Reddit Stocks: What meme stocks are trending today? – October 2, 2023

US futures

• Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.1%
• S&P 500 is down 0.1%
• Nasdaq 100 is up 0.1%

Government shutdown averted, at least for now

The US government narrowly avoided a shutdown over the weekend as Democrats and Republicans agreed a stopgap to keep funding flowing for another 45 days, pushing the threat out until at least November 17. Both sides appear to have made sacrifices to get a deal agreed. The Republican speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy defied some of the hardliners in his own party, with over 90 Republicans voting against the deal, while the Democrats have not been able to get any new aid for Ukraine approved.

The economic calendar today includes manufacturing PMIs, which economists believe will show another contraction in September.

There are also speeches from several members of the Federal Reserve, including chair Jerome Powell. Markets will be on the lookout for his commentary on the economy and the path of future interest rates. Markets are hopeful that rates are approaching their peak, but a debate is still rumbling on about whether we see one more increase before the end of the year.

The Week Ahead

“Last week we noted that bond yields could trump economic data this week, and for the most part they did. We can also extend that comment into this week, especially if they continue to retreat and loosen their grip on bearish sentiment and allow risk assets to rebound. With China on holiday all this week the trading volumes may be lower than usual (and the faltering gold market may find it has fewer buyers to support it than usual). With that said, notable economic events in this week’s calendar include the monthly Nonfarm payroll and ISM PMI reports, RBA and RBNZ monetary policy meetings, the quarterly Tankan survey for Japan and Canada’s employment report,” said our analyst Matt Simpson.

You can find out more information on what to expect from this week’s economic calendar in The Week Ahead.

Earnings This Week

It is the quiet before the storm for the corporate calendar, with attention starting to shift to the next earnings season that will kick off in mid-October. The headline updates scheduled in the US this week will be from McCormick & Co, Tilray, Constellation Brands, ConAgra Foods and Levi Strauss.

You can find the full calendar in Earnings This Week.

Most discussed Reddit stocks

Below is a list of the top 10 most mentioned US stocks on the WallStreetBets thread on Reddit over the last 24 hours, according to data from Quiver Quantitative. Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and other instruments have been excluded:

1. Tesla
2. C3.ai
3. NVIDIA
4. Tilray
5. Apple
6. AMD
7. iQIYI
8. Kingsoft Cloud
9. Rivian
10. Grupo Televisa

Most active US stocks before the bell

Below are the most active stocks with a valuation of at least $500 million before the bell, based on trading data taken from Bloomberg:

1. Nikola
2. Marathon Digital
3. MSP Recovery
4. Syndax Pharmaceuticals
5. Palantir
6. Rivian
7. Tesla
8. Lucid Group
9. Grab
10. Riot Platforms

US premarket winners and losers

Here are the stocks worth at least $500 million experiencing the sharpest movements in premarket trade, according to data from Bloomberg:

Top US stocks to watch

Let’s have a look at the top stocks to watch today.

Will Tesla deliveries fall short of forecasts?

Tesla shares are up 0.3% as markets brace for it to report third-quarter deliveries. Wall Street believes they could come out today, although no date or time has been confirmed.

Wall Street forecasts Tesla will have delivered 456,772 in the period. Importantly, analysts have been making big cuts to their estimates leading up to the event. Analysts believed it would deliver over 473,000 last month and 460,000 about a week ago.

That suggests Tesla will report a 2% drop in deliveries compared to the previous quarter. That would snap four consecutive quarters of sequential growth, although the figure will still be up almost one-third from the year before.

The anticipated fall in output in the third quarter is largely being blamed on factory downtime, including the adjustments that have been necessary to introduce the newly-revamped Model 3 and the Cybertruck. However, the decline in deliveries – and forecasts suggesting production will exceed deliveries yet again to lead to a further buildup in inventory - will stoke fears that demand is under pressure and heighten concerns that more price cuts will be needed to drive demand going forward.

Wall Street keeps warming to Rivian ahead of deliveries

Rivian shares are up 3% at $25 this morning and at their highest level in almost two months. The electric vehicle company was upgraded to Outperform by Evercore ISI this morning, with its target price being lifted to $35 from $30. The broker said scale is improving and its brand is appealing to consumers. That is the latest broker to have warmed to Rivian’s prospects in recent weeks.

Rivian is also expected to release its latest delivery numbers soon. Analysts believe it sold 14,973 vehicles in the third quarter, more than double what we saw the year before and up around 18.5% from the previous quarter to show its ramp-up is making progress, having risen for three consecutive quarters.

The average target price on Rivian on Wall Street sits at $29, having risen from below $23 just two months ago.

NIO, XPeng and Li Auto: Deliveries rise

NIO, XPeng and Li Auto are all trading higher today after reporting higher deliveries in the latest quarter, with combined sales coming in more than double what we saw last year.

NIO is up 0.6% after it delivered 55,432 vehicles in the third quarter, up more than 75% from the year before and marking a new record for the business.

Li Auto is up 1.5% after it delivered 105,108 vehicles, which was a huge jump from the 26,524 shifted the year before and that too marked a new quarterly record.

XPeng is up 1.1% after deliveries increased 35% to 40,008.

Apple to fix iPhone 15 overheating problems

Apple shares are up 0.2% before the bell.

The company is acting on reports that some users of the new iPhone 15 are seeing their devices overheat. Apple said it is issuing a software update to the iOS 17 operating system after finding a bug that is “impacting some users”, according to a statement provided to Forbes. It also working on resolving some issues with recent updates to some third-party apps, which are overloading the system. That should help allay concerns that the hardware is at fault, with Apple also confirming to 9to5mac that the new titanium case was not responsible for the overheating problems.

Is Europe looking into NVIDIA AI chips?

NVIDIA shares are up 1.1% at $439.60 after Goldman Sachs added the chipmaker to its Conviction List and reiterated its Buy rating, issuing a $605 price target on the stock, according to The Fly. That implies there is over 37% potential upside from current levels and that NVIDIA will comfortably hit new all-time highs over the next 12 months. That is slightly below the average target price across Wall Street of $627. NVIDIA shares are testing the 20-day moving average today.

Meanwhile, the European Commission told Reuters today that there is no formal investigation into AI chips following the raid on NVIDIA’s offices in France amid suspicions of anti-competitive practices, although Bloomberg said late last week that the commission is informally collecting information to see if it does need to launch a formal probe into the matter.

Fellow semiconductor stock AMD is up 0.2% in premarket trade.

Tilray stock in play ahead of earnings

Tilray shares are up 2.9% as investors wait for first quarter results to be released on Wednesday.

Net revenue is forecast to rise 13.3% from last year to $173.6 million as its diversified business of cannabis and beverages pays off, although adjusted Ebitda is seen falling 14.3% to $11.6 million as it spends more on integrating new acquisitions. The headline purchases in recent months include Canadian cannabis firm HEXO that it bought in June and the pending acquisition of several beer brands from AB InBev.

Crypto stocks follow Bitcoin higher

Bitcoin has soared to its highest level in over six weeks, trading at $28,350 today after soaring over 5% since Sunday morning, with reports suggesting the rise is being driven by an acceleration in inflows at the start of October.

Bitcoin is now on the cusp of entering overbought territory for the first time in over three months, according to the RSI, and it has struggled to find higher ground the last three times it has slipped above 70.

That is pushing cryptocurrency stocks higher, with Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms trading are both up over 7% this morning. Marathon Digital was given a Hold recommendation by Needham as it initiated coverage this morning, warning it sees “limited upside from here” until after the Bitcoin halving event scheduled for next year.

Meanwhile, Coinbase is up over 5%. The cryptocurrency trading platform said it has secured a licence in Singapore that will allow it to offer tokens to both individuals and institutions. It said Singapore is a “vital market” as citizens are particularly accepting of cryptos, although country director Hassan Ahmed said Coinbase will take a “cautious” approach to growth in the country during a subsequent interview.

Grupo Televisa lingers near all-time lows

Grupo Televisa remains not far from the all-time low of $3 that was hit just under a week ago, trading at $3.05 today. The company had its target price cut by Goldman Sachs on Friday to $5.20 from $6.10. That is below the average target price set by Wall Street of $7.20.

Beyonce creates a buzz around AMC

AMC Entertainment shares are up 1.1% after the company announced it will be showing Beyonce’s ‘Renaissance World Tour’ across the US, Canada and Mexico at the start of December, and in more countries at a later date. That news comes ahead of AMC theatres showing a similar film tracking a tour by Taylor Swift, which will be released later this month on October 13.

Will Toast lose-out from weight-loss drugs?

Restaurant software maker Toast is down 2.6% at $18.25 after Mizuho Securities cut its target price on the stock to $16, marking a new Wall Street low, after warning of several near-term headwinds and a threat over the longer-term that weight-loss drugs could hurt spending in restaurants.

Analyst Dan Dolev said there are multiple headwinds on near-term spending on restaurants, partly because of the restart of student loan repayments this month, and warned that new drugs diabetes and weight-loss drugs like Ozempic could “lower restaurant spend” and hurt Toast’s income.