Benzinga Bulls And Bears: Tesla, Palantir, Alphabet And Why Pepe Coin May Soon Overtake Shiba Inu

Benzinga examined the prospects for many investors' favorite stocks over the last week — here's a look at some of our top stories.

The S&P 500 and Dow experienced losses for the second week in a row, falling by 0.29% and 1.11% respectively. In contrast, the Nasdaq was up 0.4% for the week.

On Wednesday, U.S. Labor Department reported that the consumer price index had a 4.9% increase in April, a decrease from March's 5%, and also below the 5% inflation that economists had predicted. Excluding the volatile costs of food and energy, the core CPI inflation went up by 5.5%, which was in line with what economists had estimated on average.

On Friday, the University of Michigan indicated a 9.1% decrease in U.S. consumer sentiment for the month of May, which is 1.2% lower than the previous year. The level of consumer sentiment fell to its lowest point since the previous November, and the inflation expectations of consumers for the following year slightly fell from 4.6% to 4.5%.

Benzinga provides daily reports on 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.

The Bulls

"Jim Cramer Eats His Words On Palantir: Not A 'Real Company' A Month Ago, Now He's High On Profitability, Says Russia Should 'Look Out,'" by Adam Eckert, looks at why Jim Cramer has changed his mind on Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR and now says he thinks "the stock should be up."

In "Crypto Analyst Sees Pepe Coin Dethroning Shiba Inu As 2nd-Largest Meme Coin: Calls SHIB 'Overvalued Garbage,'" Mehab Qureshi writes that a cryptocurrency analyst with over 154,000 Twitter followers predicts Pepe Coin PEPE/USD is on to overtaking Shiba Inu SHIB/USD as the second-biggest meme coin.

"Is Google Bard Better Than ChatGPT? 8 Capabilities Exclusive To OpenAI's Chatbot Rival," by AJ Fabino explores some of the unique features of Alphabet Inc’s GOOG GOOGL generative artificial intelligence chatbot Bard, which aren't available on OpenAI's ChatGPT.

For additional bullish calls of the past week, check out the following:

Cathie Wood's Flagship ARK ETF Marks 5-Day Winning Streak — Outperforming Nasdaq, FAANG In May

Tech Expert Gene Munster Says Microsoft, Google Will Continue To Move Higher Amid AI Boom

Elon Musk Can Leverage Tucker Carlson's Twitter Broadcast To Tesla's Advantage: Analyst Explains How

The Bears

"JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Calls For Ban On Shorting Banks: 'Some People Are Unscrupulous,'" by Adam Eckert, details why JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM CEO Jamie Dimon is calling for a ban on shorting banks. 
In "Tesla Peak Earnings In 'Rear View' As EV Maker Falters In China, Says Analyst: 'Wall Street Remains ... Criminally Bullish,'" Shanthi Rexaline writes that GLJ Research analyst Gordon Johnson is bearish on Tesla Inc's TSLA stock and expected two very negative China-centric data points to emerge.

"Murdoch's Son Says Fox News' $787M Settlement Preceding Tucker Carlson's Exit Was A 'Business Decision,'" by Shibdeep Dhaliwal, reports on the reason CEO and executive chairman of Fox Corp. FOX, Lachlan Murdoch, agreed to a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in a defamation case.

For more bearish takes, be sure to see these posts:

Lucid Motors Analysts Trim Price Targets After Q1 Earnings: Worries Over EV Maker's Future Trigger Discussion Of 'Licensing Model'

Disney CEO Questions Investment Florida Amid Clash With Ron DeSantis: Does The State Want Us To Invest, Employ, and Pay Taxes – or Not?

Short-Seller Blasts Icahn Again, Raises Suspicion: 'Where Is This Money Coming From?'

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