Forcerank Weekly Review - UA, FB, XOM

U.S. equities were hammered this Friday after historically dovish Fed official Eric Rosengren indicated that a gradual rate hike would help prevent the economy from overheating. Fresh signs that the central bank is poised to tighten monetary policy could spark a prolonged sell off until its late September FOMC meeting.  Through this uncertainty the Forcerank consensus data continues to accurately predict the relative price movement of various equities. This week they included winners and losers in the apparel, social media and energy sectors.

The apparel game highlighted gains from Under Armour (UA) and losses from VF Corporation (VFC). Under Armour received a nice boost this week after kicking off its promotional tour in China. The campaign featured their most popular sponsor, Stephen Curry, who is likely to help increase sales in the region. If Under Armour can create a meaningful presence in China, which it had otherwise lacked, it will close the gap between them and Nike.

VF Corporation, on the other hand, took a beating this week after Buckingham Research lowered its rating to neutral from a buy. The company has delivered negative earnings and revenue growth for 3 consecutive quarters driven by increasing competition in the footwear space. Shares of VF Corp were down 2.7% last week and nearly 20% in the past 6 months.

Facebook (FB) headlined the winners of this week’s social media contest. Most analysts recommend Facebook as a “buy” as it continues to see growth in monthly active users. On Wednesday, Morgan Stanley increased its price target on the tech giant from $150 to $160, implying an additional 20% of upside. Yelp (YELP) was the worst ranked and performing stock of this particular game. Most widely used technical indicators supported a pullback even though the stock has performed well this year.

The last of our games brings us to the energy sector. Up until Friday energy had been surging with day after day of gains. Crude oil jumped to nearly $48 Thursday, after opening at $44 Monday morning, only to tumble to $46 in Friday’s drop off. Hess (HES) was among the biggest losers dropping over 5% on the week with a majority of that coming from Friday alone. Exxon Mobil (XOM), on the other hand, remained resilient through this latest downturn. Shares were essentially flat for the week.