Live Updates
Insiders know their company the best.
So, if they’re buying, there’s often a good reason for it.
Over at Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN), CEO Kathleen Johnson just bought about $500,000 worth of stock, picking up 76,685 shares. “Kate Johnson’s recent open-market stock purchase reflects her continued confidence in Lumen’s long-term strategy and the value the company is creating through its transformation,” said the company, as quoted by Barron’s.
“This is not the first time Kate has personally invested in Lumen shares, underscoring her strong belief in the company’s future as a digital networking services leader driving enterprise growth and innovation for a multi-cloud, AI economy,” they added.
Insiders are also buying SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) after a post-earnings dip. Rob Lavet, general counsel, bought 5,000 shares for about around $21.04 each. Eric Schuppenhauer, the head of borrowing, picked up 5,000 shares at $19.93 per share.
Futures are exploding higher.
The S&P 500 is up 0.51%, or by 35 points. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is up 0.63%, or by $4.35. The Dow is up 0.47%, or by 240 points. The Nasdaq is up 0.67%, or by 164 points.
Fueling upside, January nonfarm payrolls showed jobs growth of 130,000. Economists only expected the addition of 55,000. Even better, that’s well above December’s loss of 48,000. The unemployment rate also dipped to 4.3%, as compared to estimates of 4.4%. That easily overshadows the weaker-than-expected consumer spending data released Tuesday.
Bitcoin is Losing Momentum Again
Now at $67,274, Bitcoin is losing momentum again.
Unfortunately, it could drop even more, as the “age of speculation” fades, according to Galaxy founder and CEO Mike Novogratz, as quoted by CNBC. “Retail people don’t get into crypto because they want to make 11% annualized,” he said. “They get in because they want to make 30 to one, eight to one, 10 to one.”
Overall, “it’s going to be transposed or replaced by us using these same rails, these crypto rails, to bring banking [and] financial services to the whole world. And so, it’s going to be real-world assets with much lower returns,” he added.
Crypto jitters are also weighing on shares of Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD | HOOD Price Prediction) this morning.
Down about $7 in premarket, HOOD is slipping on Bitcoin weakness and a revenue miss. Fourth quarter revenue of $1.28 billion missed estimates of $1.35. However, EPS of 66 cents did beat estimates of 63 cents. And while a good number of analysts are still bullish on the stock on the dip, we don’t believe the pullback is over. In fact, we’d like to see it retest $70, near-term, taking its lead from Bitcoin weakness.
UBS Reiterated Buy Rating on Nvidia
Analysts at UBS just reiterated a buy rating on Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) with a price target of $245. The firm said, “Given middling stock performance, supply chain signals that remain bullish, and a management team that seems frustrated with the prevailing doubts around growth and margin sustainability, the earnings set-up here seems positive,” as quoted by CNBC.
Bernstein just reiterated an outperform rating on Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), noting that it sees downside risks with AI data center contracts as limited.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley just reiterated an overweight rating on Micron (NASDAQ: MU) with a price target of $450. The firm noted that pricing has moved substantially higher since Micron provided guidance, with shortages in every end market.
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