S&P 500 retail giant Walmart got a big AI boost this past week. Aerospace play FTAI Aviation, cybersecurity and AI name Cloudflare also are stocks to watch this week, along with biotech Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and cancer-testing firm Guardant Health.
The market is currently choppy and volatile, marked by big intraday swings, which can make it difficult to navigate. It is also earnings season, adding to the potential for big dramatic moves.
Investors should be working on watchlists and following sell rules as decisions are made around cutting losers, taking profits from winners and acting quickly to either enter new buys or exit positions. Readers can also keep tabs on the IBD Leaderboard, the IBD 50 list of top growth stocks, IBD SwingTrader and the IBD Sector Leaders list.
With that in mind, here are the five stocks to watch this week.
S&P 500: Walmart Stock
Walmart stock advanced 5.8% to 107.73 on Friday. The weekly gain by WMT saw it gap back into a buy zone after Walmart announced a shopping deal with OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The new partnership between Walmart and OpenAI will allow ChatGPT users to press a buy button when the AI assistant's algorithm surfaces one of the retail giant's products.
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Walmart, which can be viewed as a defensive play in the current market volatility, pushed back above a flat base buy point of 104.72 this week, according to MarketSurge charts. Shares hit a record high of 109.58 on Thursday.
Shares also moved off the 50-day moving average, leaping up past the 21-day moving average this week.
Walmart broke out past that buy point on Sept. 17 but quickly pulled back.
Investors are still sizing up the risk of tariffs for Walmart's business. Walmart stock fell following its Q2 earnings report in August, when the retail giant missed earnings estimates and gave a lower-than-expected sales forecast.
Third-quarter earnings aren't due until late November.
Walmart was the IBD Stock Of The Day for Tuesday. The S&P 500 stock has a 69 Composite Rating out of a best-possible 99. Walmart stock has a 76 Relative Strength Rating and a 62 EPS Rating.
FTAI Aviation Stock
FTAI shares fell 1.8% to 166.67 in Friday's stock market, paring weekly gains to 2.2% but rebounding from near the 10-week line.
The stock flashed an early buy signal Wednesday, breaking a downtrend in a short consolidation.
After another week, FTAI Aviation could have a flat base, with its recent high of 184.44 acting as a buy point.
The stock was also recently added to the IBD 50. FTAI has been surging since bottoming at 81.45 in April. The stock has gained more than 100% since then.
However, there is some risk. The New York-based aftermarket aircraft engine components supplier reports third-quarter earnings on Oct. 27 and several big aerospace earnings come this week, meaning the industry could see volatile swings.
The aerospace company specializes in aviation engine leasing and maintenance. FTAI owns a portfolio of more than 90 aircraft and 250 stand-alone engines.
The company collaborates with Lockheed Martin on its Montreal-based Module Factory. The facility is a commercial engine maintenance center focused on the repair and refurbishment of engines.
The aerospace stock has a 96 Composite Rating, a 90 Relative Strength Rating and an 81 EPS Rating.
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Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Stock
Shares of Alnylam advanced 4.6% to 481.67 during the week's stock market, but unable to close above the 484.21 flat-base buy point despite multiple attempts.
Earlier in the week, ALNY stock flashed an early buy signal, rebounding from the 10-week line, and clearing short-term highs.
ALNY was Monday's IBD Stock Of The Day. However, similar to FTAI Aviation, ALNY has earnings upcoming, due on Oct. 30.
Alnylam boasts booming EPS growth and revenue that's set to top $1 billion in Q1 2026.
Alnylam develops RNA interference therapeutics for genetic, cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases. RNA interference (RNAi) is a process inside your body that regulates how genes make new proteins. Proteins can sometimes cause or contribute to disease.
Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Ulz on Oct. 6 raised his ALNY price target to 475 from 405 amid expectations of "robust" third-quarter sales for the company's Amvuttra drug.
"We expect launch momentum to continue and see opportunity for another beat and raise," Ulz wrote.
The 673 stocks in the crowded IBD-tracked Medical-Biomed/Biotech industry group have collectively advanced around 18% in the 2025 stock market. That's good for the eighth-best industry group out of the 197 tracked by IBD.
The pharma stock has an 84 Composite Rating, a 94 Relative Strength Rating and a 27 EPS Rating.
Guardant Health Stock
The medical services and cancer diagnostics advanced 1.9% to 65.46 on the week, testing a traditional buy point of 68 from a cup base on Thursday. Aggressive investors could use 66.57 from Oct. 1o as an early entry, according to MarketSurge.
Shares rebounded from the 21-day and 10-week lines on Tuesday.
The Palo Alto-based cancer testing firm is not yet profitable, but its sales continue to grow. Third-quarter earnings are due Oct. 29 with analysts expecting a 79 cent per share loss, compared to a 88-cent loss a year ago, with revenue increasing 23% to $235.6 million, according to FactSet.
Barclays earlier in October raised its price target on Guardant Health to 70 from 60, viewing the life science tools and diagnostics sector's end markets as stable with improvements likely going forward. In addition, investment sentiment "feels bottomed" as share valuations have come down in the group, the analysts noted.
Guardant Health stock has a 74 Composite Rating along with a robust 95 Relative Strength Rating and a 21 EPS Rating.
Cloudflare Stock
NET shares fell 1.8% for the week to 210.01. Cloudflare has a flat base with a 230.10 point, according to MarketSurge.
However, the stock undercut its 50-day moving average on Thursday and undercut the lows of its base on Friday before paring losses. This could be a shakeout, but needs to recover. NET is now around 10% below the 230.10 buy point.
Cloudflare third-quarter earnings are due Oct. 30. Analysts expect Q3 profit growing 15% to 23 cents per share with sales increasing 27% to $545 million, according to FactSet. That would be the second straight quarter of faster EPS growth, with analysts expecting further acceleration in the next two quarters.
Started in 2009, Cloudflare works to speed up and provide security for web applications routed through its intelligent global network. Cloudflare also has ties to generative artificial intelligence leader OpenAI. Cloudflare provides secure links to cloud services when consumers sign up to use ChatGPT. In addition, Cloudflare is a supporter of Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standardized process for connecting AI agents to external data sources and apps.
Moreover, Cloudflare has partnered with cryptocurrency firm Coinbase to create the x402 Foundation, stemming from the x402 protocol, which allows for direct transactions between machines as opposed to humans making payments.
Top management has also been undergoing changes. Here's an in-depth look into Cloudflare's growth and road map based on an interview with Chief Executive Matthew Prince.
Cloudflare stock has a 95 Composite Rating, a strong 93 Relative Strength Rating along with a 79 EPS Rating.
Please follow Kit Norton on X @KitNorton for more coverage.
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