Bulls And Bears Of The Week: Caterpillar, Facebook, Microsoft And More

Benzinga has examined the prospects for many investor favorite stocks over the past week.

Bullish calls included e-commerce, software and social media leaders.

Bearish calls included the iPhone maker and a top video streamer.

The major U.S. indexes saw another gain for the week, led by the 6% rise in the Nasdaq. Big banks kicked off the first-quarter earnings reporting season, new jobless numbers remained ugly, the president pushed to restart the U.S. economy by reopening businesses and there were signs that things might be looking up for oil.

Benzinga continues to examine the prospects for many of the stocks most popular with investors. Here are some of this past week's most bullish and bearish posts that are worth another look.

Bulls

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN has become a utility in this crisis, according to one expert quoted in Tanzeel Akhtar's "How The COVID-19 Pandemic Turned Amazon, Netflix Into Essential Businesses."

In "Software Rises Above Semiconductors And Hardware As Tech Heads Into Earnings Season," J.J. Kinahan shares why its strong balance sheet should help offer "downside protection" to Microsoft Corporation MSFT.

"Facebook Option Traders Make $1M Bets On Multi-Year Rally" by Wayne Duggan looks at how smart money appears to be buying the Facebook, Inc. FB dip. Will its bullish momentum continue for another two years?

Priya Nigam's "Raytheon Seems Well Positioned Amid Coronavirus, Says Goldman Sachs" says Raytheon Technologies Corp RTX is likely to see little near-term impact from COVID-19.

For additional bullish calls, also have a look at "10 Stocks Hitting All-Time Highs Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic" and "Comcast's Peacock Takes Well-Timed Flight."

Bears

Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) are cautious, rather than bargain hunting. So says "Charlie Munger Says Berkshire Playing It Safe During Coronavirus; Outcome Of Crisis Could Be 'A Different Kind Of Mess'" by Jayson Derrick.

Wayne Duggan's "Goldman Turns Bearish On Apple, Qualcomm, Projects 36% Drop In Q2 iPhone Sales" discusses why COVID-19 could take a bigger bite out of Apple Inc. AAPL than investors realize.

"BofA Downgrades Caterpillar, Says Energy Problem Is Here To Stay" by Priya Nigam looks at why buying Caterpillar Inc. CAT in a recession may not work this time around.

In Elizabeth Balboa's "Roku Analysts On Streaming Growth, Early Q1 Data: 'Path To Profitability Is Unclear'," see what's offsetting the strength in Roku Inc ROKU.

Be sure to check out "9 Worst-Performing Stocks Of 2020: Buy, Sell Or Hold?" and "Where Will The S&P 500 Be By 2030? Here's One Prediction" for additional bearish calls.

At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.

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