1 Stock To Buy, 1 To Dump When Markets Open: Tesla, Robinhood

Stocks on Wall Street ended lower on Friday, but the benchmark S&P 500 index still scored a weekly gain as disappointing monthly U.S. employment data failed to dent risk appetite.

S&P 500 Chart

The week ahead is expected to be another busy one, given the start of the third-quarter earnings season, which sees names like JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), and Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) all report their latest financial results.

In addition, key economic data is on the agenda for the week as well, including the latest consumer price inflation report and retail sales figures.

Regardless of which direction the market goes, below we highlight one stock likely to be in demand in the coming days and another which could see fresh losses.

Remember though, our timeframe is just for the week ahead.

Stock To Buy: Tesla

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares are likely to see increased buying activity in the week ahead following bullish comments made by CEO Elon Musk at a festival held at the electric vehicle maker’s new factory near Berlin over the weekend.

Musk told a cheering audience of about 9,000 people that he expects to deliver the first vehicles from Tesla’s new Berlin factory as early as December. He added that volume production would amount to about 5,000, "but hopefully 10,000" vehicles per week, and batteries would be made at the site in volume by the end of next year.

In addition, he said that he hoped the plant would in future build Tesla's planned trucks. He did warn though that volume production would take longer to achieve.

Meanwhile, Musk tweeted Saturday that Tesla will begin to roll out its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta 10.2 software to more drivers on either Sunday or Monday, after the release was delayed late last week due to last minute concerns about its build.

TSLA Daily Chart

TSLA shares closed at $785.49 on Friday, earning the EV company—which recently announced plans to move its headquarters from Silicon Valley's Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas—a market cap of $777.6 billion.

At current valuations, Tesla is the world’s largest automaker, bigger than names such as Toyota (NYSE:TM), Daimler (OTC:DDAIF), General Motors (NYSE:GM), Honda (NYSE:HMC), and Ford (NYSE:F).

After scoring a gain of more than 740% in 2020, TSLA stock—which hit an all-time high of $900 on Jan. 25 before an aggressive reset in valuations hit the entire EV sector—is up just 11% in 2021.

Tesla is scheduled to report third quarter financial results after U.S. markets close on Wednesday, Oct. 20. Consensus expectations call for the EV pioneer to post earnings of $1.44 per share, improving nearly 90% from the year-ago period. Revenue meanwhile is forecast to jump 52% year-over-year to a record high $13.3 billion, boosted by strong deliveries.

Stock To Dump: Robinhood Markets

Robinhood Markets' (NASDAQ:HOOD) stock is expected to suffer yet another challenging week as investors continue to worry over the negative impact of several factors plaguing the popular trading platform.

The latest negative news came after the financial services company warned in a regulatory filing late on Friday that potential SEC intervention in a payment arrangement between brokerages and trading firms, known as ‘Payment For Order Flow’ (PFOF), could pose risks to its core business.

The practice, in which brokerage firms receive compensation for directing orders to different parties for trade execution, accounts for a significant stream of Robinhood’s revenue. Robinhood also said that possible regulation of cryptocurrency trading and digital currency markets—which made up a 41% share of its revenue in the second quarter—could pose another cause for concern.

Adding to the downbeat sentiment, the brokerage firm said in the amended filing that it will seek to speed up approval for when large blocks of shares can be sold by early investors.

HOOD Daily Chart

HOOD shares—which started trading on the New York Stock Exchange at $38 following the company’s much-hyped IPO in late July—ended Friday’s session at $41.78, more than 50% below their all-time high of $84.12 touched on Aug. 4. At current levels, the Menlo Park, California-based stock market-trading platform has a market cap of $35.9 billion.

Robinhood next reports earnings after the U.S. market closes on Nov. 17.

Consensus calls for a loss of $0.63 per share for the third quarter on revenue of $423 million. The company reported a Q2 loss per share of $2.16 on revenue of $565 million, benefitting from a surge in crypto trading.