Traders are gearing up for a wild week on Wall Street.
Netflix, Twitter, Johnson & Johnson, IBM and Coca-Cola are just a few of the S&P 500 names on deck to report as earnings season ramps up.
In a Friday interview with CNBC’s “Trading Nation,” Nancy Tengler, chief investment officer at Laffer Tengler Investments, had her sights set on Texas Instruments, which reports Wednesday.
Not only is the chipmaker a major supplier to the auto industry, but its strong recent track record and capital allocation strategy make it a standout on a fundamental basis, Tengler said.
“This is a company that pays all of its free cash flow back to shareholders,” she said. “The stock has more than doubled the S&P’s returns over the last 10 years.”
Still, Tengler remained cautious.
“We really want to hear what they’re saying about supply-chain disruptions that remain,” she said.
More broadly, however, she said the semiconductor trade is here to stay.
“We think semis are no longer early cycle. We think that you want to own them for the long term.”
In the same “Trading Nation” interview, Craig Johnson, senior technical research analyst at Piper Sandler, said he’s watching Chipotle stock.
“I think this is going to be a key read for a lot of investors,” he said ahead of the company’s Tuesday earnings report.
Not only will the company’s results provide a larger indication of what is happening with workers, wages and food inflation, but it will also show the impact of Chipotle’s recent price increases, he said.
From a chart perspective, “perhaps there are some challenges starting to emerge,” Johnson said.
The stock hasn’t made a definitive move higher despite being in an upward price channel, he said. Zooming in further, the relative strength index seems to be breaking below its previously overbought levels, he said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see a correction here when they come out and they report earnings next week toward the lower end of that price channel,” he said.
Switching gears, Johnson was also looking at United Airlines, especially as the Covid-19 delta variant continues its spread. United also reports earnings Tuesday.
“It looks like we’re coming back and retesting the 200-day moving average,” he said.
He said he would watch the airline closely going into earnings as it would be “a great indication to see whether this delta variant is starting to bother travelers and whether they are still going to fly on airplanes.”
