Benzinga's Bulls & Bears Of The Week: AT&T, Caterpillar, Nike, Tesla And More

• Benzinga has featured looks at many investor favorite stocks over the past week.
• Bullish calls included earnings winners, a telecom giant and a defense contractor.
• Bearish calls included the FAANG stocks and a leading electric vehicle maker.

While much of the attention this past week was on the surprisingly strong results from Apple Inc. AAPL and it reaching the $1 trillion market cap milestone, the broader markets ended the week relatively flat. The Nasdaq is still near the all-time high reached recently, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial have yet to recover to theirs after peaking earlier this year.

As usual, Benzinga continues to feature looks at the prospects for many investors' favorite stocks. Here are just a few of this past week's most bullish and bearish posts that may be worth another look.

Bulls

"Cramer's 'Clear Winners' From Earnings Season So Far" by Jayson Derrick looks at the TV guru's "stars of the show so far" this earnings-reporting season, including Microsoft Corporation MSFT.

In "Morgan Stanley Picks Nike Over Foot Locker, Says Brand's Growth May Not Translate To Retail Partner," Brett Hershman examines why the "mantra of brands over retailers" favors Nike Inc NKE.

Wayne Duggan's "Cowen Raises AMD Price Target After CEO Meeting" shows why semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD impressed one key analyst.

With the Time Warner deal behind it, AT&T Inc. T is back in favor with some on Wall Street, according to "BoA Upgrades AT&T: 'The Landscape Has Dramatically Changed'" by Elizabeth Balboa.

In Hannah Genig's "Buckingham: Northrop Grumman Investors Have Excellent Entry Point," see why an upgrade of Northrop Grumman Corporation NOC "is long overdue" accord to one analyst.

Also have a look at What Does An Investment Banker Actually Do?

Bears

"Pro: FAANG Stocks Could Have 30-40% Downside Potential" by Jayson Derrick reminds that a famed investor once advised investors to stay away from the hottest stock in the hottest sector, such as Apple and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.

In Elizabeth Balboa's "Tesla's Q2: 9 Analysts Weigh In," see which analysts though the latest Tesla Inc TSLA results were just "OK" and which predict that the carmaker will fail to deliver on production promises.

The bullish case for Caterpillar Inc. CAT was justified based on meaningful growth, according to Jayson Derrick's "Barclays Steps To The Sidelines On Caterpillar." But what about the impact of tariffs?

In "Colgate-Palmolive's Weak Sales Growth 'Will Become The Norm,' Macquarie Says In Downgrade," Hannah Genig looks at what is driving the low growth at Colgate-Palmolive Company CL.

Ezra Schwarzbaum's "The iQIYI Growth Story Is Priced In, Goldman Says In Downgrade" examines the prospects for the so-called Netflix of China, IQIYI Inc IQ, after its latest earnings report.

Be sure to check out Treasury To Increase Auctions To Fund Upcoming $1 Trillion Annual Deficits as well.