Palantir Stock News: PLTR resists market pressure, gaining early Friday

• Palantir stock has risen slightly despite the market sell-off on Friday.
• PLTR caved 3% in the premarket following the robust jobs report.
• September NFP showed job gains of 336K, well above the 170K expected.
• The NHS may hire Palantir on a nearly $579 million, five-year contract.

Palantir (PLTR), the artificial intelligence (AI) platform business that is the brainchild of billionaire Peter Thiel, is gaining on the margin early Friday despite the market selling off severely. The NASDAQ Composite has slumped more than 1% due to a strong US labor market. 

Yes, you read that correctly. US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) data for September was released an hour before the opening bell. Consensus had called for 170K net new hires, a figure that would have meant a somewhat looser US labor market, but the US Bureau of Economic Analysis reported 336K net new hires. Even more worrying, August’s 187K print was revised upward to 227K. The Unemployment rate remained flat at 3.8%, but the market is concerned that a tight labor market could eventually push salaries higher and thus reinvigorate core inflationary trends.

One decent aspect of the report was the Average Hourly Earnings print, which showed wages growing 0.2% on a monthly basis and 4.2% on an annual basis. Analysts had expected 0.3% and 4.3%, respectively. Palantir initially sank 3% on the news during the premarket but has since regained its composure and pushed ahead.

Palantir stock news: Market awaits official NHS announcement

Withstanding the NFP report, which was the most-watched macro event for the week in the US market, traders have renewed their excitement with PLTR this week.

Palantir is reportedly the top pick to manage a historic overhaul of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). This contract is quite lucrative. The five-year deal could bring in as much as $579 million in revenue to the data analysis firm.

The contract would require Palantir to analyze heaps of medical data and discover cost-saving, even life-saving, patterns. These findings will then be used to rehabilitate the national health system in the future, although there is considerable political disagreement over policy direction.

The deal is not yet public and still requires several officials to sign off, but insiders told Bloomberg that the announcement would come by the end of October. Palantir offered its services to the NHS for its vaccine rollout during the Covid-19 pandemic, famously charging just 1 British Pound, so the California-based company was well-positioned to obtain further contracts.

Global accounting and professional services firm PwC signed a deal with Palantir on Wednesday to better deliver the latter’s Foundry and Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) software offerings. PwC works with thousands of the world’s largest corporations. The alliance will allow PwC to include Palantir software in its suite of offerings to its many existing clients. 

Palantir stock forecast: Rally could be in the works

Palantir stock has risen off the $13.50 to $14 support band for the fourth time since June. The most recent time came between September 21 and 26. Bulls once again held the line, and the prominent growth stock made its way back the $15s and $16s.

This week the 9-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) has bumped above its 21-day counterpart. This signals to the market that a rally may be in the works. From here, a rally should push the PLTR stock price up to the $17 resistance level from June and July. Adobe there is the summer’s range high at $20.24 from August 1.

PLTR daily stock chart