Early Look

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	84.00	0.25%	33,885
S&P 500	10.25	0.24%	4,379
Nasdaq	44.50	0.29%	15,231

 

 

U.S. futures are looking higher as U.S. bond markets reopened Tuesday following the Columbus Day holiday, and the 10-year falling over 10-bps to 4.67% (overnight low around 4.62%) amid a rally in bonds to reflect the uncertainty in the war in Israel and Gaza. The conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas entered its fourth day, with at least 1,500 fatalities so far. Overnight, Israel struck the Gaza Strip and is now building a base to accommodate thousands of soldiers in preparation for the next phase of its retaliation. The lone earnings result today was in consumer staples with Pepsi (PEP) reporting a top and bottom-line beat, maintained its organic rev growth view and boosted its profit forecast for the year, giving a boost to beverage stocks. Major U.S. stock indexes overturned earlier losses on Monday to end higher, continuing an impressive streak despite a spike in oil prices. With yesterday’s market reversal and higher close, the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) has now been positive 15 weeks in a row on the first trading day of the week (9/5 was a Tuesday due to Labor Day) and has gone 203 trading days without a -2.5% or worse daily decline. The worst day this year was -2.41% in February. BITG noted last week it is extremely rare to get through a calendar year without a -2.5% NDX day (last seen ’13). In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index surged 751 points to 31,746, the Shanghai Index fell -21 points to 3,075, and the Hang Seng Index advanced 147 points to 17,664. In Europe, the German DAX jumped 267 points or 1.75% to 15,395, while the FTSE 100 is up 1.5% or 115 points to 7,609.

 

Economic Calendar for Today

·     6:00 AM ET                  NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for September

·     7:45 AM ET                  ICSC Weekly Retail Sales

·     8:55 AM ET                  Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales

·     9:00 AM ET                  Fed’s Perli Speaks at NABE

·     9:30 AM ET                  Fed’s Bostic Speaks on Outlook for US Economy

·     10:00 AM ET                Wholesale inventory M/M for August

·     1:00 PM ET                   US Treasury to sell $44B in 3-year notes.

·     1:00 PM ET                   Fed’s Waller Speaks at Monetary Policy Conference

·     3:00 PM ET                   Fed’s Kashkari Participates in Town Hall

·     4:30 PM ET                   API Weekly Inventory Data

·     6:00 PM ET                   Fed’s Daly Speaks at Chicago Council on Global Affairs

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: NEOG PEP

·     Earnings After the Close: AZZ ETWO PRST VOXX

 

Other Key Events:

·     G2EGaming Conference in Las Vegas, 10/10-10/11

·     Goldman Sachs EMEA FinTech Conference 10/10, in London

 

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index climbed 27.16 points, or 0.63%, to 4,335.66.

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 197.07 points, or 0.59%, to 33,604.65.

·     The Nasdaq Composite gained 52.90 points, or 0.39%, to 13,484.24.

·     The Russell 2000 Index advanced 10.44 points, or 0.60% to 1,755.99.

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	-0.47	85.91
Brent	-0.47	87.68
Gold	6.60	1,870.90
EUR/USD	0.0032	1.0597
JPY/USD	0.37	148.87
10-Year Note	-0.108	4.674%

 

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Amazon (AMZN) Prime Day starts today, spanning Tuesday, Oct. 10 and Wednesday, Oct. 11.

·     PepsiCo (PEP) Q3 core EPS $2.25 tops consensus $2.15; Q3 revs rose 6.7% y/y to $23.45B vs. est. $23.4B; raises FY23 core EPS view to $7.54 from $7.47 (est. $7.49 and said continues to expect: 10% organic revenue growth; sees FY24 results towards upper end of long-term target ranges.

·     Rivian Automotive (RIVN) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

 

Energy, Industrials and Energy

·     Carpenter Technology (CRS) said it will increase base prices on specialty alloy portfolio with new orders placed after October 8, 2023; will increase base prices by an average of 7% to 12% on new, non-contract orders across majority of its premium products.

·     Air Lease (AL) announced an update on aircraft investments and sales activities occurring in the third quarter of 2023. As of September 30, 2023, ALC’s fleet was comprised of 448 owned aircraft and 79 managed aircraft, with 351 new aircraft on order from Boeing (BA) and Airbus (EADSY).

·     Smithfield Foods, says it’s closing a 107-person processing plant in Charlotte, North Carolina.

 

Financials

·     Brookdale Senior Living (BKD) said September 2023 weighted average occupancy increased from 77.6% in August 2023 to 78.2% in September 2023.

·     Cohen & Steers, Inc. (CNS) preliminary assets under management of $75.2 billion as of Sept 30, 2023, a decrease of $4.9 billion from assets under management at August 31, 2023.

·     Starwood Property (STWD) downgraded to Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette as remains cautious on the commercial mortgage real estate investment trusts due to higher interest rates.

 

Healthcare

·     Akero Therapeutics (AKRO) scheduled an investor conference on Tuesday at 8am New York time to share results from its “Symmetry” study.

·     Immunic Inc. (IMUX) said it received positive interim data from a Phase 2 trial for a treatment for progressive multiple sclerosis.

·     Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (LXRX) said its Inpefa heart failure drug received preferred formulary status with Express Scripts for Medicare patients starting Nov. 1.

·     Merck (MRK) announces pivotal keynote-671 trial meets dual primary endpoint of overall survival (OS) in resectable stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

·     NanoString technologies (NSTG) guides prelim Q3 revenue above $48M vs. est. $46.3M and said to eliminate about 110 positions; commenced implementing a reorganization of the Company’s R&D and manufacturing departments and activities.

·     Ventyx Biosciences (VTYX) reports VTX002, its treatment for ulcerative colitis, with a placebo-adjusted clinical remission rate of 17%, compared to its guidance for a “best-in-class” rate for clinical remission of 15% to 25%.

·     Xenon Pharmaceuticals (XENE) announced the medical journal JAMA Neurology has published peer-reviewed efficacy and safety results from the X-TOLE Phase 2b randomized clinical trial of XEN1101.

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Coherent (COHR) narrows Q1 revenue view to $1.05B-$1.055B from $1.0B-$1.1B (est. $1.07B) and said it has concluded a review of its silicon carbide business and will receive $1 billion in investments from Denso Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

·     Corning (GLW) was downgraded to Neutral from OW at JPMorgan and cut its price tgt to $36 from $43 led by its expectation that the magnitude of earnings upside in the near- to medium-term is likely more muted than previously anticipated as the broader “recovery” investors had been hoping for appears to be stretched out over a longer period.

·     Qorvo (QRVO) and Skyworks (SWKS) both downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup on China smartphone substitution risk post Huawei Mate 60 phone launch and maintain NVDA as #1 as investor focus moves to AI demand signals through the end of the year before B100 GPU launch in 1H24 as likely the next major stock catalyst.

·     Juniper Networks (JNPR) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.

·     PagerDuty (PD) announces proposed private placement of $350 million of convertible senior notes.

·     Unity (U) said that John Riccitiello will retire as President, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. James M. Whitehurst has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer, President, and a member of the Board.