Early Look

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	-64.00	0.18%	35,195
S&P 500	-2.25	0.06%	4,441
Nasdaq	18.50	0.12%	15,015

 

 

U.S. futures are looking mixed ahead of the Fed Minutes, with the Dow and S&P slipping, while the tech heavy Nasdaq Corp looks to rebound after underperformance on Tuesday, as major averages fell by the most in four-weeks. Fed Minutes from the prior FOMC meeting (after 2:00 PM today) may show discussions about tapering monthly bond purchases, or just how divided FOMC officials are on the debate. Yesterday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the pandemic is “still casting a shadow on economic activity.” Overnight, Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Tuesday that incoming economic data will drive the central bank’s decision on when to taper its asset purchases, noting that it’s “reasonable” to foresee such a move taking place late this year or early next year. Yesterday, the Nasdaq fell -0.9%, Dow -0.8% and S&P 500 -0.7% ended down on a day that started with pressure from Chinese equities and saw mega caps slide and home improvement names sell off after Home Depot Q2 comp sales mix. Today, rival Lowe’s (LOW) reports a beat across the board while retail giant Target (TGT) beats on the top and bottom line with slightly better comps, though shares slip. The S&P closed above Monday’s intraday low of 4,437 and today’s intraday low successfully tested a support level of 4,423, the prior high. The move comes one day after the S&P 500 had posted a 100% rise off its March 2020 closing low. It has now been 328 calendar days since the benchmark index last ended a decline of more than 5% from a record high. The current 328 calendar-day run since then end of a decline of more than 5% from a record high, is the longest such streak since early 2018. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rebounded, rising 161 points to 27,585, the Shanghai Index gained 38 points to 3,485, and the Hang Seng Index climbed 121 points to 25,867. In Europe, the German DAX is down -15 points to 15,900, while the FTSE 100 slides over -20 points to 7,155.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index dropped -31.63 points, or 0.71%, to 4,448.08

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -282.12 points, or 0.79%, to 35,343.28

·     The Nasdaq Composite declined -137.58 points, or 0.93%, to 14,656.18

·     The Russell 2000 Index declined -26.24 points, or 1.19% to 2,177.17

 

Events Calendar for Today

·     7:00 AM ET         MBA Mortgage Applications Data

·     8:30 AM ET         Housing Starts MoM for July

·     8:30 AM ET         Building Permits MoM for July

·     10:30 AM ET      Weekly DOE Inventory Data

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: ADI, EAT, HOOD, LITE, LOW, OSIS, PLCE, SMED, TGT, TJX

·     Earnings After the Close: BBWI, CSCO, JBSS, KEYS, NVDA, RRGB, SNPS, SPTN, VSCO

 

Other Key Events:

·     EnerCom Oil & Gas Conference (virtual), 8/15-8/18

·     Davidson West Coast Bank Tour (virtual), 8/17-8/18

·     Deutsche bank Transportation Conference (virtual), 8/17-8/18

·     B Riley Summer Summit, 8/18-8/19

·     Citigroup Midstream and Energy Infrastructure Conference (virtual), 8/18-8/19

·     Jefferies Back-to-School Bus Tour, 8/18-8/19

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	0.57	67.16
Brent	0.70	69.73
Gold	1.70	1,787.90
EUR/USD	0.0007	1.1717
JPY/USD	0.09	109.69
10-Year Note	+0.009	1.267%

 

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Target Corp. (TGT) Q2 EPS $3.64 vs. est. $3.49; Q2 revs $25.16B vs. est. $25.08B; Q2 comp store sales rise +8.9% vs. est. +8.2%; q2 digital comp sales grew 10%; board approved a new, $15B share repurchase program; for 2H2 2021, expects high single digit growth in comp sales, near high end of previous guidance range; now expects FY operating income margin rate will be 8% or higher

·     Lowe’s (LOW) Q2 EPS $4.25 vs. est. $4.00; Q2 revs $27.6B vs. est. $26.79B; Q2 consolidated comparable sales decreased (-1.6%) vs. est. decline (-2.2%) and U.S. comparable sales decreased (-2.2%) vs. est. (-2.6%); sees FY21 revenue $92B vs. est. $91.53B; sees FY21 comp sales up 30%; sees FY21 capital expenditures $2B; Q2 cost of sales increased 1.4% to $18.26 billion, to bring gross margin down to 33.78% from 34.08%

·     Krispy Kreme (DNUT) Q2 EPS $0.13 vs. est. $0.14; Q2 revs $349.2M vs. est. $333.36M; qtrly net revenue growth of 43% and organic growth of 23%, up from a 6.7% decline in Q2 of 2020; sees FY organic revenue growth of 10% to 12% and sees FY adjusted Ebitda of $178M-$185M; sees FY21 revenue $1.34B-$1.38B vs. est. $1.34B

·     Jack Henry (JKHY) 4Q EPS $1.04 vs est. $0.93 on revs $450.3Mm vs est. $445Mm; guides FY22 adj revs $1.866-1.875B vs est. $1.882B, sees FY EPS $4.53-4.60 vs est. $4.52

·     La-Z-Boy (LZB) 1Q adj EPS $0.55 vs est. $0.56 on sales $534.8Mm vs est. $485.9Mm, qtrly written comps in company-owned retail segment +22%; adj consolidated op mgn 6.6%; says rapidly escalating commodity and freight costs have not shown signs of abating, did take additional pricing actions during the qtr and imposed a surcharge on pending dealer orders in backlog; says expect margin performance to begin to improve in 2Q and see finishing FY with consolidated adj op mgn at or near dbl-digits

·     America’s Car-Mart (CART) Q2 EPS $3.57 vs. est. $3.49; Q2 Same store revenue growth 46.7 % and net charge-offs as a percent of average finance receivables 4.3%.

 

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories fell 1.163M barrels last week and gasoline inventories fell 1.979M barrels

·     Copper prices eased to their lowest in a month after recent weak economic data reinforced demand fears while a looming central bankers conference focuses attention on interest rates; three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell for a third day

·     JinkoSolar Holding (JKS) supply pact with Wacker Chemie as it will supply JinkoSolar holding unit Jinko solar co. with over 70,000 tons of polysilicon from sept. 2021 to Dec. 2026

 

Healthcare

·     Agilent Technologies (A) Q3 EPS $1.10 vs. est. $0.99; Q3 revs $1.59B vs. est. $1.54B; sees Q4 EPS $1.15-$1.18 above est. $1.11; sees Q4 revenue $1.63B-$1.66B above est. $1.61B; raises FY EPS view to $4.28-$4.31 from prior $4.09-$4.14 and ups rev view

·     GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) receives FDA accelerated approval for Jemperli (dostarlimab-gxly) for adult patients with mismatch repair-deficient (DMMR) recurrent or advanced solid tumors

·     Marinus Pharmaceuticals (MRNS) reports topline Ganaxolone phase 2 open-label results in tuberous sclerosis complex and receives FDA Orphan Drug designation

·     Tilray (TLRY) announced the acquisition of a majority of outstanding convertible notes of MedMen Enterprises (MMNFF) held by certain funds

·     Alcon (ALC) Q2 core EPS $0.56 vs. est. $0.45; Q2 revs $2.1B vs. est. $1.96B; raises FY21 core EPS view to $2.00-$2.10 from $1.85-$1.95 (est. $1.93) and raises FY21 revenue view to $8B-$8.2B from $7.8B-$8B (est. $7.92B)

·     AnaptysBio (ANAB) announced that the U.S. FDA approved a second indication for GSK’s (GSK) JEMPERLI for the treatment of adult patients with mismatch repair deficient recurrent or advanced solid tumors

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     CDK Global (CDK) 4Q adj EPS $0.66 vs est. $0.67 on revs $420.1Mm vs est. $427.7Mm; guides FY22 adj EPS $2.70-2.90 vs est. $3.02, sees FY revs $1.78-1.82B vs est. $1.78B

·     Cree Inc. (CREE) shares fell -4%; 4Q adj EPS ($0.23) vs est. ($0.24) on revs $145.8Mm vs est. $145.2Mm; guides 1Q adj EPS loss $0.21-0.25 vs est. loss $0.23, sees 1Q revs $144-154Mm vs est. $153.4Mm

·     Cree (CREE) and STMicroelectronics (STM) announced the expansion of an existing multi-year, long-term silicon carbide wafer supply agreement

·     Instructure Holdings (INST) 2Q ($0.17) on revs $93.6Mm; guides 3Q revs $100.4-101.4Mm, sees 3Q adj net income $21.2-22.2Mm; guides FY adj net income $87.2-89.2Mm

·     Weibo (WB) Q2 EPS $0.79 vs. est. $0.63; Q2 revs $574.47M vs. est. $527.89M; Q2 monthly active users were 566M in June, a net addition of 43M users on a YoY basis; Q2 mobile MAUs represented 94% of MAUs. Average daily active users were 246M in June, a net addition of 16M users yoy; sees Q3 revs up 20%-25%

·     ViacomCBS (VIAC) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Wells Fargo with a price target of $60, up from $45 saying the company’s streaming efforts are bearing fruit and have impressed us, so is moving from historical bears to constructive bulls

·     Bottomline Technologies (EPAY) announces up to $50M stock repurchase plan