Benzinga's Bulls And Bears Of The Week: Amazon, Apple, Bitcoin, GameStop, Netflix And More

• Benzinga has examined the prospects for many investor favorite stocks over the past week.
• Last week's bullish calls included the iPhone maker, a top oilfield services stock and a pharmaceutical giant.
• FAANG stocks, the top cryptocurrency and meme stocks were among the bearish calls seen.

After a shaky start, the markets bounced back this past week from the prior week's dip into the red. The Nasdaq led the big U.S. indexes with an almost 3% gain for the week, while the S&P 500 was up about 2% and Dow Jones industrial average about 1% higher.

COVID-19 has been creeping back into the headlines, partly due to the Tokyo Olympics. That has prompted fears that the economic recovery might stumble. Both crude prices and Bitcoin slumped during the week, while chip shortages and inflation remained. The brewing debt ceiling fight in Congress is only just getting started.

However, the earnings-reporting season ramped up this week as well, and strong results from Dow Jones industrials helped buoy the markets. While the first FAANG component to post results disappointed, other strong tech sector reports have increased the high expectations for the coming week's results from the iPhone maker and market darling.

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.

The Bulls

"Apple May Be Trailing Google, Facebook In YTD Gains By Far But Munster Still Expects It To Be Top-Performing FAANG Stock In Rest Of 2021" by Rachit Vats examines why one bull expects big things from Apple Inc. AAPL for the rest of the year.

On the other hand, see This Footwear Company Has Outperformed Apple, Tesla In Past Year And Expert Traders See Yet More Upside.

In "6 Snap Analysts On Q2 Earnings: 'Long Runway For Continued Growth'," Shanthi Rexaline reveals how analysts feel about camera and social media company Snap Inc. SNAP in the wake of its latest quarterly report.

In Aaron Bry's "Nvidia Rips Higher Into Stock Split. Former NYSE Trader Says Buy It," discover why NVIDIA Corporation NVDA could see "a lot of action" following its 4-for-1 stock split.

Nikhil Dayal's "BofA Names Halliburton Stock As Top Oil Services Pick After Earnings Beat" discusses why one top analyst is positive on Halliburton Company HAL despite a revenue miss.

Also read Goldman Sachs Is Bullish On Halliburton: What Investors Need To Know.

The only risk for Bristol-Myers Squibb Company BMY investors is boredom, but they collect a 3% dividend yield as they wait. So says Adam Eckert's "Why This Trader Expects Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock To Break Out And Trend Higher."

The Bears

One fund manager is now wary of Bitcoin BTC/USD and the likes of Facebook Inc FB, according to "David Tice Turns Bearish On Bitcoin And Big Tech: It's Very Dangerous To Hold Today" by Samyuktha Sriram.

Be sure to check out Unidentified Bitcoin Whales Bought Close To $1B Bitcoin Over The Weekend as well.

In "Why This Amazon Analyst Sees Risk To Short-Term Revenue Guidance," Shanthi Rexaline looks at the possibility of near-term pressure on Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN revenues as e-commerce sales slow.

Chris Katje's "Netflix Subscriber Growth, Content, Video Games Launch: 5 Analysts Weigh In" shows why some Netflix Inc NFLX analysts are wary about the subscriber growth and the push into games.

"Jim Cramer To AMC, GameStop Retail Backers Says Find Yourself A 'Boomer' Or Trust Fund: 'You Will Need Them'" by Madhukumar Warrier explores how the CNBC guru feels about retail investors and meme stocks such as GameStop Corp. GME.

Jim Cramer Says Ditch Clover Health And Buy Into This Healthcare Stock Instead offers Cramer's take on another meme stock.

In Nina Zdinjak's "Cantor Fitzgerald Lowers Price Target As Canadian Cannabis Producer Organigram Posts Q3 Earnings," find out how "sectoral derating" has affected Organigram Holdings Inc. OGI stock.

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