Early Look

Thursday, December 23, 2021

After posting one of its worst weekly returns last week, U.S. stocks are looking at a strong rebound to close out the holiday shortened trading week (U.S. markets are closed tomorrow Dec 24^th), with futures on track for another higher open, building on Wednesday’s broad rally after upbeat economic data, and hopes about the severity of the Omicron coronavirus variant is minimal as compared to Delta variant prior following a study. A South African study suggested reduced risks of hospitalization and severe disease in people infected with the Omicron variant, helping boost sentiment in shares of cruise, travel and leisure names which surged for a third day. Positive news about additional booster shots improving broader immune responses from some companies also help, as well as bets that President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion “Build Back Better” spending bill can find support despite Senator Joe Manchin’s refusal. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index gained 236 points to 28,798, the Shanghai Index gains 20 points to 3,643, and the Hang Seng Index rises 91 points to 23,193. In Europe, the German DAX is up 100 points to 15,690, while the FTSE 100 rises 0.2% to 7,355. News flow is quiet heading into the open, but a busy day of economic data (Personal Income and Spending, weekly jobless claims, PCE inflation data, Durable Goods, Confidence and New Home Sales) will keep investors on their toes early.

Events Calendar for Today

·     8:30 AM ET         Weekly Jobless Claims…est. 205K

·     8:30 AM EST      Continuing Claims…est. 1.82M

·     8:30 AM ET         Personal Income MoM for November…est. +0.4%

·     8:30 AM ET         Personal Spending MoM for November

·     8:30 AM ET         PCE Prices Index MoM for Nov

·     8:30 AM ET         Prices Paid Index YoY for Nov

·     8:30 AM ET         Core PCE Price Index MoM for Nov…est. +0.4%

·     8:30 AM ET         Core PCE Price Index YoY for Nov…est. +4.5%

·     8:30 AM ET         Durable Goods Orders MoM for November…est. +1.6%

·     8:30 AM ET         Durable Goods Ex; Transportation MoM for Nov…est. +0.6%

·     10:00 AM ET      University of Michigan Confidence, Dec-F…est. 70.4

·     10:00 AM ET      New Home Sales MoM for November…est. 770K

·     10:30 AM ET      Weekly EIA Natural Gas Inventory Data

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index gained 47.33 points, or 1.02%, to 4,696.56

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 261.19 points, or 0.74%, to 35,753.89

·     The Nasdaq Composite jumped 180.81 points, or 1.18%, to 15,521.89

·     The Russell 2000 Index advanced 18.96 points, or 0.86% to 2,221.90

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     AMC Entertainment (AMC) announced it has reached lease agreements and plan to reopen theatres in the Los Angeles and Chicago market

·     Scientific Games Corporation (SGMS) announced that it has withdrawn its previously announced July 15, 2021 all-stock offer to acquire the remaining 19% equity interest in SciPlay (SCPL) that it does not currently own; co said is focused on optimizing capital management to drive shareholder value

·     Tesla (TSLA) disclosed in a regulatory filing overnight that its CEO Musk sold another $333.6M in common stock on December 22nd after exercising option for 2.1M shares.

·     Blackstone Products is set to merge with Ackrell SPAC Partners I Co. (ACKIU), a blank-check company focused on the consumer-goods sector, in a deal that values the griddle maker at around $780M https://on.wsj.com/3FiORmp 

·     Nikola (NKLA) shares rise 3% after the electric-vehicle startup said on Twitter that more deliveries were to come, posting photos of a previous event

·     Wendy’s (WEN) files mixed securities shelf

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     Four people were injured when a fire erupted on Thursday at Exxon’s (XOM) complex in Baytown, Texas, one of the largest refining and petrochemical facilities in the United States. The Baytown plant houses a chemical plant, an olefins plant and the country’s fourth biggest oil refinery, with capacity to process 560,500 barrels per day of crude.

·     Delek US (DK) announces a program to sell up to 434,590 common limited partner units in Delek Logistics Partners (DKL) over the next three months in open market transactions

·     Rocket Lab USA (RKLB) announces that it will redeem all of its outstanding public warrants to purchase shares of common stock that were issued under the warrant Agreement from last year

Financials

·     Bakkt Holdings Inc (BKKT) said Adam White is departing as president effective as of December 31, 2021 and CEO Gavin Michael, will assume the additional title of president following separation

·     Banner Corp (BANR) board authorized repurchase of up to 1.7M shares of Banner’s common stock

·     Truist Financial Corp (TFC) files for mixed shelf of up to $17.9 bln

·     Raymond James Financial (RJF) client asset under administration of $1.22T in November declines from $1.23T in the prior month; financial assets under management of $196.4B also falls 1% in November, though elevated by 20% from the same period a year ago.

·     Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and Accenture (ACN) have signed a collaborative agreement that is focused on accelerating digital transformation and applying analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to drive faster decision-making and enhance the customer service experience.

Healthcare

·     Novavax (NVAX) says data show broad immune responses against Omicron, citing broad response with two doses, more with three; said third dose of nvx-cov2373 produced a 9.3-fold igg rise and a 19.9-fold ace2 inhibition increase after booster dose

·     Epizyme Inc (EPZM) said on Dec 16, received written notice from Glaxo group limited that GSK has elected to terminate collaboration and license agreement without cause

·     Teva Pharma (TEVA) announces launch of first-to-market generic version of Narcan® (naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray), in the U.S.

·     Gilead Sciences (GILD) found that Veklury (remdesivir) is effective at reducing the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization. Data published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that there was an 87% risk reduction COVID-19-related hospitalization or all-cause death by day 28 compared to placebo, the primary endpoint.

·     A third shot of the Covid-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) and the University of Oxford is shown to boost protection against the highly transmissible Omicron variant, according to a pair of laboratory studies from researchers at the University of Washington and Oxford – DJ

·     LumiraDx (LMDX) announces that its SARS-CoV-2 & Flu A/B Antigen Test has achieved CE Marking.

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     JD.com (JD) slides -8% after Tencent Holdings (TCEHY) said it would pay a $16.4 billion dividend to shareholders after reducing its stake in the e-commerce company to a little over 2% from the current 7% in a sale of about 457 mln shares; Tencent president Martin Lau has resigned from the e-commerce group’s board, the group said.