Wall Street Breakfast: The Week Ahead

The week begins with a focus on the energy sector as the OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meets to discuss oil production. The committee pledged to cut overall output by two million barrels per day at its last meeting in February and is largely expected to hold that line.

Seeking Alpha analyst Andrew Hecht reminded in his preview of the meeting that the JMMC is largely an advisory committee that makes recommendations to OPEC+, and the main cartel members will not meet again until June. SA’s Daniel Jones thinks the oil picture tilts bullish for prices in the back half of the year.

Earnings spotlight: Monday, April 3 – Science Applications (SAIC) and Digital Ally (NASDAQ:DGLY).

Earnings spotlight: Tuesday, April 4 – MSC Industrial (MSM), DLocal Limited (DLO), SMART Global (SGH), and Lindsay (LNN).

Earnings spotlight: Wednesday, April 5 – Conagra Brands (CAG), Simply Good Foods (SMPL), and Seadrill Limited (SDRL). Read a breakdown on Simply Good Foods from Seeking Alpha Contributor GS Analytics.

Earnings spotlight: Thursday, April 6 – Constellation Brands (STZ), Lamb Weston (LW), and Levi Strauss (LEVI). Read the Lamb Weston earnings preview from Seeking alpha contributor Daniel Jones.

Quant ratings: Stocks with recent quant rating changes include Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) to Strong Buy from Hold, Genuine Parts Company (GPC) to Strong Buy from Hold, and Conn’s (CONN) to Sell from Hold. See the stocks with the very highest rated Seeking Alpha Quant Ratings.

Barron’s mentions: The cover story dives into the potential impact of a ban or sale of TikTok in the U.S. The +50B hours per year that Americans spent on the social media site is seen going primarily to Meta Platforms’ (META) Instagram, Google’s (GOOG) YouTube, and Snap’s (SNAP) Snapchat if it was banned outright. A sale of TikTok is seen as a more logical outcome, although many tech giants would face regulatory roadblocks and others might balk at such a hefty deal price. Seeking Alpha’s Ahan Vashi gave META a Buy recommendation even after its 70% year-to-date surge.

See more stocks and topics mentioned in Barron’s.

Dividend watch: EMCOR (NYSE:EME) is forecast to boost its quarterly payout.

Volatility watch: Short interest on World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is elevated even with the company seeing strong interest from suitors. C3.ai (AI) has also seen short bets pile up higher following the recent ChatGPT-inspired rally.

Corporate events: The World Vaccine Congress will run during the week and feature appearances by a large number of healthcare companies, including Vaxart (VXRT), Tonix Pharmaceuticals (TNXP), Vaxxinity (VAXX), Sanofi (SNY), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Moderna (MRNA), Zoetis (ZTS), and Oragenics (OGEN).

See a comprehensive list of stocks to watch for dividends, earnings and volatility as well as corporate events and notable conferences.