News and analysis

Maker (MKR) has lost 4.5% this week, falling to $2630. This moderate retreat follows a 27% rise in the past three days. Prices even surged by 37.0% to $2840 per token on Monday, the highest since December 3, 2021.

Investors were fervently betting on a Bitcoin (BTC) rally in the last few days, driving extreme demand for the Maker DAI stablecoin. Investors borrowed DAI to buy BTC, and the demand was so high that DAI reserves were almost depleted last Friday. Maker had to introduce updates on March 10, while Rune Christensen, the co-founder of MakerDAO, bought 312 MKR at $2389, posing a 19% profit this Monday. However, MKR has reached important resistance levels at $2660 and $2750, and it might be challenging to breach them for an extended period.

The Maker could be influenced by the surging BTC, which added another 3.76% to $71,151 per coin on Monday. A breakthrough of the resistance at $2750 would open the next target at $3000.

Fed chair Jerome Powell delivered remarks to the House committee on financial issues by saying that the US team of central bankers will approach interest rate cuts carefully as major economic parameters like growth and labour data look tight. However, he emphasized that the governors are going to reach confidence to launch cutting rates "sometimes this year". Of course, there was no specific message in his words, so that has not interrupted the broad uptrend on Wall Street. As a result, the S&P 500 futures slowly went to new heights, with nearest targets for March at nearly 5,200. Meanwhile, an assortment of assets, mostly consisting of AI-fuelled growth businesses, keep delivering nice surprises every day.

This Wednesday, CrowdStrike (CRWD) spiked by more than 20% in the opening trading gap, peaking at $365 per share. A fast wave of profit taking brought it down to now-a-support area below $320, so that I decided to add more to my stake in the stock, which already doubled its market value, as well as my profit from it, in less than five months. Even if the price comes close to $300, it will do no harm, only benefits by attracting newcomer bulls again. As one of cybersecurity leaders, CrowdStrike beat consensus numbers on Q4 earnings, giving bright guidance especially for the cloud segment that the crowd likes so much. Several large investment houses shifted their target prices for CRWD to $400 or above.

Qualcomm (QCOM) added another 2.7% in the first half an hour after the opening bell on March 7, peaking above $172 per share, yet it has at least $20 of space to the upside if one believes in repeating the all-time records of January 2021. Riding this positive wave, NVIDIA jumped to "emergency number" of $911. Going too fast, yet I expect at least $950 before I am going to run away. Right now, it looks too early to hide the nests or fold everything, yet too many guys in this market are waiting for $1000 in NVIDIA, so that smart people may start profit fixing when we are all just around the corner from this four-digit number. In March, I am going to liquidate most of my stakes in NVIDIA, before it smells like roast. Other AI stocks are good enough yet not so viral or meme assets.

Ultimately, Broadcom (AVGO) quarterly release is widely awaited after the market close on March 7 to bring even more manna from heaven on our heads. If everything will be OK with the report, this may boost other AI stocks even higher. Yet, if some weaknesses would be detected in numbers from a nearly $650 billion business, it already passed the way from $900 in early November to $1400 in this month, and keeping the stake intact looks as a reasonable solution personally for me, even in case of temporarily and sharp price adjustment. Dip buyers would not be slow to come to the rescue when NVIDIA and others continue to hit records. With all that being said, surpassing $1500 could be a dangerous red line when I would think at least of selling a good half of my stake here.

OMG Network (OMG) is trading neutral around $1.160 this week. With Bitcoin (BTC) up by 6.2% to $66,850 per coin, it seems that OMG is underperforming. However, it has risen impressively by 85.0% since the beginning of February. It performed even better with a rise of 115.0% on March 3, reaching $1.349, while BTC increased by 57.0% during the same period. So, OMG has likely exhausted its potential for now. There are no fresh news about the token since January. Breaking through the strong resistance level at $1.150-1.250 without any internal positive reasons seems challenging. Therefore, it is likely that the token will enter a consolidation phase.

Target Corporation (TGT) is usually referred to the segments of consumer discretionary and consumer staples at the same time, as this North American chain of stores partially rely on people spending money that they don't need to spend. Yet it also lies near the thin facet to consumer staples, as Target's business strongly focused on low-priced urgent need goods, such as everyday food or hygiene supplies, along with electronics or clothing retailing of different price categories. This way of business positioning makes many experts even more willing to watch Target share price behaviour as a perfect health indicator of the broader market.

Target was riding high at the time of corona outbreaks, and then it was suffering on charts from May 2022 to October 2023, supposedly pointing at still elevated recession risks. Yet, it already recovered by more than 55% since mid-November, including the latest jump from $150 to nearly $175 per share during this week. This took place after the company's management gave several clear bullish highlights in its Q4 release on March 5, including highest EPS (equity per share) level in two years at $2.98, compared to $2.41 of consensus expectations and $1.89 one year ago, as well as its detailed strategic plan of driving long-term growth further, relying on paid loyalty programs which collected over a 100 million members to reignite repeating purchases, digital sales contribution, with same-day services accounting for 70% of that growth. This was the result of investing $100 million in hubs to speed up delivery about a year ago by building a larger network of sortation centres to lower costs to give a reason for soaring profitability on similar revenue numbers which added only 1.7% YoY, as comparable store sales declined by 5.4%. Online orders made up 21.3% of all Target sales. Partnership with providers like UPS, FedEx also helped a lot.

Target CEOs said they foresee only light pressure in the current quarter but continued climbing later in the year. High level of adaptation to changing consumer behaviour due to the lack of ready money in their pockets becomes common for other retailers including TJX and Walmart with AI-based technology features. Target CEO Brian Cornell also had an AI speech when he talked about ten additional supply chain facilities with further integrating machine learning and driving early adoption of generative AI to take not costly but same day fulfilment. TGT stock is not necessarily a top pick up on Wall Street, as it still could be volatile bearing the common stamp of the hard time troubles, like other retailers. RBC Capital increased its price target for Target Corporation to $191, as an example, which is not so far away from the current height. UBS did the same by reaffirming an Outperform rating on the stock, but with the same $191 potential as a target price. However, climbing Target or Walmart stocks are the mirror of the ongoing bullish efforts on Wall Street, being a useful kind of gauge for correcting or keeping investors' stance intact for the nearest period.