Lintao Zhang
U.S. stock index futures on Wednesday slumped after the latest consumer inflation report came in hotter than expected. Here are some stocks to watch on Wednesday:
- monday.com (MNDY) slid nearly 6% in pre-market trading, after Citi downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy. The brokerage cited recent partner conversations and web traffic checks that showed slowing demand with a more muted impact from price increases. Israel-based monday.com (MNDY) offers a cloud-based work management platform. Citi believes that investor expectations for the impact of price increases on 2024 growth for the company may be over-extended in the near term. Wall Street analysts and SA Authors rate monday.com (MNDY) Buy, while Seeking Alpha's Quant rating on the stock is Hold.
- U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba (BABA) added about 2% ahead of the opening bell. The advance came after media reports said that the Chinese e-commerce giant's co-founder Jack Ma had penned a lengthy memo to employees in an internal company forum. Ma expressed support for Alibaba's (BABA) restructuring efforts and focused on the possibilities of artificial intelligence. The billionaire has spent the last three years largely out of the spotlight, and his latest post was his longest on the company's intranet in five years.
- Nvidia (NVDA) stock slipped nearly 2% ahead of the market open, extending a recent pullback. On Tuesday, shares of Nvidia (NVDA) ended at $853.54, a 10.2% decline from a record closing high of $950.02 posted on March 25. That means the stock has officially entered correction territory. However, Bank of America believes the decline in the stock is "nothing new for investors and does not mean the fundamentals have changed." The brokerage also noted that "periods of consolidation" in Nvidia (NVDA) stock usually sets it up for strong moves later.
- Shares of Hexcel (HXL) retreated more than 10% in pre-market trading. The maker of advanced composite materials for the aerospace, defense and industrial markets on Tuesday named Tom Gentile, former chief executive of Spirit AeroSystems (SPR), as its next president and top boss starting May 1. Bank of America reacted to the move by downgrading Hexcel (HXL) stock to Underperform from Neutral. “We note the surprising nature of this announcement as the company did not communicate to the market that it had been pursuing new leadership,” the brokerage said. “As such, we think it could be poorly received by the market,” BofA added.