The COVID-19 pandemic is creating demand as consumers are perhaps reevaluating whether they want to live in a building with hundreds of other people. We are also seeing companies shift their policies to allow more people to work remotely.Earlier this week Microsoft announced that it was permanently changing its policy and that many workers would be allowed to work remotely. The shift in housing preferences has caused the homebuilding stocks to rally sharply in the last six months or so.

Roth Capital analyst Craig Irwin downgraded shares of electric truck maker Workhorse Group  to neutral from buy. A a U.S.Postal Service spokesperson told Roth the USPS won’t decide who wins the competition for its next generation of delivery trucks until year-end. Irwin also slashed his share-price target on the shares to $27 from $33.

The $160 price target is based on ~29x analysts FY22 EPS estimate of $5.50, compared to consensus estimates of $4.99 per share. They cited  Walmart’s ability to accelerate its digital ad segment & boost e-commerce profitability.Tailwinds include decisions to have an in-house media group, the launch of various tools and analytics for greater control and insights for advertisers, and strong early reads from advertisers. According to Tickeron, Momentum Indicator for WMT turns positive, indicating new upward trend WMT saw its Momentum Indicator move above the 0 level on September 30, 2020.

The amount is also lower than market expectation of $1.8 billion to $6 billion. Expenses rose from last year to $16.9 billion. “JPMorgan Chase earned $9.4 billion of net income on nearly $30 billion of revenue and we maintained our credit reserves at $34 billion given significant economic uncertainty and a broad range of potential outcomes," CEO Jamie Dimon said.The odds of a continued upward trend are 47%. Following a +3.84% 3-day Advance, the price is estimated to grow further.

Cloud service company Snowflake  got  optimistic outlooks from analysts at Deutsche Bank and Piper Sandler. Deutsche Bank analyst Patrick Colville initiated coverage of Snowflake with a buy rating and a $305 price target.… Our estimates call for data warehouse (analytical processing) spending to grow to $45.2bn in 2024, a 13% CAGR from 2019.” Brent Bracelin of Piper Sandler began coverage of Snowflake with an overweight rating and a $264 price target, citing the company’s new cloud-native software layer, that Bracelin believes has the potential to redefine and modernize the enterprise data stack.

PepsiCo  got a rating upgrade at  Citigroup, on wider profit margin expectations. Citigroup analyst Wendy Nicholson boosted her rating on the beverage giant’s shares to buy from neutral.She also raised her share-price target to Wall Street high $169, from $148.  The price target implies a 22% upside potential from Friday's close at $138.44. According to Nicholson, increasing operating margins could boost Pepsi shares.

The four biggest banks in the United States are set to announce earnings next week and the expectations show estimates are up from the second quarter, but down from last year. The banks I’m referring to are Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Wells Fargo (WFC).Rather than list each company and its EPS estimate one by one, I put together the table below on Tickeron’s Screener.

Looking at the 11 main sectors and the SPDR ETFs that represent them, only the utilities sector moved higher in September. I took these screenshots from the Tickeron screener for the 11 Select Sector SPDR ETFs.We see that the Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU) gained 0.23% in the past month as the top performer of the group.

Financial services/mobile payment company Square   said that it bought about 4,709 bitcoins for $50 million. Cryptocurrency Bitcoin has surged +49% in price  so far this year. Square believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of “economic empowerment” and that is offers a way for the world to participate in a global monetary system, which aligns with the company’s purpose. The investment in Bitcoin represents around 1% of Square’s total assets as of the end of second-quarter 2020. Square launched bitcoin trading in 2018 for its Cash App customers. The company recently launched the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance, a nonprofit organization focused on crypto innovation. Tickeron's AI-powered scorecard rates SQ a "STRONG BUY". According to Tickeron, SQ's MACD Histogram crosses above signal line The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) for SQ turned positive on September 25, 2020.

Financial behemoth Morgan Stanley   agreed to acquire asset management company Eaton Vance . It will be a 50-50 cash-and-stock deal with an equity value of about $7 billion.The odds of a continued upward trend are 65%. MS may jump back above the lower band and head toward the middle band.

 According to Ferragu, the company has a decade of “hyper growth ahead” and it has “no credible competition on the horizon.” The analyst raised his price target on the stock to Wall Street-high of $578. Last week, Tesla delivered a record 139,300 vehicles in the third quarter, beating analysts’ expectations of 136,000 Tickeron's AI-powered scorecard rates TSLA a "BUY". According to Tickeron,  TSLA in upward trend: price expected to rise as it breaks its lower Bollinger Band on September 08, 2020 TSLA may jump back above the lower band and head toward the middle band.In 32 of 38 cases where TSLA's price broke its lower Bollinger Band, its price rose further in the following month.

Dollar Tree  has plans  to hire more than 25,000 workers to meet an expected surge in demand during holiday season. The discount retail giant will look to employ full-time and part-time workers across Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores and for its U.S. distribution centers over the coming weeks.Open positions will include store managers, assistant store managers, cashiers, and stocking associates. The distribution centers require more  management staff, equipment operators and warehouse associates. Last month retail giants Walmart  and Target announced that they were hiring 20,000 and 130,000 workers, respectively, to cater to online orders and digital sales for he holiday-season demand. Tickeron's analysis shows: DLTR's MACD Histogram crosses above signal line The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) for DLTR turned positive on September 28, 2020.

E-commerce  company Shopify shares got a price target hike to $1,250 from $1,150.from a KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst.  Referring to Shopify’s Fulfillment Network as "a full-fledged, tightly integrated fulfillment solution," analyst Josh Beck raised his price target.

The price target implies downside from the stock's current price. The analysts anticipate challenges for AT&T. Analysts’ revenue and adj.For AT&T’s Warner Media operations, analysts expect the combination of return to sports and added expense associated with HBO Max to affect bottom line. In the Entertainment segment, cord-cutting and programming costs are pressuring profitability. Analysts also noted, “We are lowering our Postpaid phone-only ARPU by $0.27 to $54.88.

On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that the U.S. economic recovery is "strong but incomplete".He mentioned that around 22 million jobs have been lost since the coronavirus pandemic reared its head  in early March, and noted the current outlook remains "highly uncertain". Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington continue to debate the  size of the next coronavirus relief bill.  

Shake Shack's shares got a buy rating and a $78 share-price target at Loop Capital which initiated coverage on the stock. Loop Capital analyst Lynne Collier mentioned that  comparable-sales figures of the fast food restaurant chain have hit bottom and are turning around. Shake Shack's same-store sales fell -49% year-over-year in the quarter ended June 24, amid the coronavirus crisis and civil-rights protests that affected the restaurants’ operating hours.The odds of a continued upward trend are 77%. The Aroon Indicator entered an Uptrend today.

However, the number might still not be too optimistic with respect to its full year target of 500,000 . Tesla said deliveries for the three months ending in September came in  at a record 139,300, just above the Street forecast.That means, Tesla needs to shift a record 166,000 cars over the last quarter of the year to meet its 2020 target of 500,000. Major contributor to the latest quarter’s deliveries were Tesla's Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUVs with 128,044 units produced, and 124,100 delivered.

On Thursday, DraftKings  shares got a buy rating and Wall Street-high price target of $70 a share at Needham. Needham analyst Brad Erickson initiated coverage of the sports betting company’s stock on Thursday.It views the company as one of the leading beneficiaries from online sports betting’s taking off in the U.S. – an opportunity that Needham estimates to be between $42 [billion] and $58 billion annually longer term. According to Erickson, online providers' access to data creates a structurally better user experience vs. brick and mortar.

On Thursday, retail company Gap announced  plans to hire more than 10,000 new workers to help support its customer service for the holiday season. “We know the holiday season will be different this year and are committed to helping our teams provide a safe and seamless shopping experience,” said Sheila Peters, head of People and Culture at Gap Inc. The positions include packing, assembling, preparing orders for shipment, and working at customer contact centers.Customer contact workers can choose to work remotely, and fulfillment-center workers can select their working hours during the weekends, days, and nights.

The odds of a continued downward trend are 66%. Following a 3-day decline, the stock is projected to fall further.The odds of a continued upward trend are 77%. TSLA may jump back above the lower band and head toward the middle band.