Early Look

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	34.00	0.10%	33,785
S&P 500	6.25	0.16%	4,142
Nasdaq	20.50	0.15%	13,178

 

 

U.S. futures are pointing to a higher open, building on the late day push Monday as major averages closed at their highs, and ahead of key inflation data tomorrow. Softer consumer price inflation data overnight in China helped set the mood, coming in at its lowest level in more than a year, with investors hoping it’s a precursor to Wednesday’s CPI, opening the door for the Fed to pause hikes and begin lowering rates. Markets see total CPI rising 0.3% Mom and by 5.2% YoY, down from 6.0% YoY in February. But the core rate is seen being stickier with a 0.4% MoM rise expected to nudge the YoY rate up from 5.5% in February to 5.6%. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rallies 289 points to 27,923, the Shanghai Index slipped -1 point to 3,313, and the Hang Seng Index rose 154 points to 20,485. In Europe, the German DAX is up 78 points to 15,675, while the FTSE 100 rises 20 points to 7,763. Bitcoin prices are jumping over 3%, topping $30K to its highest levels since last June ahead of key inflation data tomorrow and Thursday. Economic data and looming bank earnings the key catalysts this week.

 

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index climbed 4.09 points, or 0.10%, to 4,109.11.

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 101.23 points, or 0.30%, to 33,586.52.

·     The Nasdaq Composite slipped -3.60 points, or 0.03%, to 12,084.35.

·     The Russell 2000 Index advanced 17.98 points, or 1.02% to 1,772.44.

 

Economic Calendar for Today

·     6:00 AM ET           NFIB Small Business Optimism for March

·     7:45 AM ET           ICSC Weekly Retail Sales

·     8:55 AM ET           Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales

·     1:00 PM ET           U.S. Treasury to sell $40B in 3-year notes.

·     1:30 PM ET           Chicago Fed’s Goolsbee Speaks at Economic Club of Chicago

·     4:30 PM ET           API Weekly Inventory Data

·     7:30 PM ET           Fed’s Kashkari Speaks in Town-Hall Event.

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: ACI KMX

·     Earnings After the Close: SKIL

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	-0.24	79.51
Brent	-0.11	84.07
Gold	16.10	2,019.80
EUR/USD	0.0058	1.0917
JPY/USD	-0.57	133.04
10-Year Note	-0.028	3.387%

 

 

World News

·     China’s consumer inflation (CPI) eased to its lowest level in more than a year in March, as prices for both food and non-food products retreated. The CPI rose 0.7% on year in March compared with February’s 1.0% increase and undershot the 0.9% increase expected.

·     China Food prices rose 2.4% on year in March, compared with February’s 2.6% rise. Pork prices accelerated to a 9.6% year-on-year increase, up from the 3.9% growth recorded in February. Vegetable prices fell 11.1% on year in March, down further from February’s 3.8% decline.

·     UK Barclays consumer credit and debit card spending in March was 4.0% y/y from 5.9% in February.

·     U.S. spies caught Russian intelligence officers boasting that they had convinced UAE “to work together against US and UK intelligence agencies,” – MarketWatch.

·     NFIB Small Business Optimism Index: 90.1 vs. 90.9 in Feb.

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc (AMC) says has a 9.1% passive stake in National Cinemedia, Inc. (NCMI), as of March 29, 2023.

·     CarMax (KMX) Q4 EPS $0.44 vs. est. $0.24; Q4 revs $5.7B vs. est. $6.04B.

·     Kura Sushi (KURA) announces offering of 1.1M shares of Class A common stock.

·     PriceSmart (PSMT) 2Q adj EPS $1.25 vs est. $0.88 on revs $1.14B vs est. $1.13B; comparable net merchandise sales +8.5%.

·     Potbelly Corp (PBPB) said prelim 2023 same-store-sales high single to low double-digit growth.

·     WW International Inc. (WW), which was formerly known as Weight Watchers, soared 25.2% toward a five-week high in premarket trading Tuesday, after the weight management and wellness company said it completed its acquisition of Weekend Health Inc., the telehealth company doing business as Sequence (shares also upgraded to Buy at Goldman Sachs).

·     Car loans: @charliebilello noted: “the average interest rate on 48-month new car loans in the US has moved up to 7.46%. That’s the highest we’ve seen since 2007. A year ago, the rate was 4.87%.”

 

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     Newcrest Mining (NCMGY) said it has received a revised conditional and non-binding proposal from Newmont Corporation (NEM) to acquire 100% of the issued shares in Newcrest, by way of a scheme of arrangement. https://bloom.bg/3UFsnol

·     Murphy Oil (MUR) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Truist.

·     EQT Corporation (EQT) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Truist.

 

Financials

·     Credit Suisse (CS) and UBS must freeze any job cuts planned as part of their emergency merger, the Swiss Bank Employees’ Association (SBPV) said on Tuesday.

·     Nasdaq Inc. (NDAQ) downgraded to equal weight from overweight at Morgan Stanley, while upgraded Virtu Financial (VIRT) to equal weight from underweight, saying that it prefers more defensive and transactional exchanges due to the uncertain macroeconomic outlook.

·     Billionaire investor Warren Buffett told Japan’s Nikkei newspaper that he has increased his exposure to Japanese stocks, and could add more to this current holding, ahead of a series of visits with business leaders later this week.

·     Diversified Healthcare Trust (DHC) announced a definitive merger agreement with Office Properties Income Trust (OPI). Pursuant to the deal, OPI will acquire all the outstanding common shares of DHC in an all-share transaction. DHC shareholders will receive 0.147 Shares of OPI common stock for each share of DHC stock, which represents an implied value of $1.70 per DHC common share https://bit.ly/3KRk0mj

 

Healthcare

·     Tilray (TLRY) Q3 revs $145.6M vs. est. $149.9Ml Q3 EPS loss (-$1.90) vs. est. loss (-$0.05); Tilray will acquire all outstanding shares of HEXO at an implied purchase price of $1.25/share.

·     CENTOGENE (CNTG) extends strategic partnership with Takeda (TAK) to continue providing access to genetic testing for patients with lysosomal storage disorders.

·     Zimmer Biomet (ZBH) upgraded to Outperform from In Line at Evercore ISI.

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Adtran (ADTN) guides prelim Q1 revenue to $322M-$326M, below prior $355M-$375M vs. consensus $364.11M and reports preliminary Q1 operating margin down 1% to up 2.5%; said revenue is expected to fall short of guidance due to customer inventory corrections.

·     Akamai (AKAM) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper.