A handful of stocks are entering or about to enter a worrisome so-called death cross. A death cross is a price chart pattern that forms when a stock’s 50-day moving average falls below its 200-day moving average, signaling that investors are bearish on the stock or that the stock’s momentum is waning and could fall further. A death cross may also signal an upcoming bear market pattern. Three names, including fast-food chain McDonald’s and semiconductor company Intel, are either drawing a death cross or have already formed one, according to CNBC Pro screens. Among these companies, Intel’s stock price has fallen the most. The chipmaker, still the largest maker of processors for PCs and laptops, is down 38.5% year to date, making it the worst-performing technology stock in the S&P 500 this year. Intel Corp last week reported first-quarter earnings per share that beat expectations, but disappointing revenue, disappointing Wall Street expectations. The company also gave a weak forecast for the current quarter. After the news was released, Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari maintained a sell rating. He noted that Intel has been lagging as “cloud and enterprise customers continue to prioritize AI infrastructure spending” and traditional server demand is squeezed out, and is concerned that it will continue to lose market share in the data center computing market to peers such as Nvidia and Arm. McDonald’s McDonald’s also painted the cross of death. The burger chain has struggled, with its shares down 8.8% this year as consumer spending shrinks and a boycott sparked by the conflict in Gaza. The company’s first-quarter profit missed expectations as same-store sales fell short of expectations. CVS Health Unlike the other two names, CVS Health is approaching the cross of death. Since CVS missed revenue on Wednesday and revised its profit forecast, the company’s shares have fallen nearly 30% so far this year, and have plunged about 17% this week alone. The company also lowered its full-year profit forecast as medical costs are likely to continue to rise throughout the year. UBS analyst Kevin Caliendo downgraded CVS stock to “neutral” from “buy” due to the weak report. “Our lack of confidence is not due to a lack of confidence in the management process,” Caliendo said in a note on Wednesday. “Our issue is that there are more parts of the business that need to be realigned and fixing is not as much a matter of ‘cutting back.’ Benefits and repricing’ are that simple, and margins will improve.”
