BP stock, the U.K.-based oil giant, and Chinese search and AI play Baidu lead this weekend’s watch list of 5 stocks near buy points. Both BP and BIDU stock have rallied on China’s emergence from Covid, as well as their own growth initiatives. BP (BP) has a host of major oil and gas projects ready to bear fruit. Baidu (BIDU), known as China’s Google, is undertaking a huge expansion of its autonomous taxi service this year. The other stocks to watch also are being fueled by progress in unlocking big growth opportunities.
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Axon (AXON), the innovator of the Taser, body cameras and cloud-based systems for managing digital records for law enforcement, has big momentum in winning federal contracts. Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) has a promising pipeline, including a pain treatment that could benefit from a push for non-opioid medicines. Auto supplier Visteon (VC) is seeing contract wins and surging sales for its next-generation cockpit display systems that have taken hold in the luxury EV market.
Axon stock is part of the IBD Leaderboard portfolio of elite stocks, while VC stock is on the Leaderboard watch list. Both Axon and Vertex are on the flagship IBD 50 list.
BP Stock
BP stock dipped 0.1% to 35.50 on Friday. The oil and gas giant is closing in on a 36.21 buy point, 10 cents above its Nov. 30 high.
China’s decision to ditch its zero-Covid policy amid protests has begun reviving growth in the world’s No. 2 economy and should support oil prices this year. Crude oil futures closed at a two-month high on Friday near $82 a barrel.
BP took a hit as it wrote down the value of $24 billion in Russian investments after the invasion of Ukraine. Windfall profit taxes imposed by the European Union and U.K. were another impediment for BP stock. But Sa cotiabank analyst Paul Chen upgraded BP stock to outperform last week, while lifting his price target to 42 from 37. He thinks BP stock has been punished with too big of a valuation gap vs. U.S. peers.
In BP’s Q3 earnings call on Nov. 1, CFO Murray Auchincloss said the company is “moving into a very strong time period,”…
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