Equity investors are looking for the next direction stocks will take after suffering losses during the past two weeks. It's a vivid reminder that investing isn’t about winning all the time.
The S&P 500 experienced its worst week since late June and its second-straight weekly loss for the first time since May. The tech-heavy NASDAQ dropped more than 4% this week, its steepest decline since March.
With the U.S. election just a few weeks away and the economic recovery still weak, there's consensus developing within the analyst community that it will be tough for markets to repeat the past half-year's robust performance over the next few months. With that in the background, here are three stocks on our radar for the coming trading week:
1. FedEx
The world’s largest parcel delivery service, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) will report its fiscal 2021, first quarter earnings after the market closes on Tuesday, Sept. 15. On average, analysts are expecting $2.67 a share profit on $17.5 billion sales.
FedEx’s earnings, which come almost a month earlier than the third quarter 2020 numbers for the majority of U.S. companies, are generally closely watched since the delivery business is considered a proxy for the global economy. As such it can provide early warnings on trade and business investment issues.
Since the March dip, investors have turned bullish on FDX, encouraged by growing demand for the company’s delivery services during the pandemic when shoppers have turned to e-commerce in an overall stay-at-home environment.
Sentiment on FedEX has been so bullish that its stock has more than doubled during the past six months, even outperforming some of the highest profile tech stocks. Shares of FDX closed on Friday at $232.79, after rising more than 3% for the day.
2. Adobe
Another equity that could surprise investors this coming week is Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE). The maker of Photoshop also releases its fiscal 2020, third quarter earnings on Tuesday, after the close as well.
On average, analyst expectations are for $2.41 a share profit on sales of $3.16 billion. In June, Adobe released an impressive earnings report for its Q2 period, helped by the ongoing shift to cloud computing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
That trend will likely be beneficial for the company and its stock once again as Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen accelerates his efforts to diversify the company's lines of business, currently focused on creative software. To this end, in 2018, for example, Adobe bought Magento, an e-commerce platform developer, and marketing automation software creator Marketo.
Adobe, which competes with Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) in the marketing and e-commerce technology segment, is trying to boost growth by expanding its offerings while strengthening its core, creative software business. Shares have had a powerful rally this year, surging about 43%. The stock closed at $471.35 on Friday.
3. Moderna
Clinical stage biotech Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) will hold its annual Research & Development Day virtually on Thursday, Sept. 17. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company might provide some updated information on how its potential COVID-19 vaccine trials are proceeding.
Moderna is conducting a final-stage trial for its vaccine which earlier elicited antibody levels higher than those typically seen in people recovering from the virus.
According to a recent note from Jefferies, the biotech’s vaccine for COVID-19 could generate sales of more than $5 billion a year if approved by regulators. Moderna stock is up more than 200% this year, though it's fallen from its four-fold gain in mid-July.
Shares closed on Friday at $59.34 after rising 3% on the day.