Wake Up Wall Street (SPY) (QQQ): Traders return to busy earnings week

Here is what you need to know on Tuesday, January 17:

Traders return today after a long weekend in the US, and initial signs are for a muted start to the week. Data overnight from China was positive, but we failed to see a positive push forward from commodities. Europe then added to the bullish sentiment with a strong ZEW from Germany, but again the market shrugged its shoulders and went all "meh". With a big earnings season upon us perhaps that should come as no surprise. This week we get the end of the investment banks today with Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman (GS). Then it is onto the regional and commercial banks. Netflix (NFLX) opens the tech season on Thursday. 

The US Dollar is a touch weaker in thin trading at 102.16 for the Dollar Index as we await the Bank of Japan. Gold is also lower at $1,912, and Oil has now spiked above $80 to $80.47, as perhaps a late reaction to the strong ZEW and Chinese data.

See forex today

European markets: mixed, FTSE, CAC, DAX, and Eurostoxx all trading just around flat.

US futures: all lower by -0.2%.

Wall Street top news

German ZEW is much better than expected. 

China's GDP, retail sales and unemployment are all better than expected.

Morgan Stanley (MS): in line EPS, beats on revenue.

Goldman Sachs (GS) big miss on EPS and revenue. 

Reuters headlines

Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI) & Microsoft Corp (MSFT): Microsoft is likely to receive an EU antitrust warning about its $69 billion bid for "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard, people familiar with the matter said, that could pose another challenge to completing the deal.

AbbVie Inc & Eli Lilly and Co (ABBV): The pharmaceutical companies have withdrawn from Britain's voluntary medicines pricing agreement, an industry body said on Monday.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA): Billionaire investor Ryan Cohen has built a stake in China's Alibaba Group worth hundreds of millions of dollars and is pushing the e-commerce giant to increase and speed up share buybacks, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. 

Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) & UBS Group AG: UBS has no interest in buying fellow Swiss lender Credit Suisse, the bank's Chairman Colm Kelleher said in a interview published on Saturday.

Manchester United PLC (MANU): The company set out a dazzling Davos shop front this week, but insisted its lounge was to entertain clients and partners rather than to attract buyers for the English soccer club.

Pfizer Inc (PFE): Chinese authorities have acknowledged that supplies of Paxlovid are still insufficient to meet demand, even as Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said last week that thousands of courses of the treatment were shipped to the country last year and in the past couple of weeks millions more were shipped.

Rio Tinto PLC (RIO): The miner said that China's reopening from COVID-19 restrictions is set to raise near-term risks of labour and supply-chain shortages, while it also flagged a strong start to iron ore shipments for 2023.

Upgrades and downgrades

Upgrades

COMPANY	TICKER	BROKERAGE FIRM	RATINGS CHANGE	PRICE TARGET
AvalonBay	AVB	Truist	Hold>>Buy	$186>>$190
Cadence Design	CDNS	Atlantic Equities	Neutral>>Overweight	$200
Church & Dwight	CHD	Morgan Stanley	Equal-Weight>>Overweight	$82>>$91
Church & Dwight	CHD	Credit Suisse	Neutral>>Outperform	$85>>$95
Dun & Bradstreet	DNB	BofA Securities	Neutral>>Buy	$15.5
Equity Residential	EQR	Truist	Hold>>Buy	$68
World Wrestling	WWE	Wells Fargo	Underweight>>Equal Weight	$52>>$100
Valero Energy	VLO	BMO Capital Markets	Market Perform>>Outperform	$135>>$160

Downgrades

COMPANY	TICKER	BROKERAGE FIRM	RATINGS CHANGE	PRICE TARGET
A.O. Smith	AOS	Loop Capital	Buy>>Hold	$67>>$65
Americold Realty Trust	COLD	Truist	Buy>>Hold	$34
Extra Space Storage	EXR	Truist	Buy>>Hold	$175>>$160
Lions Gate Entertainment	LGF.A	Truist	Buy>>Hold	$11>>$8
Kimco Realty	KIM	Truist	Buy>>Hold	$25>>$24
Mid-America Aptmt	MAA	Truist	Buy>>Hold	$176>>$167
First Advantage Corp.	FA	BofA Securities	Buy>>Neutral	$14.5
Pfizer	PFE	Wells Fargo	Overweight>>Equal Weight	$54>>$50

Source: WSJ.com

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