THU, DEC 15, 2022

The goal of this newsletter is to get you ahead of the next day of investing and trading. It's your first look at tomorrow and last look at today powered by the team of people who direct CNBC TV's stock market coverage.

Tomorrow's Top CNBC Stories Tonight

Top clean energy trades for 2023 from JPMorgan

JPMorgan says next year should be an important one for clean energy companies, and it's picked two standouts:
Plug Power: The stock is down 49% in 2022, and down 18% over the past month.
ChargePoint: The stock is down 44% in 2022, and 22% in a month.
Click here to read more about JPMorgan's call.

Goldman Sachs' top picks in the auto sector for 2023

Goldman Sachs says investors are increasingly focused on the shift to EVs, but need to be selective with auto equipment maker names as price and mix will both be headwinds next year.
High interest rates could also hurt early-stage companies.
With that in mind, Goldman says its top picks are:
Mobileye: The stock is up 21% so far in December, and has gained 30% since its IPO in late October.
TE Connectivity, which is down 26% in 2022.
Aptiv, down 42% in 2022.
Lear, down 30% in 2022.
Tesla, which is 60% off its 52-week high, hit in early January.
General Motors is 44% off the 52-week high it also hit in early January.
Read more about this bet here.

An arctic blast hits the Lone Star State

Texas is expected to see temperatures below freezing for several days next week.
It's news to watch for several big name utility companies operating in the state:
American Electric Power, down 2.2% over the past week and up 7.4% in 2022 (with a 3.5% yield)
CenterPoint, up 0.6% in a week and 10% in 2022 (2.4% yield)
Entergy, down slightly in a week and 3.7% in 2022 (3.6% yield)
Exelon is up 10.8% in a week and 3% in 2022 (3.2% yield)
NRG is down 1% in a week; down 26% year to date (yield of 4.4%)
Vistra Energy is up 3% in a week and up 7% in 2022 (yield of 3.2%)
By comparison, the S&P Energy index is flat year to date.
PG&E, Sempra and AES are the leaders in 2022.

Defense companies vie for weapons contract with Vietnam

Reuters is reporting that U.S. defense companies are getting in line to try and sell Vietnam heavy military weapons.
The packages would include drones and helicopters as well as other gear.
The article says Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and Textron are all involved.
Lockheed Martin shares have gained 35% in 2022.
But Boeing is down 8.7% year to date, although it's up 38% in over the past six months.
Raytheon is up 14% since the start of the year.
Textron is down 9.7% in 2022.

Worst of the Nasdaq 100 today

Netflix down 8.6%
Marvell Technology down 6.2%
Match Group down 6% today

Beyond Big Tech

After tech and communications services, materials and industrials were the worst sectors of the day. Both were down more than 3%.
In the materials sector, Nucor, Ball Corp and Eastman Chemical were the worst performers.
The worst industrials today were Generac, Quanta and Rockwell Automation.
Watch CNBC on Friday for more on why industrials and materials fell so much Thursday and discover some bright spots within each sector.

Jason Gewirtz | CNBC Vice President of News
@jasongewirtz

Adobe surges higher in extended traded

Adobe moving higher after hours, following a beat on earnings.
The company's Q1 and full-year EPS outlook was also better than expected, outweighing revenue guidance that came in slightly below estimates.
The stock has been an underperformer this year, down 42% year to date.

A good day for industrials

Several industrials were relative outperformers today, including Caterpillar and Deere. Both of those names remain less than 5% from their November highs.
Caterpillar is still up 26% in three months and tracking for its best quarter since Q3 2009. 52% of analysts tracked by FactSet have hold ratings on CAT, while 41% say buy, and 7% rate it a sell.
Deere is up 20% in three months and 25% on the year. 65% of analysts rate that stock buy.

A surprising bright spot in a down market

Homebuilders were one of the few bright spots today, with the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) finishing up 1%.
The turnaround began with Lennar's earnings call in the morning. That stock ultimately gained more than 3%, followed by D.R. Horton, KB Home, PulteGroup, and Toll Brothers – all of those names were up more than 1% and are poised for weekly gains.

Lower selling prices hit Nucor and other steel stocks

Steel and aluminum stocks were hard-hit Thursday, with Nucor among the worst performers on the S&P 500.
The steel giant issued an earnings warning this morning, saying weakness in its steel mills segment was driven in part by "lower average selling prices, margin compression and lower volumes."
The stock is heading for its worst week since September but still an outperformer on the year, up over 17%.
Other losers included Steel Dynamics, Arconic and Alcoa. U.S. Steel fell 4% in the regular session but could be one to watch Friday, as it issued strong Q4 EPS guidance after hours.

Defensive sectors are the place to be this week

Defensive sectors have been holding up a bit better this week.
The utilities sector is poised to finish the week higher, led by gains in PG&E, Southern, and Exelon.
A few names in consumer staples are also tracking for weekly gains, including food giants like Campbell, General Mills and Conagra. All three were trading at fresh highs on Wednesday and remain less than 2% from those levels as of today's close.