Benzinga Bulls And Bears: Palantir, Icahn Enterprises, Alphabet And Why Elon Musk Will 'Focus More Of His Energy' on Tesla

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

All three major indices ended the week in the green. The S&P 500 rose by 1.65% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 3.04%, marking its best weekly performance since March. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones edged up by 0.38% for the week.

A significant portion of these gains occurred on Thursday, fueled by trader speculation over a possible U.S. debt ceiling agreement. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's comments on Thursday hinted at the potential of a deal emerging as early as the following week. Although, on Friday, key Republican debt ceiling negotiators, reportedly walked out of a private meeting with White House officials.

Nonetheless, Friday's losses were restrained after Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggested that interest rates might not need to increase as drastically as initially anticipated to control inflation.

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

"Cathie Wood's ARK Boosts Palantir Stake By $3.4M As Stock Hits 1-Year High After Upbeat Q1," by Shanthi Rexaline, reports on Cathie Wood's Ark Invest's purchase of additional shares of Palantir Technologies, Inc. PLTR as the stock shot up to its highest level in over a year.

In "Cruise Stocks Expect Tailwind Profits As Credit Card Travel Spending Runs Hot This Summer," writes that Carnival Corp. CCL, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. NCLH, and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. RCL stand to benefit from the tailwinds of increased spending in the coming months.

"Tesla's Electric Visionary: 'Rejuvenated' Musk To Remain CEO For At Least 5 More Years, Says Analyst," by Shanthi Rexaline, details why Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives believes Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk is now ready to "focus more of his energy and time around Tesla."

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

Paul Tudor Jones Says AI Is Going To Drive Long-Term Productivity Boom That Will Create 'Big Winners And Big Losers' In Stock Market

Amazon Trends Higher As Golden Cross Looks Set To Form: The Bull, Bear Case For The Stock

Dogecoin Mania Fuels Surge In Transactions, Outpacing Bitcoin And Litecoin

The Bears

"Analyst Labels AI As 'Infant Bubble,' Warns Federal Action Could Burst It: 3 Investor Lessons From Dot-Com Collapse," by Piero Cingari, explains why Bank of America's chief investment strategist called the AI a "baby bubble," comparing it to other market bubbles in recent decades, such as Cathie Wood's ARKK Innovation ETF ARKK.

In "Google CEO Sundar Pichai Admits To Cheating On Pixel With Samsung Galaxy And iPhone," Ananya Gairola writes that Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL CEO Sundar Pichai recently revealed why he uses a Google Pixel Fold, Samsung Galaxy and even an Apple Inc. AAPL iPhone. 

"Icahn's Double Whammy: Q1 Stock Buys Followed By A Short Report," by AJ Fabino, looks at billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn recent challenges after Icahn Enterprises L.P. IEP was the subject of a short report followed by a new filing showing he may have made a stock purchase at the wrong time.

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

Is Disney Losing The Streaming War To India's Richest Man? Losing 8M Subscribers Is No Joke

Ex-Meta Employee, Oculus Founder Raves About Apple's 'So Good' AR/VR Headset

Peter Schiff Predicts Dire Consequences: Debt Default Or Massive Inflation Inevitable

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