Early Look

Monday, December 20, 2021

U.S. stock futures are tracking global stock markets lower to start this holiday shortened trading week, with major averages looking to open down more than 1% as U.S. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said this weekend, he would not support the $1.75 trillion domestic (BBB) investment bill, while growing fears of the COVID variant spread also hurts sentiment. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said Sunday he cannot back his party’s signature $2 trillion social and environment bill, dealing a potentially fatal blow to President Joe Biden’s leading domestic initiative heading into an election year. Manchin told “Fox News Sunday” that after five-and-half months of negotiations among Democrats in which he was his party’s chief obstacle to passage, “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there.” Oil prices tumble over 3% with WTU crude dropping to $68 per barrel while Treasury yields extend last week’s losses. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index tumbled over -600 points or 2.13% to 27,937, the Shanghai Index dropped over 1% to 3,593 and the Hang Seng Index declined -447 points or 1.93% to settle at 22,744. In Europe, the German DAX is down -1.8% or 280 points to 15,250, while the FTSE 100 slides just over 1% to 7,187.

As for last week, the S&P fell 1.94%, the Dow lost 1.68%, the Nasdaq shed 2.95% and the Russell 200 dropped around 2%. The S&P 500 closed lower on Friday to as defensive health care, real estate, utilities, and the consumer staples sectors all finished modestly higher for the week. The materials sector edged lower while drops were more pronounced in financials, communication services, industrials, tech, consumer discretionary, and energy. The higher growth, more economic sensitive sectors were hardest hit amid fears of a speed bump from either the Federal Reserve tightening or Covid-19 rapidly spreading around the world. Last week the U.S. dollar index was about flat, gold topped $1,800 level, WTI crude prices slipped to roughly $70, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to around the 1.41% level amid omicron variant uncertainty. Sector movers: XLE falls 5% on the week (energy), followed by XLY -4.7% (consumer discretionary), $XLK -4% (info tech), and XLI -2.7% (industrials); while top 4 S&P sector leaders were healthcare with XLV +2.4%, XLRE (REITs) up +1.7%, XLU (Utes) +1.25% and Staples XLP up 1.35%

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index dropped -48.03 points, or 1.03%, to 4,620.64

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -532.20 points, or 1.48%, to 35,365.44

·     The Nasdaq Composite slipped -10.75 points, or 0.07%, to 15,169.68

·     The Russell 2000 Index advanced 21.48 points, or 1.00% to 2,173.93

Events Calendar for Today

·     10:00 AM ET       Leading Index MoM for November

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: BLDE, CCL

·     Earnings After the Close: ARKR, BRZE, MU, NKE, RCAT

World News

·     Sky News reported that Davos has been called off due to the surge in the Omicron virus

·     Goldman Sachs cut U.S. real GDP forecast for the first quarter of 2022 to 2% versus 3% previously, and marginally reduced forecasts for the second and third quarters.

·     Senator’s Elizabeth Warren and Corey Booker test positive for COVID this weekend

·     The Netherlands went into lockdown on Sunday and the possibility of more COVID-19 restrictions being imposed ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays loomed over several European countries as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly.

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI) declares $0.24 special dividend

·     Lamb Weston Holdings (LW) increases quarterly dividend, approves additional $250 million for share repurchase program

·     Nio (NIO) held its annual NIO Day on Saturday. The Chinese EV startup unveiled the ET5, starting at $51,450. It will have a base range of 341 miles, rising to as much as 620 miles, albeit on a very loose standard. The mid-size EV sedan is a potential competitor to the Tesla Model 3, the Xpeng P7 and P5 and the BYD Han.

·     Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) files debt securities shelf

·     Shoe Carnival (SCVL) announces new $50 million share repurchase program and declares quarterly cash dividend

·     Cruise line operators Carnival Corp (CCL), Norwegian Cruise (NCLH), and Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) fall ahead of CCL earnings; at least 44 people on board RCL’s Symphony of the Seas ship that ended a seven-day cruise in Miami on Saturday were positive for COVID-19 during the sailing, USA Today reported

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     Verso Corp’s (VRS) rises over 30% following Swedish pulp maker BillerudKorsnas’ buyout proposal of $27 per share in a deal valued at $825M, a 35% premium over Friday closing price

·     Canadian Pacific (CP) resumed at Outperform from In Line at Evercore ISI

·     Dover (DOV) upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Wells Fargo

Financials

·     BNP Paribas SA (BNPQY) has agreed to sell Bank of the West to Bank of Montreal (BMO) for a total consideration of $16.3 billion in cash. The French lender said the deal will generate a one-off capital gain, net of taxes, of about 2.9 billion euros ($3.26 billion), and boost its common equity Tier 1 ratio by about 170 basis points https://on.mktw.net/3252l77

·     Sun Communities Inc. (SUI) files prospectus supplement relating to offering of up to $1.25B of common stock

Healthcare

·     Moderna (MRNA) says that a third dose of its Covid-19 vaccine increased immune responses against the Omicron variant compared with two doses in lab tests.

·     Intra-Cellular Therapies (ITCI) announces U.S. FDA Approval of CAPLYTA(R) (lumateperone) for the treatment of bipolar depression in adults; CAPLYTA is the only FDA-approved treatment for depressive episodes associated with bipolar I or II disorder (bipolar depression) in adults as monotherapy and as adjunctive therapy with lithium or valproate.

·     Novo Nordisk (NVO) -4%; said it would not be able to meet demand for its new obesity drug due to U.S. supply issues.

·     BeiGene (BGNE) announced an option, collaboration, and license agreement with Novartis (NVS) to develop, manufacture and commercialize BeiGene’s investigational TIGIT inhibitor ociperlimab in North America, Europe, and Japan; BGNE will receive an upfront payment of $300 million up to $700 million more on exercise by Novartis of a time-based option prior to mid-2023.

·     Argenx (AGRX) gets FDA approval of Vyvgart for the treatment of generalized myasthenia gravis.

·     DaVita (DVA) boosts share buyback program by $2B

·     Bluebird Bio (BLUE) said the FDA has accepted for priority review the Biologics License Application for elivaldogene autotemcel, the company’s gene therapy for cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Walt Disney (DIS) and Alphabet (GOOGL) reached a deal over the weekend the returned the entertainment group’s sports and movie channels to YouTubeTV following a dispute over carriage fees.

·     Sony’s (SONY) “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the latest installment in the web-slinging hero’s franchise, opened to a record-setting $253 million at the box office this weekend, a result considered all but impossible since COVID-19 hit the world-wide theatrical industry more than 18 months ago.