Reddit Stocks: What meme stocks are trending today? – October 6, 2023

US futures

• Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.5%
• S&P 500 is down 0.7%
• Nasdaq 100 is down 0.9%

US futures are trading lower today after the US economy added far more jobs than anticipated, raising fears that the Federal Reserve will need to keep interest rates higher for longer.

Non-farm Payrolls

US non-farm payrolls increased 370,000 in September, marking an acceleration from the previous revised reading of 227,000. That was significantly higher compared to the 170,000 increase forecast by economists. The unemployment rate remained at 3.8%.

Oil suffers biggest weekly slide in 6 months

Oil prices remain under pressure and are on course to suffer their sharpest weekly slide since March, with Brent down 0.1% at $83.60 and WTI also down 0.1% at $81.40. Both are at five-week lows. Fears about tighter supplies sent prices to 11-month highs last month but attention has now turned toward concerns over faltering demand.

Can gold snap its losing streak?

Gold prices are up 0.3% today at $1,825 and hoping to snap a nine-day rout, representing its longest losing streak in at least seven years, that sent the metal to its lowest level in over six months yesterday. The metal has been hurt by the higher interest rate environment and surge in treasury yields.

Most discussed Reddit stocks

Below is a list of the top 10 most mentioned US stocks on the WallStreetBets thread on Reddit over the last 24 hours, according to data from Quiver Quantitative. Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and other instruments have been excluded:

1. NVIDIA
2. Tesla
3. Rivian
4. C3.ai
5. Visa
6. Disney
7. AMD
8. AMC Entertainment
9. Eversource Energy
10. Apple

Most active US stocks before the bell

Below are the most active stocks with a valuation of at least $500 million before the bell, based on trading data taken from Bloomberg:

1. Nikola
2. Rivian
3. Tesla
4. Palantir
5. MSP Recovery
6. Lucid Group
7. Marathon Digital
8. Pioneer Natural Resources
9. Exxon Mobil
10. NVIDIA

US premarket winners and losers

Here are the stocks worth at least $500 million experiencing the sharpest movements in premarket trade, according to data from Bloomberg:

Top US stocks to watch

Let’s have a look at the top stocks to watch today.

Exxon Mobil in talks in $60 billion Pioneer deal

Exxon Mobil is is down 3% amid reports it is in advanced talks about splashing out $60 billion on Pioneer Natural Resources, which is up almost 10% this morning.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the talks yesterday and suggested that the deal could be large enough to make it the world’s biggest takeover of 2023. The deal could come to fruition within days. The deal would represent Exxon’s largest deal since merging with Mobil back in 1999. The deal would combine two of the biggest players drilling the Permian Basin in Texas, which is regarded as the one of the most financially-rewarding locations to drill in the world.

Tesla cuts prices after delivery miss

Tesla shares are down 2.8% after it cut prices yet again on its cars in the US, just days after it posted much weaker than expected delivery figures for the third quarter.

The company has cut prices on the Model 3 and the Model Y in the US by 2.7% to 4.2%. The company will need to ramp-up output again in the fourth quarter if it is to meet its goal to sell 1.8 million cars this year following the big miss we saw in the third quarter and the price cuts should help, although it will hurt its market-leading margins and stoke concerns about profitability.

Rivian suffers record fall on convertible bond plan

Rivian shares are down 2.8% before the bell. The electric vehicle maker plummeted almost 23% yesterday, marking the largest daily drop on record since the company went public back in 2021 and sending the stock to a three-month low.

The selloff was caused by Rivian’s plan to sell $1.5 billion of green convertible loan notes that will be due in 2030. That will be weighing on the mind of investors that will be worried the loan notes will ultimately lead to them being diluted if converted.

Analysts said the bond will provide Rivian more headroom as it continues down the path to profitability but warned Rivian will need to raise more cash before 2025 unless it significantly improves its cash burn. Evercore ISI said the fundraising was earlier than it expected but also smaller, predicting Rivian would raise $2 billion to $3 billion in the second half of 2024. The broker, taking the new bond into account, forecast Rivian will end 2023 with about $9.5 billion in cash.

Apple & Alphabet could be fined by South Korea

Apple is down 0.9% and Alphabet is down 1.2% after South Korean regulators said the two tech giants have abused their dominant position in the app market and warned they could be fined over $50 million.

The Korea Communications Commission said the pair forced app developers to use specific payment methods and delayed app reviews. It has now informed them to take corrective action and is now mulling whether to impose fines.

Snap’s AI chatbot irks UK regulators

Snap is down 1.7% after the UK’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, warned it has concerns over privacy risks stemming from its new AI chatbot.

“The provisional findings of our investigation suggest a worrying failure by Snap to adequately identify and assess the privacy risks to children and other users before launching ‘My AI’”, the ICO said. The ICO is now taking Snap’s responses into account before making a final decision as to whether further action is necessary.

Is NVIDIA set to see more intense competition?

NVIDIA is down 1.3% this morning. OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed company behind AI bot ChatGPT, has made sourcing more advanced AI chips a top priority amid a shortage in supplies and is even considering developing its own chips as a result, according to unnamed sources speaking to Reuters.

OpenAI is now considering how to move ahead. It could try to work more closely with the likes of NVIDIA to increase supplies, or is even thinking about acquiring a business to give it a headstart, the report said. That not only shows how crucial NVIDIA is for supplies, thought to provide about 80% of the world’s AI chips right now, but also flags the risk that it will see more competition in the future as companies try to gain an edge an develop more of their own technology in-house.

Disney rebounds from 9-year lows

Disney shares are down 0.1% at $80.71 and giving back some of the gains booked yesterday, when it rebounded from its lowest level since 2014. The stock found multiple reasons to climb.

Disney is thought to be in discussions about selling its streaming and television business in India, according to unnamed sources speaking to Bloomberg. That comes after reports earlier this year that Disney was looking to offload the unit or find a partner.

Meanwhile, Bernstein initiated coverage on Disney with an Outperform rating and a $103 price target today while Seaport Research also started covering the stock with a Buy rating and $93 price target.

Disney shares have tumbled this year as investors pile on the pressure to get its streaming operations profitable, fret about a pullback in consumer spending hitting demand at its theme parks and resorts just as it has announced a huge lift in the amount it plans to invest in its sites, ongoing strikes by actors hurting its content slate and the trouble with what to do with its legacy TV networks.

Can Taylor Swift provide a boost for AMC?

AMC Entertainment shares are up 0.1% after announcing yesterday that the new Taylor Swift movie, THE ERAS TOUR, that will hit the big screen next Friday has sold over $100 million in advanced ticket sales.

The hope is that the film can provide a much-needed boost for the cinema industry that is still struggling to recover from the pandemic. AMC said the film smashed its daily ticket sales record. The film will be shown in over 8,500 theatres in over 100 countries.