Early Look

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	38.00	0.10%	38,744
S&P 500	11.25	0.23%	5,123
Nasdaq	76.50	0.43%	18,121

 

 

U.S. equity futures are higher ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s second day of testimony to lawmakers. Powell reiterated Wednesday that the central bank is in no rush to cut interest rates but that it will likely be appropriate to begin lowering borrowing costs “at some point this year. Stocks finished higher as the S&P 500 avoided its first 3-day losing streak since the first week of January but finished well off its best levels of the day amid late day volatility that sharp dips and spikes. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index tumbled -492 points to 39,598, the Shanghai Index fell -12 points to 3,027, and the Hang Seng Index dropped -208 points to 16,220. In Europe, the German DAX is down 5-points to 17,711, while the FTSE 100 is down -18 points to 7,660. The euro is little changed at 1.0897 vs. the dollar ahead of the European Central Bank decision later this morning. The Japanese yen is up 1.5% vs. the US dollar amid speculation surged that the Bank of Japan will move in March to raise interest rates according to reports Not only did the January wage data top expectations, but Japan’s biggest union federation has also demanded its biggest pay hike since 1993. A heavy day of economic data (see below) as well as some key earnings in tech (AVGO, MDB, MRVL) and retail (BJ, GPS, COST, BURL).

 

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 75.86 points, or 0.20%, to 38,661.05.
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 91.96 points, or 0.58%, to 16,031.54.
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 14.38 points, or 0.70% to 2,068.09.

• 8:30 AM ET                  Weekly Jobless Claims…est. 215K
• 8:30 AM ET                  Continuing Claims…est. 1.889M
• 8:30 AM ET                  Nonfarm Productivity for Q4…est. +0.6%
• 8:30 AM ET                  Unit Labor Costs for Q4…est. 3.1%
• 8:30 AM ET                  International Trade for January…est. (-$63.5B)
• 10:00 AM ET                Fed Chair Powell Testifies Before Congress (day 2)
• 10:30 AM ET                Weekly EIA Natural Gas Inventory Data
• 11:30 AM ET                Fed’s Mester Gives Speech on Economic Outlook
• 3:00 PM ET                   Consumer Credit for January

• Earnings After the Close: AKA AOUT ASLE AVGO BBAI COOK COST DOCU EOLS FNKO GEVO GPS GWRE HCI III IOT JYNY LMNR LOCO MDB MGNX MRVL NAPA NDLS NX PBPB PRCH RWAY SGHT SNPO SVV SWBI WLDN

• Goldman Sachs Annual Disruptive Technology Symposium, 3/6-3/7, in London
• Morgan Stanley Energy & Power Conference, 3/4-3/7 in New York

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	-0.71	78.42
Brent	-0.61	82.35
Gold	4.40	2,162.60
EUR/USD	-0.0005	1.0892
JPY/USD	-1.58	147.79
10-Year Note	-0.002	4.102%

 

• The bull-bear spread in the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) weekly survey was 29.9 vs 25.2 last week. Bulls rose to 51.7% from 46.5%. Neutrals fall to 26.5% from 32.2%, Bears rise to 21.8% from 21.3%.
• President Joe Biden will propose increasing the minimum tax rates paid by major US and multinational corporations to 21% and eliminating breaks for companies with high-paid executives in his election-year State of the Union address on Thursday night – Bloomberg.

• Honest Company (HNST) Q4 EPS $0.01 vs. est. loss (-$0.08); Q4 revenue $90.26M vs. est. $84.14M; sees FY24 revenue up low-to-mid single digits percent and FY 24 adj EBITDA low-single digit to mid-single digit millions range; included in rev outlook is a softer 1H24 vs. 2H24.
• Lulu’s Fashion (LVLU) Q4 EPS loss (-$0.18) vs. est. loss (-$0.10): Q4 revs fell -18% y/y to $74.96M vs. est. $73.4M; sees FY24 revenue $350M-$370M (est. $363.55M) and adjusted EBITDA $5M-$8M; says expanded gross margin in Q4 by 180 bps; Q4 AOV of $136 was an increase of 14% compared to $119 y/y.
• Victoria Secret (VSCO) announces new $250M buyback authorization; Q4 adj EPS $2.58 vs est. $2.47 on net sales $2.082B vs est. $2.086B, comps -6%; guides Q1 net sales -mid-single digits vs est. -2.3%and op Inc $10-35Mm vs est. $56.47Mm; sees FY net sales about $6.0B vs est. $6.176B and adj op Inc $250-275Mm vs est. $353.04Mm.

• Avangrid, Inc. (AGR) said the Unaffiliated Committee of its Board of Directors received a non-binding proposal from Iberdrola, to acquire all the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of Avangrid not owned for $34.25 in cash per share. Iberdrola, S.A. owns approximately 81.6% of Avangrid’s shares.
• Crescent Energy (CRGY) 12M share Spot Secondary priced at $10.50.
• Intrepid Potash (IPI) Q4 adj EPS ($0.41) vs est. ($0.53), adj EBITDA $7.1Mm vs est. $3.805Mm on sales $56.7Mm vs es.t $43.57Mm.
• Exxon Mobil (XOM) has filed for arbitration to protect what it says is its right to preempt Chevron’s (CVX) bid for a stake in an oil project off Guyana, escalating a dispute that could sink Chevron’s $53B deal for Hess (HES) – WSJ.
• Kodiak Gas Services (KGS) Q4 EPS $0.28 vs. est. $0.29; Q4 revs $226.0M vs. est. $224.52M; initiated standalone 2024 adjusted ebitda guidance of $460M-$490M.
• Mistras (MG) Q4 EPS $0.10 vs. est. $0.15; Q4 revs $182.1M vs. est. $174.28M; Q4 adj Ebitda $19.2M compared to $15.7M in the prior year, up 22.0%; backs FY24 revenue $725M-$750M vs. est. $723.9M, FY24 adjusted EBITDA $84M-$89M and FY24 free cash flow $34M-$38M.

• CompoSecure (CMPO) Q4 adj EPS $0.26 vs est. $0.23, adj EBITDA $37Mm vs est. $34.96Mm on sales $99.9Mm vs est. $96.49Mm; sees FY sales $408-428Mm vs est. $417.71Mm and adj EBITDA $147-157Mm vs est. $152.54Mm.

• Cigna Group (CI) has struck deals with obesity drug makers Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NVO) that aim to widen coverage by limiting how much employer-sponsored health plans must pay for the medicines. CI raises long-term annual adj. EPS growth target to 10%-14%.
• Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) Q4 adj EPS ($0.77) vs est. ($0.19), adj EBITDA $3.4Mm on revs $276.6Mm vs est. $293.53Mm; guides Q1 revs $200-250Mm vs. est. $185.4Mm, sees FY revs $900Mm – 1.1B vs est. $1.184B, adj EBITDA $50-100Mm and adj net in ($130)Mm – ($80)Mm.
• Novo Nordisk (NVO) said its experimental drug amycretin, which combines a GLP-1 medicine like its blockbuster Wegovy with another in a daily pill, helped patients in an early-stage test shed 13% of their weight in 12 weeks.
• Regenxbio (RGNX) 4.57M share Spot Secondary priced at $23.00.
• Zymeworks (ZYME) Q4 revs $16.926Mm vs est. $15.45Mm and adj EPS ($0.16) vs est. ($0.43); says cash resources along with certain anticipated regulatory milestone payments provide projected cash runway into 2H27.

• OneSpan (OSPN) Q4 adj EBITDA $11.2Mm vs est. $3.176 on revs $62.9Mm vs est. $58.26Mm; guides FY revs $238-246Mm vs est. $237.91Mm, ARR $160-168Mm and adj EBITDA $47-52Mm vs est. $49.4Mm.
• Yext Inc. (YEXT) Q4 adj EPS $0.10 vs. est. $0.07; Q4 revs $101.1M vs. est. $100.62M; sees Q1 adj EPS $0.04-$0.05 on revs $96M-$96.5M, vs. consensus $0.07/$99.78M; sees FY25 adj EPS $0.30-$0.31 vs. est. $0.28 and revs $400M-$402M vs. consensus $408.67M.

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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.