Benzinga's Final Bulls And Bears Of The Year: Alibaba, Apple, Intel, Tesla And More

• Benzinga has examined the prospects for many investor favorite stocks over the past week.
• The week's bullish calls included the iPhone maker and electric vehicle stocks.
• A semiconductor maker and a Chinese internet giant were among the bearish calls.

The final trading week of a tumultuous year offered little in the way of a Santa Claus rally, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average up about 1% and the Nasdaq essentially flat for the week. For the full year though, the Dow was up about 6%, the S&P 500 was more than 14% higher, and the Nasdaq saw a gain of more than 41%. Not bad for a year that saw a market collapse in March.

The year ended with progress on a third COVID-19 vaccine, continued political bickering in Washington and signs of life in the movie industry. Also, the ecommerce colossus had success with a new endeavor, the electric vehicle leader is poised to expand and a top chipmaker's days may be numbered.

The year's end is also a time to look forward, with market themes to watch and predictions about the FAANG stocks, cryptocurrency and so much more.

Through it all, Benzinga continued to examine the prospects for many of the stocks most popular with investors. Here are a few of this past week's most bullish and bearish posts that are worth another look.

Bulls

In Jayson Derrick's "3 Reasons Why Gene Munster Says Apple Will Be A Top Performer In 2021," see why this noted tech expert and venture capitalist believes that some key catalysts will help drive Apple Inc. AAPL stock higher this year and make it a top-performing FAANG play.

Tesla Inc TSLA could beat both internal and Wall Street expectations in the fourth quarter despite some "speed bumps." That's according to Shivdeep Dhaliwal's "Tesla On Track To Beat Its Ambitious Delivery Target Of 500,000 Deliveries For 2020, Says Wedbush."

"Snap Rallies On New Street-High Price Target: Why Goldman Sachs Is Bullish" by Shanthi Rexaline examines why one top analyst believes that Snap Inc SNAP stock is poised for further upside, and fourth-quarter revenue likely will come in well above consensus expectations.

In "Why BofA Is Raising Its Nio Price Target Ahead Of The Jan. 9 Nio Day Event," Wayne Duggan discusses what electric carmaker Nio Inc NIO likely will announce at its upcoming event. See what should give investors plenty of reason for optimism this year.

Priya Nigam's "Why KeyBanc Is Turning Bullish On Continental Resources" focuses on why petroleum and natural gas exploration and production company Continental Resources, Inc. CLR is now well positioned and could reinstate its dividend this year.

For additional bullish calls of the past week, also have a look at the following:

• The S&P 500 Just Did Something That Has Been Bullish Every Time Since WWII
• 3 Catalysts That Could Drive Stock Prices Higher In 2021
• Tilson: Frothy Stock Market Could Still Be 'One To Two Years From The Top'

In Shanthi Rexaline's "Intel Analyst: Challenges In 2021 Look 'Substantial'," see how one analyst expects formerly leading chipmaker Intel Corporation INTC to respond to activist pressure to make big changes. What may be next for the tech giant?

"Alibaba Shares Tank Even As E-Commerce Giant Ups Stock Buyback Target To $10B" by Aditya Raghunath shows why boosting the Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd BABA share buyback program in the face of anti-competition probes from Chinese authorities failed to please investors.

Chris Katje's "Bears Pile On FuboTV After 330% Rise In 2020" argues that bears are questioning the valuation and the long-term outlook for FuboTV Inc FUBO, one of the hottest stocks in the streaming market in the past year. Was five straight days of double-digit gains too much?

Electric vehicle maker Nikola Corporation NKLA faces "lack of scale in the first 18 months of truck sales," according to "JPMorgan Lowers Nikola Price Target, Sees 'Execution Risk Associated With A Tarnished Brand'" by Priya Nigam.

For more bearish takes, be sure to check out these posts:

• Bitcoin Rally Likely To Peak Out In Coming Weeks, Says Technical Analyst
• 10 Worst Performing S&P 500 Stocks Of 2020

At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.

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Photo credit: Andy Mitchell, Flickr