Mid-Morning Look

Monday, July 13, 2026

U.S. stocks edged lower overnight and remain weak and oil prices rose after the U.S. conducted multiple waves of strikes over the weekend against Iranian military targets, while the semiconductor sector (SOX) sees further profit taking behind weakness in memory stocks (MU, SNDK, SKYH). The military operations ended late Sunday afternoon, after hitting more than 300 targets over three nights, targeting air-defense systems, cruise missiles, and Revolutionary Guard boats near the Strait of Hormuz. The tech rotation is the dominant theme early Monday, while crypto (Bitcoin) and precious metals tumble as risk appetite shifts. Oil prices are jumping after the President said he was reinstating the Iranian blockade. After a red-hot U.S. debut on Friday, chipmaker SK Hynix’s shares plummeted. Apple a positive standout rising to record highs.

Several important items to watch this week include: 1) Earnings as some of the biggest financial companies in the world report this week including JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and others as well as healthcare giants JNJ and UnitedHealth; 2) inflation data on deck with consumer prices (CPI) and producer prices (PPI) midweek; 3) newly appointed FOMC chair Kevin Warsh will testify before Congress for the first time as Fed chair on Tuesday; 4) and of course any new developments between the US and Iran will likely impact commodity/stock markets.

• Building Products sector: Davidson said their Q2 decking contractor survey points to a modest acceleration in growth vs recent quarters (+4% vs +2% in Q1), consistent next 3-6 month and full-year growth expectations (+4% and +5% respectively), and the first positive skew in reported backlog levels in over 2 years. TREX remains their top pick in building products while saying feedback around UFPI’s Deckorators remains quite positive, though believes capacity could remain somewhat of a constraint on growth in Q2. FERG agreed to acquire FloWorks from private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital for about $1.6B in cash, strengthening its portfolio of industrial flow-control products.
• Aerospace sector: YSS was resumed Buy at Citigroup with $32 tgt as expects the ALLSPACE acquisition to expand York’s satellite communications capabilities and contribute approximately $20M in annual revenue. Bernstein noted that on July 10th, China successfully landed the first-stage booster from a Long March 10B Rocket launch. Bernstein sees China as the lead competitor for SPCX but also notes despite China’s success in landing its Long March 10B, it is far behind SpaceX. VOYG said it completed its acquisition of Astrobotic Technology and highlighted a recently awarded NASA lunar mission task order worth $298M.

• AGEN +126%; after saying it secured up to $340M in private financing led by Commodore Capital and backed by RA Capital Management and other investors to support a late-stage trial of experimental cancer drug combination botensilimab and balstilimab in high-risk colon cancer patients.
• CNMD +9%; is said to weigh sale after takeover interest- Bloomberg news reported
• DECK +2%; was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies and raise tgt to $130 from $110 saying the company’s EBIT growth has slowed as the business has matured and faced macro headwinds, this is now reflected in shares.
• DG +5%; along with gains DLTR as discount retail/dollar stores outperform.
• TCBK +10%; FHB to acquire TCBK in an all-stock transaction where  TriCo’s shareholders will receive 2.095 First Hawaiian shares for each TriCo share, representing $63.12 per share.

• PZZA -3%; was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Bank America and cut tgt to $34 from $42 saying thinks it is unlikely former CFO Ravi Thanawala would have left his post after less than three years if he believed a sharp turnaround were imminent.
• SKYH -7%; as memory chip makers seeing broad pullback on further profit taking this month though still posting massive YTD gains (SNDK, MU); analysts out positive again on group
• SPCX -4%; shares dropping below $139 (reminder IPO priced at $135 few weeks back)
• TSLA -3%; down in sympathy with pullback in SPCX shares