Energy and banking stocks are popular again, after a long period of inactivity. Consider that Exxon Mobil was worth $422bn in 2011, compared to Apple's $349m. Today, the oil giant is worth $261 billion and the Apple brand $2,300 billion. The fact remains that in recent times, investors prefer a good old barrel of oil to a state-of-the-art smartphone. Even nuclear power is becoming a trend on again.

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook have weighed heavily in the correction that has taken place since the beginning of September: more than a third of the S&P500's decline is attributable to them. On the other hand, the stocks that have resisted them the most - those that have done best, in other words - are either from the oil industry (Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips) or the banking industry (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America). But the biggest contributor is not a member of these two sectors: it's Tesla, which is slowly but surely climbing back to its records from earlier this year (thanks to the Bear Trap Report for this data).

While tech giants are certainly hit a bit, they are far from being sunk, as their performance since the beginning of the year shows (Amazon being the exception that confirms the rule). As for Facebook, the attacks on the group always seem to have no effect. The former employee behind the leaks that allowed the Wall Street Journal to write a series of damning articles was heard yesterday by Congress. Frances Haugen reiterated her attacks on the internal practices of the company and the harmfulness of its services. She seems to have won the consensus of the congressmen who assured her that the United States would react. But financial markets have not given in to panic, even if the stock was shaken in September. Yesterday, the share was violently punished, but mainly because of the company’s global breakdown of its services. After all, investors know that the United States will not try to control tech giants “China style”…

The data that many were eagerly awaiting was published today: U.S. private payrolls rose more than expected in September, increased by 568,000 jobs last month, according to the ADP National Employment Report. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private payrolls would increase by 428,000 jobs.

 

Today's Economic Highlights:

German factory orders, European retail sales, the ADP US employment survey and weekly US oil inventories are the main indicators of the day. After South Korea and Norway, New Zealand raised its rates earlier this morning.

The dollar is trading at USD 0.8660. The ounce of gold is little changed, around USD 1755. Oil is holding steady at USD 78.093 per barrel of WTI and USD 81.69 per barrel of Brent. The T-Bond yield is up to 1.57% over 10 years, while the Bund yield is at -0.19%. Bitcoin is above the USD 54,000 mark.

 

On markets:

* NVidia has proposed concessions to the European Union in order to obtain its green light for the acquisition of the British chip designer Arm for $ 54 billion, shows a document of the European Commission consulted by Reuters. The stock is losing about 3% in pre-market trading.

* Dow said on Wednesday it was targeting a $3 billion increase in gross operating profit by 2030 and plans to build a new carbon-neutral ethylene and derivatives production facility.

* Southwest Gas Holdings announced the purchase of Questar Pipelines from Dominion Energy for $1.975 billion, despite opposition from shareholder Carl Icahn, who in a public letter urged the oil company's board of directors to abandon the project.

* Kellogg - About 1,400 employees at several of the food company's U.S. plants went on strike Tuesday in hopes of getting what a union called a "fair contract" for employees.

 

Analyst recommendations:

  • American Airlines: Goldman Sachs downgrades. to sell from neutral. PT down 16% to $18
  • Biogen : Wedbush adjusts price target to $297 from $314, maintains neutral rating
  • Biohaven Pharmaceutical: Wedbush adjusts price target to $152 from $128, maintains outperform rating
  • Capital One Financial: Autonomous Research adjusts price target for capital one financial to $190 from $185, maintains outperform rating
  • CDW: Morgan Stanley cut the recommendation to equal-weight from overweight. PT up 6.4% to $196
  • Citigroup: Goldman Sachs adjusts price target to $82 from $78, maintains buy rating
  • Cleveland-Cliffs: Goldman Sachs raised the recommendation to buy from neutral. PT up 16% to $24
  • Commercial Metals: Goldman Sachs raised its recommendation to neutral from sell. PT up 3.9% to $33
  • Gogo: Morgan Stanley downgrades to underweight from equal-weight. PT down 18% to $14
  • Hiscox: Jefferies remains at Hold with a price target reduced from GBP 950 to GBP 925.
  • HSBC Holdings: UBS upgrades his rating from Neutral to Buy. Previously set at GBp 450, the target price has been raised to GBp 485.
  • JetBlue: Goldman Sachs downgrades to neutral from buy. PT up 5.5% to $17
  • Morgan Stanley: Goldman Sachs adjusts price target to $113 from $108, maintains buy rating
  • Nucor: Goldman Sachs downgrades to neutral from buy. PT up 9.4% to $108
  • Phillips 66: Piper Sandler raised the recommendation to overweight from neutral. PT up 12% to $87
  • Rio Tinto: Exane BNP Paribas upgrades from neutral to outperform targeting GBp 5,630.
  • Rolls-Royce: Bernstein upgrades from Underperform to Market Perform targeting GBp 133.
  • Secure Income: Germany Sachs upgraded from buy to neutral with a target of GBp 450.
  • SVB Financial: Autonomous Research adjusts price target to $700 from $625, maintains neutral rating
  • United States Steel: Goldman Sachs cut the recommendation to sell from neutral. PT down 6.4% to $21.