This week’s heavy market sell-off could bode well for certain stocks, including Tesla and Moderna , based on one popular metric. Investors are reeling from a tough session Thursday, with the S & P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite losing more than 1% each during the day’s trading session, and the latter falling deeper into correction territory as Meta and Alphabet dragged the index down. All three major averages are on track for steep weekly declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is off about 2%. The Nasdaq and the S & P 500 are each on pace for declines of about 2.5%. Some stocks hit by this week’s losses have become oversold — and could be due for a bounce. CNBC Pro used FactSet data to screen for the most overbought and oversold names in the S & P 500 based on their 14-day relative strength index, or RSI. A stock with a 14-day RSI greater than 70 is considered to be overbought and at risk of a pullback. A high RSI typically signals that investors are getting too optimistic about a stock in the near term. Conversely, a reading lower than 30 typically means a stock is oversold and may be ready to stage at least a short-term bounce, with a low RSI usually indicating souring sentiment around a stock. Here are some of the most oversold names: Moderna is one of the most oversold companies in the S & P 500, with an RSI of 10.5 and a consensus price target suggesting an eye-popping upside of more than 128%, the highest of the list. Just under half of analysts covering the stock rate it a buy. Shares of the vaccine maker — which will report earnings Nov. 2 — have declined 59% this year and 30% this month as the company contends with declines in Covid-related sales. The company is currently developing its own combination shot that targets both Covid and the flu. Align Technology , another company that has taken a heavy beating to its stock price this week, could also be due for a comeback, based on analysts’ price targets. Shares of Align plunged 28% this week after the Invisalign maker missed Wall Street forecasts in the third quarter. UBS analyst Kevin Caliendo lowered his target price to $200 from $400 Friday and downgraded shares to neutral from buy, citing Align’s weaker growth outlook. Nevertheless, more than half of analysts covering the company still rate it a buy and forecast an average upside of 56.8%. Electric vehicle maker Tesla is also oversold, based on its RSI of 15.42. Tesla has a projected upside of 17.5%, the lowest from the list, but is still rated a buy by more than a third of surveyed analysts. Tesla has had a tough month, losing more than 17% in October. The company’s third-quarter results fell short of analysts’ expectations , and a slate of analysts cut their price targets following the release. Other oversold names include health-care product distributor Henry Schein , Southwest Airlines and automation company Teradyne . Here are the 10 most overbought stocks in the S & P 500: Aerospace and defense companies RTX and Lockheed Martin made the overbought list, with the stocks scoring an RSI of 85.69 and 78.85, respectively. RTX has a forecast upside of 13%, while Lockheed Martin could rise nearly 8% from here, based on the average analyst price target. RTX is up 10% in October, while Lockheed has advanced 8%. RTX CEO Greg Hayes recently said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict have created “unprecedented demand” for munitions. Dollar General , which has a 14-day RSI of 76.86, is also overbought. Analysts covering the stock forecast a 4.6% upside for the company’s stock price, and less than 30% rate it a buy. Dollar General shares have jumped 13% this month and are on pace for a nearly 4% gain this week. Dollar General is one of few traditional retailers that analysts believe can benefit from the ongoing closures of Rite Aid’s drug stores. Other overbought names include consumer goods giant Church & Dwight , Marathon Oil and insurance company Allstate . — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
