Buzz Stocks: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Sunedison Inc, and Apple Inc.

Today's stocks to watch include Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Josh Selway

Feb 18, 2016 at 10:10 AM

U.S. stocks are struggling to hold on to earlier gains, despite rising oil futures and strong economic data. Meanwhile, retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), solar energy stock Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE), and iPhone parent Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are among the equities in focus today.

WMT has given back 4.7% this morning at $63.00, after the company lowered its full-year sales outlook and announced a nearly 8% drop in quarterly profits. While option traders already had a clear bias ahead of the company's earnings release, it'll be interesting to see if analysts respond. Specifically, 83% of brokerage firms maintain a "hold" rating for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. This hesitation comes despite the stock's recent technical strength, as it's outperformed the S&P 500 Index (SPX) by almost 18 percentage points over the past three months.

SUNE's epic decline is continuing today, with the shares off another 14.1%. Wall Street's responding to the company's latest restructuring plans, which include selling its production facility in Malaysia and closing another in Texas. In a little less than seven months, Sunedison Inc shares have fallen from a six-year high of $33.45 to $1.43, and now over 37% of the stock's float is sold short. What's more, two-thirds of analysts still deem SUNE a "buy" or "strong buy," so there's definitely potential for futures downgrades to weigh on the shares.

AAPL is down 0.6% at $97.56, on a report from tech research firm Gartner that revealed iPhone sales shrank for the first time ever during the fourth quarter, while the tech giant's flagship product also lost market share. Year-over-year, Apple Inc. has given back 24%, and option traders have grown bearish. Outside the options arena, however, bears are taking a hike. Specifically, short interest on Apple Inc. fell 6.8% during the last two reporting periods.

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