related products in the pipeline. 5. DuPont double downgraded to sell from buy at Bank of America. The firms sees only a modest earnings recovery in 2024 and “under-appreciated” PFAS liabilities. We made a small sale of DuPont shares a week ago. We still like our longer-term investment thesis centered on the recovery in the semiconductor and electronics industry, but trimmed just in case the timeline gets pushed out another quarter due to the slower bounce back in China. 6. Starbucks upgraded to buy from hold at Morgan Stanley, which cited an “interesting risk-reward skew.” The firm also said China concerns are now fully priced into the shares. Big call because the Club stock has been horrendous. 7. Piper Sandler joins the crowd with an upgrade of Home Depot to buy from hold….
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