Polar Vortex Brings Winter's Coldest Air For Trump's Inauguration Day: What It Means For Utilities, Retailers, Energy Stocks
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Jan 16 2025
0mins
Source: Benzinga
Arctic Blast Forecast: A polar vortex is expected to bring frigid Siberian air and subzero temperatures to over 105 million people in the U.S. this weekend, coinciding with historically cold winter conditions.
Impact on Economy and Events: Increased demand for natural gas and utility services is anticipated, while retailers may see a rise in sales for winter supplies despite reduced foot traffic due to extreme cold; President-elect Trump's inauguration could be one of the coldest on record.
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Analyst Views on HD
Wall Street analysts forecast HD stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for HD is 401.47 USD with a low forecast of 320.00 USD and a high forecast of 441.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
23 Analyst Rating
17 Buy
5 Hold
1 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 390.680
Low
320.00
Averages
401.47
High
441.00
Current: 390.680
Low
320.00
Averages
401.47
High
441.00
About HD
The Home Depot, Inc. is a home improvement specialty retailer. The Company offers an assortment of building materials, home improvement products, lawn and garden products, decor products, and facilities maintenance, repair, and operations products, in stores and online. It also provides various services, including home improvement installation services, and tool and equipment rental. The Company operates approximately 2,353 retail stores, over 800 branches and more than 325 distribution centers that directly fulfill customer orders across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. Its stores average approximately 105,000 square feet of enclosed space, with approximately 24,000 additional square feet of outside garden area. The Company serves two primary customer groups, including both do-it-yourself (DIY) and Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) customers and Professional Customers (Pros).
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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- Webcast Availability: The conference call will be available via webcast, allowing investors to access the event through the company's website, ensuring broad participation and transparent information dissemination to enhance investor confidence.
- Store and Employee Scale: As of the end of the third quarter, Home Depot operates 2,356 retail stores and over 1,200 SRS locations, employing more than 470,000 associates, underscoring its leadership position in the home improvement retail market.
- Market Position: As the world's largest home improvement retailer, Home Depot's stock is traded on the NYSE and included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 index, reflecting its significance and stability in the market.
See More
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- Market Decline Reasons: On Thursday, the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all fell over 1%, reflecting widespread fears of AI disruption across various sectors, particularly in software, finance, and office real estate.
- Profit Locking Strategy: The Investing Club successfully locked in profits from Eaton and Procter & Gamble's double-digit gains before the market downturn, demonstrating the effectiveness of taking profits in an overbought market.
- Housing Sales Data: According to the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales in January fell 8.4% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.91 million, lower than January 2025, indicating a setback for hopes of a housing market recovery.
- Mortgage Rate Impact: Although the 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped to 6.1% in January, the lagging nature of the sales data means it won't significantly impact Home Depot in the short term, necessitating ongoing market monitoring.
See More
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- 52-Week Trading Range: The SSO ETF's 52-week low is $30.42 per share, with a high of $60.37, and the last trade at $59.35 indicates the ETF is fluctuating near its high, potentially attracting investor interest in its price movements.
- Technical Analysis Tool: Comparing the current share price to the 200-day moving average can provide valuable insights for investors, helping to assess market trends and potential buying opportunities.
- ETF Unit Trading Mechanism: ETFs trade similarly to stocks, where investors are buying and selling 'units' that can be created or destroyed based on investor demand, impacting the ETF's liquidity and market performance.
- Inflows and Outflows Monitoring: Weekly monitoring of changes in shares outstanding helps identify ETFs experiencing notable inflows (new units created) or outflows (old units destroyed), assessing their impact on underlying assets and market sentiment.
See More
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- Industrial Stock Rally: In 2026, industrial stocks like DuPont have shown remarkable performance, with DuPont up approximately 28% year-to-date, reflecting market confidence in industrial recovery; JPMorgan raised its price target from $50 to $57, indicating optimism about future growth.
- Cisco's Decline: Despite reporting strong quarterly results and raising its annual outlook, Cisco's stock fell about 7% in pre-market trading due to high memory prices squeezing gross margins, highlighting market concerns over its future profitability, prompting us to trim our position ahead of the report to mitigate risk.
- AI Market Funding: Anthropic is set to close a $20 billion funding round, valuing the company at $350 billion, which is crucial for the AI sector as it supports cloud providers' infrastructure investments, ensuring sustained compute demand that drives growth in related industries.
- Rising Power Demand: American Electric Power reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, having signed agreements for 28 GW of load capacity since October, bringing total energy commitments to 56 GW by 2030, demonstrating a strong response to high electricity demand, with over 10 GW of gas turbine capacity secured from major manufacturers like GE.
See More
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- Dover's Performance Surge: Dover's investments in industrial sectors have resulted in double-digit bookings and near double-digit earnings growth, demonstrating robust performance in a low-interest-rate environment and signaling future growth potential.
- Honeywell's Spin-Off Plans: As Honeywell approaches its split into aerospace and automation businesses, market recognition of its value is increasing, particularly for the security automation segment, which could benefit from lower rates, driving the stock price recovery from the $190s last year.
- Eaton and GE Vernova Price Target Increases: Eaton and GE Vernova's price targets have been raised from $410 and $800 to $425 and $875 respectively, reflecting strong market expectations for data center demand, despite both companies having other business developments.
See More
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- S&P 500 Forecast: Wall Street analysts predict an 18% increase in the S&P 500 to 8,200 over the next year, reflecting optimistic market sentiment about economic recovery, which may attract more investors into the market.
- Sector Performance: The information technology and consumer discretionary sectors are expected to grow by 33% and 22%, respectively, indicating that these industries will be focal points for investors, particularly through exposure via Vanguard ETFs.
- Vanguard Tech ETF Performance: The Vanguard Information Technology ETF achieved a total return of 776% over the past decade, equivalent to an annual growth of 24%, showcasing its strong performance in the tech sector, despite underperforming during market corrections.
- Concentration Risk Management: The top three stocks in the Vanguard Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary ETFs account for 44% and 43% of their performance, respectively, prompting investors to consider diversifying their portfolios to mitigate concentration risk and enhance resilience.
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