Rivian, AT&T deal, Live Nation upgrade: Trending tickers

Shares of Rivian Automotive (RIVN) closed nearly 14% higher on Thursday after the EV truck maker inked a fleet deal with AT&T (T). As part of the deal, AT&T will add Rivian Commercial Van and R1 vehicles to its fleet starting next year.

Live Nation (LYV) shares closed 5% higher after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to "Overwight" from "Equal Weight." The analyst says healthy fundamentals in the music and live events space prompted the upgrade.

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Video Transcript

- Meanwhile, let's get to some trending tickers of the day. And first up, have a look at Rivian. The electric vehicle maker jumping after striking a deal with AT&T as the telecom giant tries to make its fleet more green in a new pilot program. So. That's the headline here that moved the stock.

Rivian saying it's going to supply EVs for AT&T's fleet stock pops. Apparently, first vehicles, Julie, arriving early next year. Remember, November, Rivian told us it ended that exclusivity deal to supply EVs to Amazon.

And by the way, you saw green today, not just for Rivian, but other EV makers caught a bit as well. Tesla, for example. And Rivian now up about 20% this year.

Remember, we spoke to Stifel's Stephen Gennaro on the show. He kind of recently initiated Rivian as a buy. And part of his target was 23, part of his thesis, I remember, was, yes, they have this agreement with Amazon for 100,000 vehicles. But he also thought, listen, there are other commercial opportunities as well. That was part of the reasoning why he was telling his clients this one's a buy. So maybe that's starting to play out here.

- I mean, you've got the fundamental case on Rivian, and then you have the momentum, frothy, technicals, whatever you want to call it that goes on underlying Rivian. And while, as we just pointed out, it wasn't an everything rally today. It wasn't risk on universally.

You did see pockets of these stocks that have tended to move on speculation as much as fundamentals also move on the day. So I just wanted to point out that. Also wanted to point out that 13% of this company's float is shorted, according to Bloomberg data.

So you maybe get a little bit of a short squeeze.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

- Unexpected.

- Exactly-- when that goes on. Let's talk about Live Nation as well. That stock is rising on an upgrade from Morgan Stanley. It's now an overweight. Price target, $110. And the analyst behind the call says the fundamentals behind music and live events are some of the healthiest the entertainment sector has seen as we head into the new year. The shares are trading higher by about 6%.

Most of the analysts who cover this are bullish. There is one sell. But 17 of the analysts who cover it rate it a buy here. And basically, the analyst there is talking about what we've seen in music and live events. We have seen it all year, what's been going on in the event space.

Also, there was a little bit of positive news for Live Nation yesterday that I quickly wanted to mention. And that's one of the two class action lawsuits that had been filed by a Taylor Swift fan against the company, related to the whole Ticketmaster getting tickets situation, it was dropped. We don't know if there was a settlement in that case but that was something, potentially, that was positive for Live Nation as well.

- Stock now up about 30% this year. Morgan Stanley is not alone, by the way. As you mentioned, Julie, lots of love on Wall Street for this name. And more than 80% of the analysts paid to give you their recommendations do say this one's a buy.

- Yeah. I mean, there are still some sort of investigations out there into the ticketing practices. According to the New York Times, the Department of Justice is looking into it, the Senate is looking into ticketing practices as well.

Remember, everybody wanted Taylor Swift tickets, not everybody could get Taylor Swift tickets. There were a lot of different explanations for why beyond just the normal demand and supply situation. And so we'll see if that ends up having any kind of effect, eventually, on Live Nation. But not for now.