Benzinga's Bulls And Bears Of The Week: Apple, Chevron, GM, GE, Peloton And More

• Benzinga has examined the prospects for many investor favorite stocks over the past week.
• The past week's bullish calls included the iPhone maker, Google's parent and an automotive leader.
• Financial and energy giants and COVID-19 vaccine makers were among the bearish calls seen during the week.

The markets kept hitting new all-time highs in the first full week of the second quarter, and the big three U.S. indexes ended the week higher, led by the Nasdaq's gain of about 3%.

March jobs data and vaccination progress helped boost the market, the reopening trades and even the beleaguered FAANG stocks. As people argued over the meaning of "infrastructure," the 10-year Treasury remained steady. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon had some upbeat comments on economic recovery, but the Federal Reserve offered nothing new. While trading volume was muted, the sentiment seemed to be cautiously bullish ahead of next week's kickoff of the new earnings reporting season.

Also during the week, Amazon workers in Alabama voted against unionizing. The iPhone maker was hit by the chip shortages, even as its CEO dropped hints about the Apple Car. The White House took steps on gun control and received perhaps surprising support for corporate tax hikes.

Furthermore, the latest Forbes list of billionaires includes some surprises, and the United States may boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

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 Melanie Schaffer's "Apple Options Traders Bet Big The Tech Rally Will Continue," discover why some options traders anticipate a bigger move to the upside for consumer electronics giant Apple Inc AAPL.

"Why Google's Stock Offers 50% Upside Potential" by Shanthi Rexaline examines why shares of Alphabet Inc GOOGL may be worth more than the current street-high price target. Is a breakup in the cards?

Adam Eckert's "Why This BofA Analyst Says General Motors Is A Top EV Stock" discusses the prospects for General Motors Company GM and an industry in transition.

In "General Electric Is Looking To Break Out: Technical Levels To Watch," Tyler Bundy focuses on the technical chart for General Electric Company GE after breaking through resistance. What comes next?

U.S. Bancorp USB scored a big Wall Street upgrade ahead of its upcoming report. So says Wayne Duggan's "JPMorgan Upgrades U.S. Bancorp, Raises Big Bank Price Targets Ahead Of Q1 Earnings."

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

• Record Steel Prices Create Investment Opportunities For These 4 Stocks
• 4 Retail Stocks That Can Thrive Post Reopening: Here's Why
• 3 Undervalued SPAC Picks From The Spac Guru

Bears

"Jamie Dimon Acknowledges Fintech's 'Enormous' Threat: Here's Why That's Important" by Renato Capelj shares what the JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM CEO sees a serious threat to traditional banks.

In "Why Did Goldman Sachs Downgrade Chevron, Despite 'Consistent Performance Track Record'?" Priya Nigam looks at why a top analyst downgraded Chevron Corporation CVX stock.

Vandana Singh's "Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 Vaccine Under Review At EMA For Blood Clots, AstraZeneca Probe Expanded" focuses on skepticism of the AstraZeneca Plc AZN and Johnson & Johnson JNJ vaccines.

In Wayne Duggan's "Credit Suisse Isn't Out Of The Woods Yet" find out why one key analyst says investors may not want to buy the dip in Credit Suisse Group AG CS stock. Will the Archegos Capital fiasco have long-term effects?

Peloton Interactive Inc PTON stock could trade sideways in the near term, according to "Peloton Stock Gets Downgrade In Spite Of Strong Performance: Here's Why" by Priya Nigam.

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

• 5 Things That Could Derail The Stock Market In 2021
• Jim Cramer On The Market: 'It's Just Kind Of Absurd'
• Here Are The Stocks With The Highest Short Interest Rate This Week

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

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