Early Look

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	205.00	0.60%	34,461
S&P 500	28.25	0.67%	4,384
Nasdaq	116.50	0.79%	14,880

 

 

Stock futures are jumping overnight, extending yesterday’s gains ahead of key earnings reports and inflation data. Stocks advanced on Wednesday as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq outperformed after a choppy session, with Big Tech doing much of the heavy lifting, led by shares of Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Nvidia. Minutes from the September Federal Reserve policy meeting showed central bankers signaled they could start reducing crisis-era support for the economy in mid-November, although they remained divided about how soon they may need to raise interest rates. Inflation data was in-line with forecast for consumer prices ahead of today’s producer price index at 8:30 AM ET. Banks the other top story with earnings this week, with JPMorgan falling after its third-quarter earnings beat expectations. Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley are set to report results this morning. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rose 410 points to 28,550, while the Shanghai Index was little changed at 3,558. In Europe, the German DAX is rising 130 points to 15,380, while the FTSE 100 gains about 50-points to move just below the 7,200 level. Market sentiment improving after a rough start to the week, helped yesterday on news Port of Los Angeles to go 24/7 joining neighboring Port of Long Beach as the expanded operations would nearly double the hours that cargo can move and help remove the glut at ports and improve inventory for retail and food stores. Oil prices rose by about 1% after the International Energy Agency said that record natural gas prices will boost demand for oil and top oil producer Saudi Arabia dismissed calls for additional OPEC+ supplies.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index gained 13.15 points, or 0.30%, to 4,363.80

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average little changed, or 0.00%, to 34,377.81

·     The Nasdaq Composite jumped 105.71 points, or 0.73%, to 14,571.63

·     The Russell 2000 Index advanced 7.70 points, or 0.34% to 2,241.97

 

Events Calendar for Today

·     8:30 AM ET         Weekly Jobless Claims…est. 319K

·     8:30 AM EST      Continuing Claims…est. 2.675M

·     8:30 AM ET         Producer Price Index (PPI) Headline MoM for September…est. +0.6%

·     8:30 AM ET         PPI Core: Ex Food & Energy MoM for September…est. +0.5%

·     8:30 AM ET         Producer Price Index (PPI) Headline YoY for September…est. +8.7%

·     8:30 AM ET         PPI Core: Ex Food & Energy YoY for September…est. 7.1%

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

·     11:00 AM ET      EIA Weekly Inventory Data

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: BAC, C, CMC, DPZ, MS, PGR, UNH, USB, WBA, WFC

·     Earnings After the Close: AA, DCT, TACO

 

Other Key Events:

·     Piper Insurance Summit in New York, 10/14

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	0.87	81.31
Brent	0.97	84.15
Gold	4.90	1,801.60
EUR/USD	0.0014	1.1606
JPY/USD	0.17	113.41
10-Year Note	-0.017	1.532%

 

 

World News

·     China sept. consumer prices rise 0.7% y/y vs. est. 0.8%; China sept. producer prices rise 10.7% y/y vs. est. 10.5%

·     Oil demand is set to jump by half a million barrels per day (bpd) as the power sector and heavy industries switch from other more expensive sources of energy, the IEA said, warning that the energy crunch could stoke inflation and slow the world’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In its monthly report, the IEA increased its global oil demand growth forecast by 170,000 bpd to 5.5 million bpd for 2021 and by 210,000 bpd to 3.3 million bpd for 2022. The agency now expects total oil demand in 2022 to reach 99.6 million bpd

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

·     Wayfair (W) downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

·     Esports Entertainment Group (GMBL) rises after forecasting higher revenue in FY22 saying it expects net revenue to increase by at least 490% to $100 mln to $105 mln in FY22 driven primarily by the multiple acquisitions completed in calendar 2021

·     Good Times Restaurants (GTIM) said Q4 YoY same store sales ended sept. 28, 2021 decreased 0.2% for its good times brand & increased 22.8% for its Bad Daddy’s brand

·     Hyzon Motors (HYZM) said in 2022, expects to increase capacity to up to 1,000 trucks/year through operational updates, addition of second shift in Europe facility

·     Winnebago (WGO) announces new $200M share repurchase authorization

 

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     Occidental (OXY) agreed to sell its interests in two Ghana offshore fields for $750 million to Kosmos Energy (KOS) paying $550M and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation paying $200M, prior to closing adjustments to reflect an April 1, 2021 effective date

·     The American Petroleum Institute (API)

·     WD-40 (WDFC) approves new $75M share repurchase plan

·     Matrix Nac (MTRX) awarded multiple contracts for electrical infrastructure work that, in aggregate, totals about $50 mln

·     The American Petroleum Institute (API) showed a build of 5.21M barrels of oil for the week ending October 8, a draw of 4.58M barrels, distillate inventories show a draw of 2.71M barrels and Cushing inventories show a draw of 2.28M barrels.

·     Steel Dynamics (STLD) CEO said steel prices, driven to nosebleed highs by surging demand, should start to “erode” by the first part of next year as COVID-related supply bottlenecks ease and new domestic production comes online.

·     UPS (UPS) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel

·     The Biden administration unveiled plans to hold as many as seven government auctions of offshore wind development rights in the next four years (watch shares of AGR, RDSA)

 

Financials

·     U.S.-listed Chinese online brokerages Futu Holding (FUTU) and UP Fintech Holding (TIGR) face regulatory risks as China’s personal data privacy law takes effect Nov. 1, the official People’s Daily said in an analysis on its website. Such brokerages could violate data privacy rules and also runs compliance risks, the article said.

·     U.S. Bancorp (USB) Q3 EPS $1.30 vs. est. $1.16; Q3 revs $5.89B vs. est. $5.77B; return on average assets 1.45% vs. 1.17% y/y; return on average equity 15.9% vs. 12.8% y/y; net charge-offs $147 million, -71% Yoy

 

Healthcare

·     UnitedHealth (UNH) Q3 adj EPS $4.52 vs. est. $4.41; Q3 revs $72.34B vs. est. $71.19B; Q3 beat helped by a jump in revenue from its Optum unit that manages drug benefits, rising 14%; raises FY21 adjusted EPS view to $18.65-$18.90 from $18.30-$18.80 (est. $18.75)

·     Perrigo (PRGO) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James with a $59 price target saying the recently announced acquisition of leading branded consumer play HRA Pharma is expected to immediately boost the company’s profitability back to 2019 levels while delivering on its goal of becoming a pure-play consumer health company by 2023

·     Sarepta (SRPT) 6.17M share secondary priced at $81 per share

·     Lucid Diagnostics (LUCD) 5M share IPO priced at $14 per share

·     Agilent Technologies Inc. (A) said its Ki-67 IHC MIB-1 pharmDx (Dako Omnis) is now FDA approved as an aid in identifying patients with early breast cancer (EBC) at high risk of disease recurrence

·     Turning Point Therapeutics (TPTX) and EQRx announced a clinical collaboration to evaluate elzovantinib or TPX-0022, Turning Point’s drug candidate targeting MET, SRC, and CSF1R, in combination with aumolertinib, EQRx’s drug candidate targeting EGFR for NSCLC

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) lifted its revenue growth forecast for 2021, citing an “industry megatrend” of strong chip demand after Q3 rev climbed 22.6% to $14.88B, in line with co’s prior estimated range of $14.6B-$14.9B and vs. est. $14.83B; Q3 profit rose 14% from a year earlier to 156.26 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$5.57 billion)

·     AT&T (T) upgraded to Sector Weight from Underweight at KeyBanc saying that it appears more difficult to justify further downside from current levels given simplification of the business, reduced leverage, and peers that trade at premiums

·     GitLab (GTLB) 10.4M share IPO priced at $77.00

·     Rambus (RMBS) announced that Rahul Mathur, senior vice president and CFO, will resign from Rambus effective November 15 to pursue another opportunity outside of the semiconductor industry; co affirmed its previously issued guidance for the third quarter fiscal year 2021.

·     E2open (ETWO) raises FY22 revenue view to $470M-$474M from $369M-$371M (est. $417.13M); adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $161M-$163M vs. prior guidance of $158M provided at the announcement of the BluJay transaction.