Early Look

Thursday, September 16, 2021

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	-31.00	0.09%	34,670
S&P 500	-6.25	0.15%	4,465
Nasdaq	-34.50	0.22%	15,461

 

 

U.S. futures are pointing to a lower open, pulling back ahead of weekly jobless claims and retail sales data (economists are looking for a 0.8% drop in retail sales for August, compared with a 1.1% fall the month) while Asian markets fell for a 4^th straight day following China’s broadening crackdown on corporate profitability. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index fell -188 points to 30,323, the Shanghai Index dropped -49 points (1.34%) to 3,607 and the Hang Seng Index tumbled -365 points to 24,667. In Europe, the German DAX is up about 75 points to 15,690, while the FTSE 100 is higher by 30-points to 7,050. Oil prices are flat after marching higher yesterday after Energy Department data showed a bigger-than-expected 6.4 million decline in domestic stockpiles. The stock market erased most of this week’s losses, on Wednesday, eyeing a low-volume trading day today for Yom Kippur as some investors and traders leaving early. The S&P 500 rose +0.9% and Dow a +0.7% climb and the Nasdaq rose +0.8%, snapping its 5-day losing streak. Ten out of eleven S&P sectors were higher led by Energy.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index gained 37.65 points, or 0.85%, to 4,480.70

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 236.82 points, or 0.68%, to 34,814.39

·     The Nasdaq Composite surged 123.77 points, or 0.82%, to 15,161.53

·     The Russell 2000 Index advanced 24.46 points, or 1.11% to 2,234.45

 

Events Calendar for Today

·     8:30 AM ET         Weekly Jobless Claims…est. 330K

·     8:30 AM EST      Continuing Claims…est. 2.785M

·     8:30 AM ET         Philly Fed Index for September…est. 18.8

·     8:30 AM ET         Retail Sales MoM for Aug…est. (-0.8%)

·     8:30 AM ET         Retail Sales Ex: Autos MoM for Aug…est. (-0.1%)

·     10:00 AM ET      Business Inventories MoM for July…est. +0.5%

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

·     4:00 PM ET         Net Long-term TIC Flows for July

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: IPHI, LMNX

·     Earnings After the Close: HRB

 

Other Key Events:

·     Citigroup Small/Mid-Cap & Growth Conference 2021 (virtual), 9/16-9/17

·     European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2021 Virtual Congress, 9/16-9/21

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	-0.10	72.51
Brent	-0.04	75.42
Gold	-14.25	1,779.80
EUR/USD	-0.0051	1.1766
JPY/USD	0.02	109.40
10-Year Note	+0.003	1.307%

 

 

World News

·     The United States, Britain and Australia announced a new security partnership for the Indo-Pacific in a move hailed by regional allies but denounced by China as intensifying an arms race in the region. Under the partnership, announced by President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the United States and Britain will provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines.

·     US House Ways and Means Committee votes to advance plan to raise taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations as part of Democrats’ reconciliation spending bill

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Beyond Meat (BYND) downgraded to Underweight from Neutral with a price target of $95, down from $120 at Piper saying the company’s current all-channel retail momentum will lag consensus expectations and foodservice consensus estimates may be high

·     AMC Entertainment (AMC) CEO Aron said yesterday that AMC Theatres will accept Bitcoin for online ticket and concession payments, and similarly accept other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

·     Callaway Golf (ELY) 4M share Secondary priced at $29.25

·     Figs (FIGS) 8.92M share Secondary priced at $40.25

·     Molson Coors Beverage Co. (TAP) said it plans to expand distribution of its Topo Chico Hard Seltzer nationwide, starting January 2022

·     China’s leading ride-hailing app, Didi (DID), has seen its daily users fall by 30% since its initial public offering in New York in June triggered a fierce backlash by Beijing, the Financial Times reported. https://on.ft.com/2XmIqy8

·     Laureate Education, Inc. (LAUR) said its Board approved a plan of partial liquidation (the “Plan”) in connection with the previously disclosed sale of Walden e-Learning LLC

 

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     Timken (TKR) said it expects lower sales and earnings in second half of 2021; said underlying customer demand and end-market momentum remain strong across most sectors and expects a robust industrial market environment for remainder of 2021 and throughout 2022

·     Ion Geophysical (IO) announced that its board of directors has initiated a process to evaluate a range of strategic alternatives in an effort to strengthen its financial position and maximize stakeholder value

·     Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) increased its 2030 goals to a 50% reduction in GHG intensity and a 75% reduction in methane intensity from 2019 baseline

·     Sibanye Stillwater (SBSW) agrees to acquire half of Ioneer Ltd.’s Nevada lithium project for $490M – Reuters

·     The Association of American Railroads reports total weekly US rail traffic down 1.3% Y/Y to 468,610 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending September 11, 2021; Carloads up 4.5% to 223,710; intermodal volume down 6% to 244,900 containers

·     SpaceX successfully launched four civilians into space Wednesday evening in the first spaceflight staffed wholly by commercial astronauts, which is not a government-backed crew to orbit Earth. The aerospace company run by Elon Musk launched the crew of Inspiration4 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center shortly after 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The mission will take the four astronauts 360 miles from Earth for at least three days before they splash down in one of several spots off the Florida coast.

 

Financials

·     Enact Holdings (ACT) 13.31M share IPO priced at $19.00

·     Veritex (VBTX) boosts share buyback to $250M from $175M

 

Healthcare

·     Aerie Pharmaceuticals (AERI) shares fall -19%; a Phase 2b study of the company’s experimental treatment for dry eye disease failed to meet the main goal of the trial

·     Exelixis (EXEL) announces results from Phase 3 CheckMate -9ER trial demonstrating efficacy benefits regardless of prior nephrectomy status with Cabometyx (cabozantinib) in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb’s (BMY) Opdivo (nivolumab) vs. sunitinib for patients with previously untreated advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

·     Moderna (MRNA) said a study of breakthrough COVID-19 cases among vaccinated individuals supports the need for a booster shot. Moderna identified 88 breakthrough COVID cases among 11,431 people vaccinated between December 2020 and March 2021, but 162 cases in the group who got their shots between July and October of last year.

·     Travere Therapeutics (TVTX) reported a joint collaboration and licensing agreement with Vifor Pharma for the commercialization of Sparsentan in Europe, Australia and New Zealand

·     BioXcel Therapeutics (BTAI) presents results from ongoing phase 2 trial of BXCL701 in combination with KEYTRUDA® in aggressive forms of prostate cancer at ESMO

·     The FDA has decided not to take a stand on the efficacy of a booster shot from Pfizer (PFE), as the agency says it doesn’t have enough data to make a decision, and that it’s only seen an observational study in Israel.

·     Invitae Corp (NVTA) files for stock shelf of up to 6.3 mln common shares by the selling stockholders

·     Takeda’s (TAK) EXKIVITY™ (mobocertinib) approved by U.S. FDA as the first oral therapy specifically designed for patients with EGFR Exon20 Insertion+ NSCLC

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Electronic Arts (EA) announces Battlefield 2042 is now set to launch worldwide on November 19, 2021 (shares of EA fell yesterday on talk it might have been delayed into 2022, but launch also a month later than originally expected); reiterating net bookings guidance for fiscal year 2022 provided on august 4, 2021, despite this change in launch date for Battlefield 2042

·     Cisco (CSCO) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse at Credit Suisse

·     ForgeRock (FORG) 11M share IPO priced at $25.00

·     Texas Instruments (TXN) raises quarterly dividend 13% to $1.15 from $1.02 per share

·     Adobe (ADBE) announced the upcoming availability of Payment Services for Adobe Commerce, “the industry’s leading end-to-end commerce application for B2B, D2C and hybrid use cases

·     InterDigital (IDCC) sees Q3 revenue $119M-$121M vs. est. $111.64M, driven by both an expected $15M of recurring revenue and $30M of non-recurring revenue from a fixed price license agreement signed during Q