Payments technology companies Square  and PayPal  shares  got price target hikes at Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche Bank analyst Bryan Keane boosted his price target on Square to $255 from $215, and on PayPal to $275 from $234. Keane has a buy rating on both these stocks.

According to Keane’s note to investors, a survey of 817 U.S. mobile tech-savvy participants found that the adoption of e-commerce and mobile payment services has accelerated, driven by the pandemic and expanded fintech value proposition.Keane noted that the use of online channels for retail physical goods purchases across the most tech-savvy U.S. mobile payment participants has touched about 83%, according to the survey.

The analyst said that PayPal, Venmo and Square "are well positioned to capture the accelerated shift to online and omnichannel".

The Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) gained 56% from its October low to its high a few weeks ago.Unfortunately the weekly stochastic readings made a bearish crossover last week and appear as though they may be headed out of overbought territory—a possible bearish signal.

The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP) experienced an even greater gain, rallying 66.9% from its October low to its high two weeks ago.

Shares of sneaker giant Nike Inc. climbed to an all-time high Monday, following the release of its  stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Thanks to strength in online sales, Nike’s earnings for the 3 months ending November came in at.78 cents(up from 70 cents a share a year earlier), beating the 62 cents expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Revenue grew +9% year-over-year to $11.24 billion, also topping analysts’ forecast of $10.56 billion.

The company’s  online sales for its namesake brand surged +84% during the quarter, as more people frequented  its website during the coronavirus pandemic.According to the company, digital sales growth helped to offset declines in its own brick-and-mortar stores and at its wholesale partners .

 Nike was allocating investments toward its own stores, websites, and key wholesale partners, and therefore reducing dependence on retail partner – even before the pandemic struck.

Aerojet Rocketdyne  shares climbed on Monday, following news that  Lockheed Martin  agreed to  buy Aerojet in a deal valued at $4.4 billion.

Lockheed will pay $51 a share for each Aerojet share, a 21% premium from Friday’s closing price.What’s more, Aerojet announced a $5 a share special dividend to be paid on March 24, to shareholders of record as of March 10 -- thereby bringing the total amount to be received by Aerojet shareholders to $56 a share.

The transaction will allow Lockheed’s defense products to expand into Aerojet’s systems for missiles, rockets and other space and defense applications.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2021, subject to approvals from regulators and from Aerojet’s shareholders.

On Friday, the Federal Reserve indicated that Wall Street banks were in sound condition, thereby giving permission to banks  to resume stock buybacks starting in the first quarter. 

33 largest banks in the nation got a major validation from the Fed’s second round of stress tests, despite the macroeconomic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.Nevertheless, buybacks of company stock will be allowed again, with some limits.

According to the Fed’s latest decision, the amount a bank will be allowed to pay shareholders or buy back in its stock will depend on the banks’ earnings over the past year.

Diamondback agreed to acquire Guidon in a cash-stock deal, which includes 10.63 million shares of Diamondback common stock, and $375 million cash to be probably funded through a combination of cash on hand and the company’s credit facility.The deal would value Guidon at $862 million.

The pending QEP acquisition, combined  with the previously announced pending acquisition of assets from Guidon will bring Diamondback’s total leasehold interests to over 276,000 net surface acres in the Midland Basin (429,000 Midland and Delaware Basin net acres)

Scorecards And Group Analysis

Cybersecurity company Avast made an analysis of the extensions last month, following a study by Czech researchers at CZ.NIC.According to these researchers, some of those extensions  have been active since at least December 2018.

Malicious activities such as redirecting users to ads and phishing sites, collecting personal data and browsing history, and downloading other malware onto the host device have apparently occurred in the process.

Financial advisory and broking solutions company Willis Towers Watson announced a partnership with data analytics company Polecat Intelligence Ltd.The partnership aims to develop insurance & risk management solutions to help organisations/clients  respond to the rapidly changing and complex challenges they face.

Polecat’s Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will support Willis Towers Watson in areas such as life sciences, reputational and product recall risk as well as D&O. Real-time risk analysis from unstructured data, for example, will be a key feature of the collaboration.

Willis hopes to leverage Polecat’s data expertise in helping clients with risk mitigation.

James Lawn, co-CEO of Polecat, said, “Polecat exists to provide foresight for Corporate Boards and Executive Leadership teams to make better decisions on emerging risks and opportunities.

"ABNB created the short-term rental market and is the clear leader in the space.The strong brand has created a powerful flywheel for its two-sided marketplace (guests and hosts) and enables the company to generate the significant majority of its traffic directly, which is unparalleled in the online travel sector," analyst Shyam Patil wrote. 

The proposed contract will be cash-settled.

Amid the success of Bitcoin futures and options, CME Group will add Ether futures to its cryptocurrency risk-management solutions.This is expected to offer the clients a tool to trade and hedge this digital currency.

In January 2020, CME launched bitcoin options and options on SOFR.

Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss’ top pick for next year is  Microsoft .He also boosted his price target on the stock to $260 from $249.

“With tough near-term comparisons already in consensus estimates, and the multiple having pulled back to 26 times [estimated] 2022 calendar year EPS, we see potential for outperformance in fiscal year 2021 [ending June 30],” Weiss wrote in a commentary.  He thinks that the durability of growth and margin expansion are underappreciated.

According to Weiss, a combination of market factors like sector rotation out of software, as well as Microsoft-specific factors have been weighing on the stock.

One firm in Hong Kong has seen tremendous earnings and revenue growth as a result of the trend.Futu Holdings (FUTU) and its subsidiaries provide investing services for Hong Kong, US and China Connect stocks, to individual investors through its proprietary one-stop digital platform, Futubull.

The company has seen earnings grow by 111% per year over the last three years while revenue has grown by 96% per year.

The question for investors is, will this housing strength continue?A.I.dvisor has some insight, with the analysis below comparing Lennar Corp., PulteGroup, and Toll Brothers. 

he homebuilder reported higher profit in the fiscal fourth quarter as demand for homeownership remains elevated due to lower borrowing costs and the pandemic.According to our system of comparison, LEN is a better buy in the short-term than PHM and TOL.

That may help explain upscale furniture maker Hermann Miller's strong stock appreciation this year, as the company recently reported strong earnings.The company also reported strong expense control with operating expenses down $18.1 million from last year, and continued quarterly operating margin expansion over the prior year, including a retail operating margin of 16.7%.

In the analysis below, A.I.dvisor takes a look 9 stocks within the Office Supply Theme, which underscores Hermann Miller's relative strength within the group.

NIO was once branded as the "Tesla killer," but the company struggled early to gain any traction and was burning through billions of dollars.But investors who have been witnessing -- or perhaps participating -- in Tesla's meteoric rise may be looking to competitor EV companies in hopes of riding a similar wave of enthusiasm.

NIO is still a far cry from Tesla.

The digital coin surged more than +9% on Thursday, reaching $23,256.92.Scott Minerd, the chief investment officer at Guggenheim Investments, said on Bloomberg TV on Wednesday that Bitcoin’s scarcity coupled with “rampant money printing” by the Federal Reserve mean the digital currency should eventually rise to about $400,000.

Dan Gunsberg, CEO of Hxro, a crypto trading platform commented that if  Bitcoin sustains its momentum, then “testing $36,000 will be the next real objective” .

The pharmacy retail company’s adjusted earnings for the quarter came in at 40 cents a share, compared to 2 cents expected by analysts.

Revenue rose +12% year-over-year to $6.12 billion, also topping analysts’ forecast of $5.84 billion.

For its fiscal 2021, Rite Aid hiked its  revenue guidance to between $23.9 billion and $24.2 billion (from its prior projection of $23.5 billion and $24 billion).It expects same- store sales growth to range between 3.5% and 4.5%, (from its prior guidance of between 3% and 4%. ).

"We are pleased with our third-quarter performance as we continue to grow our business and achieve major physical and digital milestones through our RxEvolution strategy," said Rite Aid CEO Heyward Donigan. Donigan also mentioned the launch of the company’s new brand and logo, and said that the company has made “substantial progress” in evolving its merchandise mix to support whole health.