Early Look

Thursday, January 14, 2021

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	64.00	0.21%	31,023
S&P 500	1.25	0.03%	3,805
Nasdaq	-35.50	0.27%	12,937

 

 

U.S. stock futures are ticking slightly higher ahead of President elect Joe Biden’s detailed plans for a fresh coronavirus relief package, expected later today. The proposal is expected to include sizable direct payments to American families, and significant state and local funding, including for coronavirus vaccine distribution, according to reports. Meanwhile, President Trump was impeached Wednesday for inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, becoming the only president to have been impeached twice (he was still set to be replaced by Biden next Wednesday). Markets also prepare for the unofficial start to earnings season with big banks JPM, Wells, Citi reporting tomorrow, while Delta and Blackrock report this morning. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is also scheduled to speak on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET at a virtual event. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index gained 241 points to 28,698, the Shanghai Index fell -32 points to 3,565 and the Hang Seng Index jumped 261 points to 28,496. In Europe, the German DAX is up over 20 points to 13,965, while the FTSE 100 rises 40 points to 6,785.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index gained 8.65 points, or 0.23%, to 3,809.84

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped -8.22 points, or 0.03%, to 31,060.47

·     The Nasdaq Composite rose 56.52 points, or 0.43%, to 13,128.95

·     The Russell 2000 Index declined -15.99 points, or 0.75% to 2,111.97

 

Events Calendar for Today

·     8:30 AM ET         Weekly Jobless Claims/Continuing Claims

·     8:30 AM EST      Import Prices MoM for December

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

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: BLK, DAL, FRC, TSM

·     Earnings After the Close: PRGS

 

Other Key Events:

·     Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021 (virtual), 1/11-1/14

·     ICR Conference 2021 (virtual), 1/11-1/14

·     JPMorgan Annual Healthcare Conference (virtual), 1/11-1/14

·     Needham Annual Growth Conference (virtual), 1/11-1/15

·     Sidoti Winter Conference (virtual), 1/13-1/14

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	-0.01	52.90
Brent	-0.08	55.98
Gold	-6.90	1,838.60
EUR/USD	0.0003	1.2160
JPY/USD	0.10	103.99
10-Year Note	+0.025	1.11%

 

 

World News

·     Majority of the House voted 232-197 to make Trump the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans joined in favor. Senate Majority Leader McConnell said there was no chance a fair, serious trial could conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20

·     China Exports rose 18.1% in December from a year earlier, slowing from a 21.1% jump in November. Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected exports to grow 15% year-on-year last month.

·     China Imports meanwhile rose 6.5% in December from a year earlier, quickening from 4.5% growth in November and beating expectations for a 5% increase in the Reuters poll

·     China posted a trade surplus of $78.17 billion in December. Analysts in the poll had expected the trade surplus to narrow to $72.35 billion from $75.40 billion in November.

·     Japan’s core machinery orders unexpectedly rose for a second straight month in November; core orders grew 1.5% in November from October

·     United Mexican States files for offering of Euro-Denominated global notes due 2033, global notes due 2051; size not disclosed – Sec Filing

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Ethan Allen (ETH) said it expects Q2 retail segment written orders growth of 44.9% over the prior year; Wholesale segment orders increased 28.1%. Excluding GSA and other government orders, wholesale segment orders grew 39.7%; consolidated net sales of $178.8 million; adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $0.67 to $0.69 vs. est. $0.46

·     Nordstrom (JWN) digital sales grew 23% over last year and represented 54% of total sales compared with 34% from the same period in fiscal 2019; approximately 11% of Nordstrom.com orders were picked up in-store, which accelerated to more than 20% during the week preceding Christmas.

·     Poshmark (POSH) 6.6M share IPO priced at $42.00

·     Vontier (VNT) 33.507M share Secondary priced at $33.50

·     French supermarket chain Carrefour declined more than 6% after France’s finance minister said his government may block Canadian Alimentation Couche-Tard’s nearly $20 billion bid for the supermarket chain.

 

Energy

·     Chesapeake Energy’s (CHKAQ) Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan was approved by a U.S. judge on Wednesday. Chesapeake will emerge from bankruptcy with about $3 billion in new financing, a $7 billion reduction in debt, and $1.7 billion cut from gas processing and pipeline costs.

 

Financials

·     Blackrock (BLK) Q4 adj EPS $10.18 vs. est. $9.14; Q4 revs $4.48B vs. est. $4.38B; Q4 total inflows $126.93B; Q4 AUM $8.68T, up 17% YoY

·     Lemonade (LMND) 4.524M share Secondary priced at $165.00

·     Repay Holdings (RPAY) 5.43M share Secondary priced at $24.00

·     BancorpSouth Bank (BXS) to acquire FNS Bancshares (FNSB); BancorpSouth will issue 2.98M shares of common stock, plus $18M in cash, for all outstanding shares of FNS capital stock, valued at ~$108.4M

·     Manning & Napier (MN) reports preliminary AUM $20.1B as of December 31

 

Healthcare

·     Evoke Pharma (EVOK) 5M share Spot Secondary priced at $2.50

·     NantKwest (NK) said early interim results of its PD-L1 t-haNK protocols showed median survival rates more than doubled the historic rate in patients with advanced metastatic pancreatic cancer for which no other FDA-approved treatment exists

·     Opko Health (OPK) CFO said he expects to beat its previously issued guidance for PCR tests for Covid-19 for 4Q and confirmed its revenue guidance

·     Petco (WOOF) 48M share IPO priced at $18.00

·     Provention Bio (PRVB) 6.25M share Secondary priced at $16.00

·     Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) one-dose coronavirus vaccine is safe and appears to generate a promising immune response in both young and elderly volunteers – CNBC reported last night

·     Massimo Corp (MASI) sees preliminary full-year 2020 product revenue of approximately $1.139 bln to $1.144 bln vs. est. $1.17 bln and FY 2020 Gaap eps and non-Gaap eps are expected to exceed guidance of $3.77 and $3.46 per diluted share vs. est. $3.82

·     Organogenesis (ORGO) sees 4Q net revs $104.6-$106Mm vs. est. $80.8Mm, expects pos qtrly GAAP net income and pos quarterly adj EBITDA

·     Novartis (NVS) said the FDA granted breakthrough-therapy designation to ligelizumab for the treatment of the skin disease chronic spontaneous urticaria in patients who have an inadequate response to H1-antihistamine treatment.

 

Industrials & Materials

·     AeroVironment (AVAV) entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Arcturus UAV for a total purchase price of $405M, including $355M in cash and $50M in AeroVironment stock

·     Virgin Galactic (SPCE) jumps 15% after hours following reports that Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest is planning on starting a space ETF

·     CSX Corp. (CSX), Union Pacific (UNP): The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reports total weekly US rail traffic up 4.7% to 525,253 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending Jan. 9, 2021; carloads down 1.6% to 235,404; intermodal volume up 10.4% to 289,849 containers and trailers.

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) posted its best-ever quarterly profit and hiked revenue and capital spending estimates to record levels; now expects to lift capital spending on the production and development of advanced chips to between $25B-$28B as much as 60% higher than the amount it spent in 2020; also revised up its compound annual growth rate targets for revenue during the 2020 to 2025 period to 10%-15% from an earlier estimate of 5%-10%.

·     Intel (INTC) upgraded to Overweight from Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley and raise tgt to $70 from $60 and upgraded to Outperform at Cowen with $75 tgt

·     Take-Two (TTWO) downgraded to neutral from buy at MKM Partners amid concerns about co’s FY 2022 growth, a lack of near-term catalysts and a missed M&A opportunity

·     Vipshop Holdings (VIPS) shares down-8%; on reports China’s market regulator launched a probe into cos linked to VIPS over possible unfair competition – co’s include Vipshop (China) Co Ltd and Guangzhou Vipshop E-Commerce Co Ltd

·     China’s biggest tech companies rose after The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. is expected to let Americans continue to invest in them, after weighing a ban Alibaba Group (BABA) gained 5% and Tencent Holdings climbed 5.3%.

·     T-Mobile (TMUS) announced five-year, multi-billion-dollar agreements with both Ericsson (ERIC) and Nokia (NOK) to continue advancing and expanding the nation’s largest 5G network

·     Zuora, Inc. (ZUO) announced the appointment of Sri Srinivasan as Chief Product and Engineering Officer; previously worked in the SaaS transformations of multi-billion-dollar companies including Cisco and Microsoft

·     Alarm.com (ALRM) announces proposed private placement of $350.0 million of convertible senior notes; expects to use net proceeds from offering to repay all outstanding borrowings under, and terminate, its credit agreement