Futures are flat this morning after tech led the way higher yesterday. The Nasdaq stacked on over 2% in yesterday’s session and the Dow and S&P both gained over 1%. Gold and silver are rebounding after a brief pause in the precious metals rally.
Oil is nearing a five month high and energy shares are rising. Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) recently received an upgrade from Cowen analyst, Keith Gabelman. The analyst believes the market is underappreciating the capitalization improvement as a result of the $21 billion sale of its speedway convenience store chain, which was announced earlier this month. Gableman raised his rating to outperform and boosted his stock price target to $43.
In a note to clients Gableman wrote, “We see 15% upside from equity today on the deal itself, in-line with upside to other large cap peers. However we see additional upside not contemplated in our price target and independent of improving refining crude differentials. This includes restructuring opportunities that could be particularly attractive if the long-term margin outlook dims and a potential cost-cutting program to bring opex more in-line with peers.”
MPC stock has shed 34.8% year to date while the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF (XLE) has tumbled 32.6%.
