Morning Preview: January 10, 2024

Early Look

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Futures

Up/Down

%

Last

Dow

-43.00

0.11%

37,720

S&P 500

0.00

0.00%

4,792

Nasdaq

27.00

0.16%

16,857

 

 

U.S. futures are looking flat, with the S&P (Spuz) trading in the middle of its overnight range (4,804 high and 4,786 low), as market participants await fresh inflation data tomorrow morning in the form of December consumer prices (CPI) for the next clue to interest rates moves by the Fed. Optimism surrounding interest rate cuts had driven much of the rally towards the end of 2023 and continues to be the primary driving force again into 2024 with high expectations of rate cuts by the Fed as soon as March, especially with another tame CPI report tomorrow. Investors also await bank earnings this Friday from JPM, Citi, Wells, and others in the unofficial start of Q4 earnings season. The S&P 500 and Dow both lost ground and closed lower on Tuesday, pressured by a modest rise in Treasury yields, but strength in mega tech names NVDA, AMZN, AMD, GOOGL, softened the blow. Investors are bracing this week for more Treasury supply along with the CPI, PPI, and bank earnings. Most of the 11 major S&P sectors fell on Tuesday, with Energy leading to the downside. Stocks had rallied on Monday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 scoring their first daily percentage climbs of more than 1% since Dec. 21. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index jumped 678 points to 34,441, the Shanghai Index fell -15 points to 2,877, and the Hang Seng Index declined -92 points to 16,097. In Europe, the German DAX is down about -14 points to 16,675, while the FTSE 100 slips -25 points to 7,658.

 

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

  • The S&P 500 Index dipped -7.04 points, or 0.15%, to 4,756.50.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -157.85 points, or 0.42%, to 37,525.16.
  • The Nasdaq Composite gained 13.94 points, or 0.09%, to 14,857.71.
  • The Russell 2000 Index declined -20.97 points, or 1.05% to 1,968.03.

Economic Calendar for Today

  • 7:00 AM ET                  MBA Mortgage Applications Data
  • 10:00 AM ET                Wholesale Inventory M/M for November
  • 10:30 AM ET                Weekly DOE Inventory Data
  • 1:00 PM ET                   US Treasury to sell $37B in 10-year notes.
  • 3:15 PM ET                   Fed’s Williams Gives Speech on 2024 Economic Outlook

 

Earnings Calendar:

  • Earnings Before the Open: None
  • Earnings After the Close: RELL SGH WDFC

 

Other Key Events:

  • Bank America 2024 Software New Year Bus Tour, 1/8-1/10, in San Francisco, CA
  • Consumer Electronics Show (CES), 1/9-1/12, in Las Vegas, NV
  • ICR Conference, 1/8-1/10, in Orlando, FL
  • JP Morgan 42nd Annual Healthcare Conference, 1/7-1/11, in San Francisco, CA

 

 

Macro

Up/Down

Last

Nymex

0.17

72.41

Brent

0.02

77.61

Gold

6.40

2,039.40

EUR/USD

0.0012

1.0943

JPY/USD

0.61

145.08

10-Year Note

-0.021

3.996%

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

  • Amazon (AMZN) livestreaming site Twitch is poised to slash 35% of its staff, or about 500 workers – Bloomberg.
  • Home Depot (HD) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Wedbush.
  • Lennar (LEN) raises the annual dividend to $2.00 from $1.50 per share and increases its stock repurchase program by $5B.
  • PriceSmart (PSMT) Q1 adj EPS $1.24 vs est. $1.09 on revs $1.17B vs est. $1.158B; comps +8%.

Energy, Industrials and Materials

  • Natural gas for February delivery rose 13.4% at $3.378/MMBtu on Tuesday, a two-month high and has now rallied 47% from its December 13th low and traded green each day this year.
  • AZZ Inc. (AZZ) forecasts FY adj. EBITDA $315M to $335M, above prior forecast $300M to $325M and boosted its FY sales view to $1.45B to $1.55B, from prior $1.4B to $1.55B.
  • Boeing (BA) CEO Dave Calhoun acknowledged errors by the company as more than 170 jets remained grounded for a fourth day, telling staff the company would ensure an accident like the mid-air Alaska Airlines panel blowout "can never happen again."
  • WF-40 (WDFC) Q1 EPS $1.28 vs est. $1.05 on sales $140.4Mm vs est. $134.37Mm; guides FY sales $570-600Mm vs est. $574.77Mm, EPS $4.78-5.15 vs est. $5.09.

Financials

  • The SEC will decide on Wednesday whether to approve an application from asset managers to launch a spot bitcoin ETF after a fake post on the agency’s social media account saying they had been approved sparked confusion on Tuesday; BTC prices are flattish around $45,450.
  • Ault Alliance (AULT) announced that the Company has decided that it will start holding up to 20% and minimum of 5% of the Bitcoin it mines on the Company’s balance sheet.
  • BlackRock (BLK) and Ark Investments said they were lowering the fees on their proposed spot bitcoin exchange traded funds. BlackRock would charge 0.25%, compared with the 0.30% fee set earlier. Ark Investments and 21Shares lowered their fee to 0.21% from 0.25% earlier.
  • Cohen & Steers, Inc. (CNS) preliminary assets under management of $83.1B as of December 31, 2023, an increase of $4.4B from assets under management at November 30, 2023. The increase was due to net inflows of $61M and market appreciation of $4.8B, partially offset by distributions of $408M.
  • Netstreit (NTST) 9.6M share Spot Secondary priced at $18.00.
  • UWM Holdings (UWMC) downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette.

Healthcare

  • Coherus Biosciences (CHRS) terminates its TIGIT Program collaboration with Junshi Biosciences; despite termination with Junshi biosciences on TIGI, said to continue to support patients in its current studies involving CHS-006; said collaboration agreement remains effective & active for all other purposes.
  • Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) preliminary Q4 revenue $1.93B vs. est. $1.87B and said placed 415 da Vinci surgical systems in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared with 369 systems in the fourth quarter of 2022; says Covid has had int he past and could have in the future an adverse impact on the company’s procedural volumes; expects worldwide da VINCI procedures to increase approx 13-16% in 2024.

Technology, Media & Telecom

  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) confirmed WSJ reports the prior day by agreeing to acquire Juniper Networks (JNPR) in an all-cash transaction for $40.00 per share, representing an equity value of approximately $14B (more than the $13B offer the WSJ reported Tuesday).
  • Aehr Systems (AEHR) Q2 adj EPS $0.23 vs est. $0.19 on sales $21.431Mm vs est. $20.89Mm; guides FY revs $75-85Mm vs est. $103.13Mm and GAAP net income 20-25% of revs.
  • ChipMOS (IMOS) reported Q4 revenue that increased 22.2% from the fourth quarter of 2022 to $187M, representing an increase of 2.6% from the third quarter of 2023.
  • E2open Parent (ETWO) Q3 adj EPS $0.04 vs est. $0.04 on revs $157.5Mm vs est. $154.26Mm, adj EBITDA $55.4Mm vs est. $51.96Mm; sees Q4 GAAP subscription revs $131-134Mm; sees FY adj EBITDA $215-220Mm vs est. $216.95Mm.
  • Smart Global (SGH) Q1 EPS $0.24 and sales fell -41% y/y to $274.2M; forecasts Q2 net sales $260M to $310M and EPS $0.15-$0.35; board of directors approved a $75 mln share repurchase authorization.
  • Taiwan Semi (TSM) said Q4 revs came in at T$625.5 billion ($20.10 billion) vs. $19.93B y/y; and topped its prior view of a range of between $18.8-19.6B; for December alone, TSMC reported that revenue fell 8.4% year-on-year to T$176.3 billion, which was down 14.4% compared with the previous month.

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Market commentary provided by Hammerstone Markets, Inc, a firm separate from and not affiliated with Regal Securities. Regal Securities has not participated in the creation of the content, and does not explicitly or implicitly endorse the content.