Early Look

Friday, May 29, 2020

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
DJ Industrials	-105.00	0.41%	25,353
S&P 500	-9.50	0.30%	3,028
Nasdaq	-24.50	0.26%	9,436

 

 

U.S. stock futures are edging lower, adding to the late day slide in U.S. stocks on Thursday after President Trump said he would hold a news conference on China later today with traders fearing he will announce sanctions. Trump said earlier in the week he would act after China approved a new Hong Kong security law, while the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed legislation authorizing sanctions on Chinese officials for human rights abuses against Muslim minorities. The White House didn’t release any details on the Trump press conference coming later. Investors also fear rising Sino-American tensions between the countries could seep into trade relations. Amid the geopolitical drama, the Nikkei Index dipped -38 points to 21,877, the Shanghai Index rose 6 points to 2,852 and the Hang Seng Index fell -171 points to 22,961. In Europe, the German DAX is lower by 90 points to trade just under 11,700, while the FTSE 100 is down roughly 50 points to 6,170. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was down to 0.66% and the yield on the 30-year bond fell to 1.43% while gold prices are moving higher as investors sought the safety of defensive assets. Social media names (FB, TWTR) slumped as well after Trump said he would target the group by narrowing liability protections for posts by third parties. Bank stocks gave back some of their strong gains for the week on Thursday while Healthcare and Biotech stocks will be in focus this weekend with the largest cancer meeting of the year taking place (in virtual format) as the conference’s virtual scientific program kicks off today and will feature over 250 oral abstract presentations and 2,500 poster presentations in 24 disease-based and specialty tracks (names to watch include MRK, BMY, REGN, LLY, PFE< GILD, along with many second tier related names)

 

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index slumped -6.40 points, or 0.21%, to 3,029.73

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -147.93 points, or 0.58%, to 25,400.64

·     The Nasdaq Composite dropped -43.37 points, or 0.46%, to 9,368.99

·     The Russell 2000 Index declined -35.69 points, or 2.48% to 1,400.69

 

Economic Calendar for Today

·     8:30 AM EST      Advance Goods Trade Balance for April…est. (-$65.0B)

·     8:30 AM EST      Personal income for April…est. (-6.0%)

·     8:30 AM EST      Personal Spending for April…est. (-12.8%)

·     8:30 AM EST      PCE Deflator MoM for April…est. (-0.6%)

·     8:30 AM EST      PCE Deflator YoY for April…est. 0.5%

·     8:30 AM EST      PCE Core Deflator MoM for April…est. (-0.3%)

·     8:30 AM EST      PCE Deflator YoY for April…est. 1.1%

·     9:45 AM EST      Chicago PMI for May…est. 40.0

·     10:00 AM EST    University of Michigan Confidence, May-F…est. 74.0

·     1:00 PM EST       Baker Hughes Weekly Rig Count

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
WTI Crude	-1.10	32.59
Brent	-0.97	34.32
Gold	10.90	1,739.20
EUR/USD	0.0056	1.1133
JPY/USD	-0.48	107.17
10-Year Note	-0.021	0.668%

 

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Big Lots (BIG) Q1 EPS $1.26 vs. 92c last year and Q1 revenue $1.44B topped est. $1.31B with Q2 comp sales up 10.3%; inventory at Q1-end $807M vs. $927M last year; Q1 E-commerce direct comps up 45%; sees Q2 EPS 65c-80 vs. est. 24c

·     Costco (COST) Q3 EPS $1.89 on revs $37.27B vs. est. $1.92 and $37.05B; Q3 comp store sales rose 5.9% in the US, fell -2.5% in Canada and total company comp sales rose 4.8% vs. 5.5% YoY; eCommerce comps rose 64.5%

·     Nordstrom (JWN) Q1 EPS ($3.33) vs est ($1.34) on net sales -40% yr/yr, total revs $2.1B vs est $2.15B, says entering 2Q in position of strength, about 40% of stores now open

·     Ollie’s Bargain Outlet (OLLI) Q1 EPS 49c/$349.36M vs. est. 31c/$315.02M; Q1 comparable store sales decreased 3.3% compared with a 0.8% increase in the prior year and vs. the est. -8.1%

·     TrueCar (TRUE) announced a strategic restructuring of its workforce to reinforce its pursuit of a best-in-class car buying experience

·     Ulta Beauty (ULTA) 1Q EPS ($1.39) vs est $0.26 on comps -35.3% vs est $-34.8%; says suspending stock buyback and drawing down $800Mm under revolver; not providing earnings outlook

·     William Sonoma (WSM) Q adj EPS $0.74 vs. est. $0.05 on revs $$1.24B vs. est. $1.08B, comps +2.6% vs. est. -11.4%

 

Energy, Industrials & Materials

·     Celanese (CE) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank America

·     Halliburton (HAL) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Cowen

·     Methode Electronics (MEI) lowers FY20 EPS view to $3.22-$3.28 from $3.25 to $3.55 (est. $3.01) and sees FY20 revenue $1.02B vs. est. $1.05B

·     National Fuel (NFG) 3.8M share Spot Secondary priced at $39.50

 

Financials

·     Essent Group (ESNT) 12M share Secondary priced at $33.25

·     Navient (NAVI) files automatic mixed securities shelf

·     Repay Holdings (RPAY) 8M share Secondary priced at $20.00

 

Healthcare

·     AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) shares rose 6% as the company said its Tagrisso drug “demonstrated unprecedented patient benefit in the adjuvant treatment of EGFR-mutated lung cancer” in the Phase III ADAURA trial; said Tagrisso “demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in disease-free survival.”

·     Roche (RHHBY) updated data from a Phase 3 clinical trial, ALEX, evaluating its Alecensa (alectinib) versus Pfizer’s (PFE) Xalkori (crizotinib) in patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed a higher survival rate for Alecensa.

·     Arcus Biosciences (RCUS) 11M share Secondary priced at $27.05

·     Iovance Biotherapeutics (IOVA) 16.9M share Secondary priced at $31.00

·     Marinus Pharmaceuticals (MRNS) 16M share Spot Secondary priced at $2.50

·     Mersana Therapeutics (MRSN) 8M share Secondary priced at $19.00

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Salesforce (CRM) Q1 adjusted EPS 70c/$4.87B vs. est. 69c/$4.85B; sees Q2 adjusted EPS 66c-67c on revs $4.89B-$4.9B vs. est. 75c/$5.05B; lowers year revs to $20B from prior view $21B-$21.1B (est. $20.67B) and lowers year EPS to $2.93-$2.95 from prior $3.16-$3.18

·     DXC Technology (DXC) 4Q adj EPS $1.20 vs. est. $0.94 on revs $4.82B vs. est. $4.87B

·     Glu Mobile (GLUU) raises Q2 bookings view to $162.5M-$167.5M from $150M-$155M and also boosts FY20 bookings view to $502.5M-$512.5M from $490M-$500M; says they’ve seen significant momentum in the business and broad-based growth across our live game portfolio driven by successful live operations execution and continued positive industry trends

·     Marvell (MRVL) Q1 EPS 18c/$694M vs. est. 14c/$678.7M; said while experienced some COVID-19 supply chain impacts on our storage business in Q1, we expect a bounce back in the second quarter and we project our networking business to continue to grow; sees Q2 non-GAAP EPS 17c-23c vs. est. 16c and sees Q2 revenue $720M plus/minus 5% vs. est. $688.66M

·     Okta (OKTA) Q1 adjusted EPS loss (7c)/$182.9M vs. est. loss (17c)/$171.35M; sees Q2 adjusted EPS loss (2c)-(1c) on revs $185M-$187M above ests. loss (9c) and $185.1M; raises FY21 adj. EPS view to (23c)-(18c) from (42c)-(37c) and backs FY21 revenue view $770M-$780M (est. $771.15M)

·     Pure Storage (PSTG) Q1 revs $367.1M vs. est. $352.26M; withdraws prior guidance; 1Q adjusted gross margin 71.9% vs. 68.1% YoY; fee cash flow was $11.3 million, up $29.0 million YoY

·     Veeva (VEEV) Q1 EPS 66c/$337.1M vs. est. 58c/$319.99M; sees FY21 EPS $2.50-$2.55 above prior view $2.50 and consensus $2.47 while cuts FY21 revenue view to $1.38B-$1.395B from $1.40B-$1.405B (est. $1.38B)

·     VMware (VMW) 1Q adj EPS $1.52 vs. est. $1.20 on revs $2.73B vs. est. $2.64B, says subscription & SAAS revs +39%; 1Q billings growth +6% vs. +25% YoY; 1Q free cash flow $1.29 billion, +7.1% YoY; 1Q license rev. $660.0M; 1Q adjusted operating margin 29.9%

·     Zscaler (ZS) shares rose 18%; 3Q adj EPS $0.07 vs est $0.02 on revs $110.5MM vs est $106.2Mm; guides 4Q adj EPS $0.02-0.03 vs est $0.02, sees 4Q revs $117-119Mm vs est. $114.6Mm; guides FY EPS $0.20-0.21 vs prior $0.14-0.16, est $0.15

·     Fiverr (FVRR) 2M share Secondary priced at $60.00

·     Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB) in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump who signed an executive order that aims to limit the broad legal protection that federal law currently provides to social media and other online platforms, a move that is anticipated to result in immediate court challenges