META Jan 2025 260.000 call

US indexes open mixed, pharmaceutical stocks climb: Morning Brief

On today's episode of Morning Brief, hosts Brad Smith and Madison Mills analyze the market open and break down the biggest stories of the trading week. The major indexes (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) opened mixed in Friday's session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average leading gains early in the trading day. Nvidia's (NVDA) reign as the US's most valuable publicly traded company was brief. The semiconductor giant shed $118 billion in market capitalization, allowing Microsoft (MSFT) to reclaim the top spot. Moor Insights & Strategy founder, CEO, and chief analyst Patrick Moorhead emphasizes that Nvidia's continued dominance hinges on sustained enterprise demand for its offerings. If customers stop buying Nvidia's offerings, he warns, "then this whole gravy train comes to a screeching halt." Wells Fargo Investment Institute senior global market strategist Scott Wren notes that while the computer services and technology sectors are currently "very highly valued, very momentum driven," investors should consider trimming some of their gains in these areas and reallocating into sectors like industrials, energy, and healthcare. The pharmaceutical and biotech sectors are making major moves as Sarepta (SRPT) received expanded approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its muscular dystrophy drug, and Gilead (GILD) saw encouraging results from its twice-yearly shot to prevent HIV. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer has upgraded Nike (NKE) from Perform to Outperform and raised its price target from $110 to $120. Meta (META) also received a bullish call, as KeyBanc raised its price target from $475 to $540, citing sustained advertising momentum. Keybanc Managing Director Justin Patterson explains that Meta's ad revenue is "accelerating sequentially" despite intensifying competition, indicating that "demand for Meta's advertisements remains very high." This post was written by Melanie Riehl