Early Look

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	84.00	0.26%	32,250
S&P 500	28.75	0.74%	3,915
Nasdaq	232.50	1.82%	12,971

 

 

It was one-year ago today that the COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared, with stock markets in turmoil, plunging over the next few weeks and changing life for hundreds of millions of people. Fast-forward to today, stock markets are not far from record highs (in some cases like the Dow, at record highs) following monetary policy measures from the Fed, a third fiscal stimulus relief package was passed yesterday in Washington, three vaccines have been given emergency authorization use to fight Covid (JNJ, PFE/BNTX, MRNA), and many countries have lifted restrictions and, in some cases, fully, as life has begun to return to normal. U.S. stock futures are surging, with the Nasdaq up 1.9%, getting a boost as Treasury yields extend declines, falling as low as 1.475% before bouncing back to just below the 1.5% level, helping ease rising inflation concerns. Oil and gold prices are hedging higher as the dollar slip. The blue-chip Dow notched a record closing high on Wednesday, powered by industrial stocks that are poised to benefit most from an economic revival, which is expected to shift into high gear by the passage of a robust stimulus package. Technology was the sole loser among the 11 major S&P sectors, and was weighed down by semiconductor chips as the SOX dropped -1.8%. Smallcaps also shined as the Russell 2000 surged as investors expect President Biden’s $1.9 trillion rescue package to open the floodgates of consumer spending and pandemic recovery. Biden’s fiscal aid package won final approval in the U.S. House of Representatives in late afternoon, and is expected to be signed into law Friday. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rose 175 points to 29,211, the Shanghai Index gained 79 points to 3,436, and the Hang Seng Index jumped 478 points to 29,385. In Europe, the German DAX is down a few points to 14,535, while the FTSE 100 is down about -10 points to 6,710.

 

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index climbed 23.37 points, or 0.60%, to 3,898.81

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 464.28 points, or 1.46%, to 32,297.02

·     The Nasdaq Composite slipped -4.99 points, or 0.04%, to 13,068.83

·     The Russell 2000 Index advanced 40.62 points, or 1.81% to 2,285.68

 

Events Calendar for Today

·     8:30 AM ET         Weekly Jobless Claims…est. 725K

·     8:30 AM EST      Continuing Claims…est. 4.22M

·     10:00 AM EST    JOLTs Job Openings for January

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

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: BGSF, DWSN, GCO, GDP, GOGO, MYE, PRTY, SCWX, TGEN, XPEL, XXII

·     Earnings After the Close: ACHV, AEYE, ASUR, AUTO, AVGR, BBCP, BRP, CEMI, DOCU, DOMO, ERII, EVC, FNKO, GDRX, GERN, HCI, III, LOCO, MTN, NNBR, OCUL, ODC, PBPB, PEI, POSH, SELB, SIEN, TLYS, ULTA, XONE, ZUMZ, ZUO

 

Other Key Events:

·     Barclay’s Global Healthcare Conference (virtual), 3/9-3/11

·     Citigroup Global Property Conference (virtual), 3/8-3/11

·     Loop Capital Consumer, Industrials, TMT Conference (virtual), 3/11-3/12

·     Truist Virtual Atlanta and Texas Bank Summit, 3/11-3/12

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	0.48	64.92
Brent	0.53	68.43
Gold	7.80	1,734.50
EUR/USD	0.0037	1.1966
JPY/USD	0.11	108.49
10-Year Note	-0.018	1.501%

 

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Calavo Growers (CVGW) 1Q adj EPS $0.17 vs. est. $0.20 on revs $220.6Mm vs. est. $220.1Mm; guides 2Q revs $255-275Mm vs. est. $260.3Mm

·     Fossil Group (FOSL) Q4 sales $528.1M and sees 2021 sales up about 10%-15%; anticipates that impacts from covid-19 will continue to pressure sales in q1 of 2021; on a constant currency basis, q4 digital sales increased 25% compared to prior year

·     Limoneira (LMNR) Q1 adj EPS loss (25c) vs. est. loss (27c); Q1 revenue $38.3M vs. est. $37M; expects to receive $80 mln from harvest at Limoneira during next six fiscal years, beginning 2022

·     MGM Growth (MGP) 19M share Spot Secondary priced at $32.15

 

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     Hess Midstream Partners (HESM) 6M share Spot Secondary priced at $21.00

·     Manitowoc (MTW) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird and up tgt to $31 from $17

·     Myers Industries (MYE) Q4 adj EPS 11c vs. est. 16c; Q4 revenue $137.5M vs. est. $128.83M.

·     NV5 Global (NVEE) 1.613M share Spot Secondary priced at $93.00

·     Kronos Worldwide (KRO) Q4 EPS 9c vs. est. 5c; Q4 revenue $414.9M vs. est. $361M

 

Financials

·     Franchise Group (FRG) 4Q adj EPS ($0.12) vs. est. $0.11 on revs $496.3Mm vs. est. $498.1Mm; guides FY revs $3.0-3.1B vs. est. $2.44B, sees FY adj EPS at least $3.25 vs. est. $2.83

·     Lending Club (LC) 4Q adj EPS ($0.24) vs. est. ($0.25) on revs $75.9Mm vs. est. $77.7Mm; Q4 loan originations were $912.0M, down 70% compared to the same quarter last year and improving 56% sequentially; sees 2021 revs up 55% YoY

·     Manning & Napier (MN) reports preliminary AUM $20.3B as of February 28; compared with $19.9B at January 31, and $20.1B at December 31, 2020

·     Skillz Inc. (SKLZ) 4Q EPS ($0.14) vs. est. ($0.10), Q4 revs $68M vs. est. $62.6M; GMV +78% to $463Mm; guides FY21 revs $366Mm vs. est. $366.1Mm

·     Victory Capital (VCTR) reported assets under management of $150.6 billion on February 28, 2021 vs. $146.21B prior month-end

 

Healthcare

·     Apollo Medical (AMEH) 4Q EPS $0.27 vs. est. $0.18 on revs $176.8Mm vs. est. $178.8Mm; guides FY revs $690-710Mm vs. est. $697Mm, sees FY adj EBITDA $115-125Mm vs. est. $105.1Mm

·     Kadmon Holdings (KDMN) said the U.S. FDA has extended the review period for the New Drug Application (NDA) for belumosudil for the treatment of chronic graft-versus-host disease; action date has been extended to August 30, 2021.

·     Moderna Inc. (MRNA) said that it vaccinated the first 60 people participating in a study meant to evaluate COVID-19 vaccine-booster candidates.

·     Oak Street Health (OSH) announces $750M convertible senior notes offering

·     Vir Biotechnology Inc. (VIR) shares jump 50% after saying that a monoclonal-antibody drug it has developed to treat Covid-19 showed strong efficacy in a trial. The drug called VIR-7831, partnered with Glaxo (GSK) reduced hospitalizations or deaths from Covid-19 by 85% compared with a placebo

·     Roche (RHHBY) provides update on the Phase 3 REMDACTA trial of Tocilizumab plus Remdesivir in patients with severe #COVID19 pneumonia – did not meet primary endpoint.

 

Media & Telecom

·     AMC Entertainment (AMC) 4Q adj EPS ($3.15) vs. est. ($3.16) on revs $162.5Mm vs. est. $142.4Mm; as of Dec. 31, AMC was operating at 394 domestic theaters with limited seating capacities between 20-40%; as of March 5, AMC was operating about 527 of its 589 domestic locations and about 78 of its 356 international locations

·     Bumble Inc. (BMBL) Q4 revs $165.6M vs. est. $163.3M; sees Q1 res $163M-$165M vs. est. $162.8M; Q4 total paying users increased 32% to 2.7 million; Q4 total ARPU was $20.02, compared to $19.99; sees Q1 adj Ebitda $41M-$42M and year $173M-$178M

 

Technology

·     Oracle (ORCL) Q3 adj EPS $1.16 vs. est. $1.11; Q3 revs $10.09B vs. est. $10.07B; increased authorization for share repurchases by $20 bln; Q3 cloud services and license support revenues were up 5% to $7.3B; Q3 fusion cloud erp revenue up 30%, NetSuite cloud erp revenue up 24%; qtrly cloud license and on-premise license revenues were up 4% to $1.3B

·     Cloudera (CLDR) Q4 adj EPS 15c vs. est. 11c; Q4 revenue $226.6M vs. est. $221.43M; sees Q1 adj EPS 7c-9c vs. est. 10c; sees Q1 revenue $216M-$218M below consensus $226.81M; sees FY22 adj EPS 35c-39c vs. est. 8c; sees FY22 revs $907M-$927M vs. est. $947.63M

·     Sumo Logic (SUMO) 4Q adj EPS ($0.07) vs. est. ($0.12); guides 1Q revs $53.2-54.2Mm vs. est. $53.4Mm, sees 1Q adj EPS ($0.12) vs. est. ($0.14); guides FY revs $231-235Mm vs. est. $234Mm, sees FY adj net loss/shr $0.50-0.48 vs. est. loss/shr $0.51

·     Coupang (CPNG) 130M share IPO priced at $35.00

·     JD.com (JD) reports a better-than-expected Q4 revenue at 224.3B yuan vs. est. 219.73B yuan, as customers staying at home during the pandemic flocked to its website; net income attributable to ordinary shareholders rose to 24.33B yuan from 3.63B yuan a year earlier

·     Smith Micro (SMSI) 9.52M share secondary priced at $6.85