Trading Nation

These two stocks could be your best buys ahead of earnings this week

Trading Nation: Pre-earnings picks
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Trading Nation: Pre-earnings picks

A huge slate of earnings is on tap for this week, with almost 100 stocks set to unveil their fourth-quarter results, including many of the biggest tech stocks.

Traders are eyeing a few names in particular as attractive bets ahead of their results.

Max Wolff, market strategist at 55 Capital, has his eye on Amazon.

Slated to report results on Thursday afternoon, Amazon has enjoyed an incredible 40 percent gain over the past year. Still, the stock has underperformed quite substantially over the past three months, rising just over 2 percent while the S&P 500 has surged by nearly 8 percent.

"Amazon's gotten a little more shade than they deserve," Wolff said Friday on CNBC's "Power Lunch." Given his optimism about Amazon's consumer business as well as its red-hot cloud business, "I think that their February 2nd news will be really positive."

Positive or negative, the stock could see a substantial move on the event. Amazon shares are expected to rise or fall by more than 5 percent this week, based on the prices of short-term options.

Piper Jaffray technical analyst Craig Johnson has his eye on Facebook, which reports earnings on Wednesday afternoon. Like Amazon, the stock has been a big winner over the past year, but has outperformed in the past few months.

"We've had a nice up-trending slope in Facebook, and it looks like we've made a bit of a triple bottom recently," Johnson said Friday on "Power Lunch."


After that consolidatory period, if the social media giant manages to close above $135, it "opens us up for a whole 'nother leg high, and we think there's probably about 10 percent upside from here."

Facebook, which closed Friday at $132.18, is also expected to move a bit more than 5 percent on earnings, judging by options pricing.



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