-- Technology stocks were mixed pre-bell Thursday, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) retreating by 0.2% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) 0.5% higher.
Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) shares gained by 1.2% before the opening bell after closing the prior session with a 2.8% increase. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Google has proposed changes to how it shows news results in its search engine to avoid further EU competition fines.
RBC Capital Markets on Wednesday reiterated Suncor Energy's (SU.TO) outperform rating and C$100 price target, with the bank noting the company delivered another quarter of "robust performance" punctuated by a "jumbo-sized" downstream pre-tax margin of $2 billion (including FIFO gains) in part driven by record refined product sales of 680,900 bbl/d.RBC's updated production outlook of 862,100 bbl/d, anchored by a $5.7 billion capital program, remains relatively unchanged."Suncor's first-quarter results reinforced our confidence that its culture of sustained high performance is taking deep root and enabling the company to be on the podium, come what may," RBC said. "We believe the ingredients are in place for the company to earn a premium relative valuation, conceivably over the next year," RBC added.Suncor is RBC's favorite integrated producer in Canada and is part of its Global Energy Best Ideas list.Suncor traded at $85.70 per share at last look Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.Price: $85.70, Change: $-2.21, Percent Change: -2.51%
VSE (VSEC) has an average rating of Buy and mean price target of $248.50, according to analysts polled by FactSet.Price: $206.85, Change: $-0.60, Percent Change: -0.29%
United Therapeutics (UTHR) has an average rating of buy and mean price target of $670.67, according to analysts polled by FactSet.Price: $585.63, Change: $-11.14, Percent Change: -1.87%