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Ford's Sluggish Stock, the Fed, & Alibaba Earnings | Free Lunch

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On today’s episode of Free Lunch, Associate Stock Strategist Ryan McQueeney highlights the latest macroeconomic headlines, including new home sales, initial jobless claims, and the Fed’s upcoming meeting. He also recaps Alibaba’s earnings report and discusses why Ford looks like a strong sell stock right now.

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Free Lunch is the newest show from Zacks Investment Research. It is streamed live, four times per week, and features breaking news and analysis from Zacks strategists. Free Lunch is available on YouTube, Facebook Live, Twitter, Ustream, and more.

All eyes are on the Fed in the latter half of this week as the regional presidents of the central bank meet for their annual retreat in Jackson Hole. Chairman Powell will give a speech tomorrow, in which he is expected to basically confirm that interest rates will be raised next month above the 2% threshold for the first time since the Great Recession.

Meanwhile, investors had a mixed bag of macroeconomic data to digest on Thursday, with initial jobless claims coming in lower than expected but new home sales reaching nine-month lows. The labor market appears to be maintaining its Goldilocks status, but housing costs are rising and supply is low, which is potentially troubling as the U.S. looks to maintain its economic book.

Wall Street was also transfixed by Alibaba’s (BABA - Free Report) earnings report this morning. The Chinese e-commerce behemoth posted shocking revenue growth and flexed the power of its “new retail” concept, although a one-time charge took a chunk out of its quarterly net income. Plus, investors are worried about how a full-blown trade war might hurt Chinese stocks.

Ryan discusses of these news stories, providing investors with the key facts they need to know and giving his unique perspective on the headlines—all on the first half of today’s show.

On the second half of the show, Ryan continues his educational series on the Zacks Rank. This model is based on earnings estimates and earnings estimate revisions, and in recent days, Ryan has explored stocks sporting Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) designations.

But today Ryan did the opposite, digging into #5 (Strong Sell) holder Ford (F - Free Report) . There are plenty of legitimate reasons why Ford has struggled this year—including the trade war—and, as Ryan point out, it is reasonable to hope that the automaker can rebound soon.

Still, recent earnings estimate revision trends have been less than favorable, and that is cause for concern according to our model. Why has Ford earned a Zacks Rank #5 rating? Make sure to check out the show to find out!

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