Early Look

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	-135.00	0.42%	32,481
S&P 500	-16.00	0.41%	3,914
Nasdaq	-20.00	0.16%	13,051

 

 

U.S. stocks are lower across the board, tracking weakness in Europe and Asia and erasing solid gains yesterday ahead of Congressional testimony from Fed Chairman Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen later today. Crude prices drop over 3% after Germany says it is in a new pandemic, with the British COVID strain dominant, prompting a hard lockdown and more restrictions through April 18. Vaccine news also hurting sentiment after U.S. officials said they were told AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) may have released outdated information in its disclosure of trial results for its Covid-19 vaccine that could have “provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.” Treasury yields are pulling back however as the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield traded at 1.64% early ahead of the auction this week of $183 billion of notes. A sale of seven-year notes will be closely watched after it stumbled last month, sending yields higher. The 10-year Treasury yield hit 1.754% last week, a 14-month high. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index declined -178 points to 28,995, the Shanghai Index slipped -31 points to 3,411 and the Hang Seng Index dropped -387 points (1.34%) to settle at 28,497. In Europe, the German DAX is lower by -85 points to 14,570, while the FTSE 100 is down over -30 points to drop under the 6,700 level.

 

Stocks were mostly higher on Monday as the Nasdaq Composite rose more than 1% as Treasury yields fell back and the appeal of cyclicals waned, while Small-caps remained weak throughout, with the Russell 2000 falling -0.8% on the day. The benchmark S&P 500 benefited from strength in the mega caps tech names and the Dow edged higher as price weakness in banks held it back. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped 5 basis points to 1.68%, while the 30-year yield was down 7 basis points to 2.4% for it’s the first back-to-back decline since Feb 12^th. Last week saw a fair number of macro/micro events that are now largely in the rear view such as the FOMC, the Fed SLR announcement, quadruple witching options expiration, renewed Covid restrictions in parts of Europe, pension rebalances, record equity inflows due to stimulus check deployment, to name a few of the big catalysts.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index jumped 27.49 points, or 0.70%, to 3,940.59

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 103.23 points, or 0.32%, to 32,731.20

·     The Nasdaq Composite spiked 162.31 points, or 1.23%, to 13,377.54

·     The Russell 2000 Index declined -20.70 points, or 0.91% to 2,266.84

 

Events Calendar for Today

·     7:45 AM ET         ICSC Weekly Retail Sales

·     8:30 AM EST      Current Account for Q4

·     8:55 AM ET         Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales

·     10:00 AM EST    New Home Sales MoM for February

·     10:00 AM EST    Richmond Fed Index for March

·     4:30 PM ET         API Weekly Inventory Data

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: IMBI, KRMD, LQDA, WYY

·     Earnings After the Close: AIR, FTHM, GME, GNOG, HOME, LIFE, MBII, PLBY, SCS, STON

 

Other Key Events:

·     Credit Suisse Consumer Retail Conference (virtual), 3/23-3/24

·     KeyBanc Life Sciences & MedTech Investor Forum (virtual), 3/23-3/24

·     NAREIT REITwise 2021 Conference (virtual), 3/23-3/25

·     Piper Energy Vegas Conference (virtual), 3/22-3/23

·     Scotia Weil Annual Energy Conference (virtual), 3/23-3/24

·     Fed’s Bullard discusses the economy

·     Fed’s Williams takes part in Virtual Discussion

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	-2.19	59.37
Brent	-2.31	62.31
Gold	0.40	1,738.50
EUR/USD	-0.0042	1.1891
JPY/USD	-0.39	108.46
10-Year Note	-0.047	1.635%

 

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     QuantumScape (QS) announces offering of 13M shares of Class A common stock

 

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     Crude oil prices continue to slide as concerns persist about a third COVID wave in Europe denting demand. WTI futures drop back below $60 per barrel for the first time since the beginning of March after Germany says it is in a “new pandemic,” with the British COVID strain dominant, prompting a hard lockdown and more restrictions through April 18.

·     Western Midstream (WES) 10M share Spot Secondary priced at $17.35

·     Eaton (ETN) acquires Green Motion SA, a leading designer and manufacturer of electric vehicle charging hardware and related software.

·     MP Materials (MP) announces 8m share secondary offering, and a convertible offering

 

Financials

·     IHS Markit (INFO) Q1 adj EPS 71c vs. est. 70c; Q1 revenue $1.12B vs. est. $1.11B; Q1 adjusted EBITDA of $467M; Q1 cash flow from operations of $245M, free cash flow $172M; sees 2021 adj EPS $3.11-$3.16 vs. est. $3.15 and revs $4.535B-$4.635B vs. est. $4.58B

·     SVB Financial (SIVB) 2M share Spot Secondary priced at $500.00

·     Guild Holdings (GHLD) 4Q adj EPS $1.49 vs. est. $1.84 on revs $454.2Mm vs. est. $451.3Mm

 

Healthcare

·     U.S. officials said they were told AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) may have released outdated information in its disclosure of trial results for its Covid-19 vaccine that could have “provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.” The statement from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases came a day after AstraZeneca released interim data from large-scale U.S. trials that it said found its Covid-19 vaccine to be 79% effective in preventing symptomatic disease.

·     Novartis AG (NVS) said that a phase 3 study with radioligand therapy 177Lu-PSMA-617 in patients with advanced prostate cancer met both primary endpoints of overall survival and radiographic progression-free survival.

·     Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) said its antibody cocktail significantly reduced the rate of Covid-19 hospitalization or death in a large clinical trial, the company said today. And the treatment appeared to work just as well at half the dose currently in use, which could effectively double the available supply

·     Verrica Pharmaceuticals (VRCA) 2.034M share Spot Secondary priced at $14.75

·     BioLife Solutions (BLFS) announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement to acquire Global Cooling, operating as Stirling Ultracold, a privately held manufacturer of ultra-low temperature mechanical freezers

·     eHealth (EHTH) rises after hours as Starboard Value LP reports 6.9% stake as of March 11, 2021 based on belief that shares were undervalued

·     Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) shares fell -20% after its partner, Roche (RHHBY), has decided to discontinue dosing in the Phase III GENERATION HD1 study of tominersen in manifest Huntington’s disease

·     SeaSpine (SPNE) announces agreement to acquire 7d surgical in cash and stock deal valued at $110 mln

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Coherent (COHR) bidding war continues as Lumentum Holdings (LITE) offers a revised bid for the company $230 per share in cash and 0.6724 shares of Lumentum common stock for each COHR share held in $7B deal; follows a revised proposal last week from II-VI (IIVI) of $220 per share in cash and 0.91 of a share of II-VI common stock (which had followed a LITE revised bid of $220 per share in cash and 0.61 shares of stock)

·     Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is in discussions to acquire video-game chat platform Discord Inc. for more than $10 billion, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources. Discord is likely to prefer going public than selling itself, according to one source. Discord has previously held talks with Epic Games Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., the reports says https://on.mktw.net/3f3iqy5

·     Viacom CBS (VIAC) commenced offerings of $2.0 bln of class B common stock & $1.0 bln of its series a mandatory convertible preferred stock

·     Viant (DSP) Q4 EPS $12.86 vs. est. $10.33; Q4 revenue $56.5M vs. est. $55.16M; revenue ex-TAC was $39.1M, an increase of 19% YoY

·     Tencent Music (TME) Q4 EPS 12c on revs $1.28B, both in-line with consensus; Q4 online music paying users reached 56M, up 40.4% Yoy