Morning Preview: September 22, 2021

Early Look

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Futures

Up/Down

%

Last

Dow

220.00

0.65%

34,018

S&P 500

26.25

0.61%

4,369

Nasdaq

57.50

0.38%

15,081

 

 

Stocks looking to bounce, with U.S. futures sharply higher after last night as reports indicated that troubled Chinese property developer Evergrande’s main unit Hengda Real Estate Group co says will make coupon payment for onshore bond due Sept. 23rd. That buys Evergrande some time, although debt restructuring is still likely. Also, the House passed a bill Tuesday that would temporarily fund the government and suspend the debt limit. The legislation could fail in the Senate, as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Republicans will vote against raising the debt ceiling. The government would shut down on Oct. 1 and the U.S. would be unable to pay its bills sometime in October if Congress does not pass legislation addressing both issues. Bond markets unphased by the news with the 10-year stuck around 1.33%. Meanwhile, the FOMC began its 2-day meeting yesterday and announces its policy decision and releases its economic projections today at 14 2:00 PM ET and Chairman Powell follows with the press conference at 2:30 ET. In corporate news, shares of transportation giant Fed-Ex (FDX) slides over 5% after cutting its profit outlook on higher costs and stalled growth in shipments, while Adobe (ADBE) slips after 3Q update disappointed the high expectations of investors. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index reopened, falling -200 points to 29,639, the Shanghai Index rises 14 points to 3,629 and the Hang Seng Index gains 122 points to 24,221. In Europe, the German DAX is up 110 points to 15,450, while the FTSE 100 rises over 80 points to 7,070. Bitcoin prices recover, above $42,000 after briefly dropping below $40K last night. Markets have been put on edge this week by trouble in the Chinese property market, especially the precarious situation of its largest builder of homes, Evergrande. The company is a massive issuer of debt both inside China and offshore to international investors.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index slipped -3.58 points, or 0.08%, to 4,354.15

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost -47.93 points, or 0.14    %, to 33,922.54

·     The Nasdaq Composite gained 32.49 points, or 0.22%, to 14,746.40

·     The Russell 2000 Index advanced 3.98 points, or 0.18% to 2,186.18

 

Economic Calendar: 

·     7:00 AM ET                 MBA Mortgage Applications Data

·     10:00 AM ET               Existing Home Sales MoM for August

·     10:30 AM ET               Weekly DOE Inventory Data

·     2:00 PM ET                 FOMC Rate Decision (no change to rate or asset taper expected)

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: GIS

·     Earnings After the Close: FUL, KBH, SCS

 

Other Key Events:

·     Credit Suisse 2021 Consumer Retail Conference (virtual), 9/21-9/22

·     Credit Suisse 7th Annual Oil & Gas Non-Bus Tour (virtual), 9/21-9/23

·     DA Davidson Diversified Industrials & Services Conference (virtual), 9/22-9/23

·     Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Communacopia Conference (virtual), 9/21-9/23

·     JPMorgan 12th Annual U.S. All Stars Conference (virtual), 9/21-9/23

·     Oppenheimer Fall Healthcare Life Sciences & MedTech Summit (virtual), 9/20-9/23

·     Roth Capital 8th Annual Solar Symposium (virtual), 9/20-9/23

·     Sidoti Fall Small Cap Conference (virtual), 9/22-9/23

·     Stephen’s 11th Annual Bank Forum, in Little Rock, AR, 9/20-9/22

·     Wells Fargo 4th Annual Consumer Conference (virtual), 9/22-9/23

 

 

Macro

Up/Down

Last

Nymex

1.18

71.67

Brent

1.09

75.45

Gold

-3.20

1,775.00

EUR/USD

0.0005

1.1728

JPY/USD

0.32

109.53

10-Year Note

+0.009

1.333%

 

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     StitchFix (SFIX) 4Q EPS $0.19 vs est. ($0.13) on revs $571.2Mm vs est. $547.9Mm, qtrly active clients 4.2Mm +18%; guides 1Q net revs $560-575Mm vs est. $588Mm; sees FY22 net revs at least +15% yr/yr vs est. +18%

·     Freshworks (FRSH) 28.5M share IPO priced at $36.00

·     Hyatt Hotels (H) announced a public offering of 7M shares of common stock

·     Shares in Entain (GMVHY) rise after the owner of bookmakers Bwin, Coral and Ladbrokes said it was considering an improved 2800p takeover bid from U.S. rival DraftKings, having rejected an earlier 2500p offer from the latter.

 

Energy, Industrials & Materials

·     FedEx (FDX) 1Q adj EPS $4.37 vs est. $4.91 on revs $22B vs est. $21.9B, adj op margin 6.8% vs est. 8.5%; guides FY adj EPS $19.75-21.00 vs est. $$21.10; sees CAPEX $7.2B

·     The American Petroleum Institute (API) showed a draw of 6.11M barrels of oil for the week ending September 17; showed a draw of 432K barrels, distillate inventories show a draw of 2.72M barrels and Cushing inventories show a draw of 1.75M barrels

·     a.k.a. Brands Holding (AKA) 10M share IPO priced at $11.00

·     Core & Main (CNM) announced its addition to the Russell 1000 index

·     BHP’s Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile is granted another 90 days to obtain environmental approval for its operational continuity plan, the country’s First Environmental Court says, agreeing to suspend a ban on pumping water from an aquifer during the period

 

Financials

·     LPL Financial (LPLA) reported total advisory and brokerage assets at end of Aug about $1.16 trillion, up 2.4% vs end of July 2021

·     Armada Hoffler Properties (AHH) was started at a Buy with a $15 price target at Stifel who says it is attractively priced when accounting for its moderate growth and average leverage

·     JPMorgan Chase (JPM) raised its quarterly dividend to $1.00 from $0.90, payable October 31 to shareholders of record on October 6

·     Coinbase (COIN) intends to publicly roll out a proposal for a regulatory framework to federal officials in the coming days, CoinDesk reported last night. The report follows news from last week when Coinbase said it was cancelling plans for its “Lend” platform after the Securities and Exchange Commission threatened to sue the company over the product

·     VersaBank (VBNK) 5.5M share IPO priced at $10.00

 

Healthcare

·     The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill enabling banks to do business with cannabis companies without fear of penalty, Bloomberg reports. The so-called SAFE Banking Act would be a boon for marijuana companies (watch shares of TLRY, CGC, GTBIF, CURLF, TCNNF)

·     Biogen (BIIB) launch of Aduhelm having slower than projected sales has led the company to consider cost-cutting measures including layoffs, stat news reports, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter. Just over 100 patients infused w/ Aduhelm as of sept. 11: STAT News

·     bluebird bio (BLUE) submitted a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the FDA for betibeglogene autotemcel (beti-cel) gene therapy for patients with β-thalassemia who require regular red blood cell transfusions

·     Incyte (INCY) said the FDA approved its co’s Opzelura cream for treating eczema with boxed warnings, flagging risks of serious infections, increased risk of heart attack, stroke, or cardiac death. The drug belongs to a class of treatments known as JAK inhibitors, which have been under the FDA’s scrutiny over safety risks

·     Amwell (AMWL) announced the appointment of Robert Shepardson to the position of CFO and Head of M&A. Shepardson will join the company as CFO on October 31st and will work together during a transition period through the end of 2021 with current CFO Keith W. Anderson

·     Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) said that a large, global study showed its Covid-19 vaccine is more effective when given as a two-dose regimen, and that other data indicate the efficacy of the vaccine does not wane. – STAT News

·     Rhythm Pharmaceuticals (RYTM) said that Britain’s Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has granted marketing authorization to Imcivree (setmelanotide) for the treatment of obesity and the control of hunger associated with genetically confirmed loss-of-function biallelic pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC)

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Adobe (ADBE) 3Q adj EPS $3.11 vs est. $3.01 on revs $3.94B vs est. $3.89B, qtrly digital media annualized recurring revs $11.67B; guides 4Q adj EPS $3.18 vs est. $3.08

·     Coherent (COHR) was downgraded to Neutral with a $273 price target from Positive at Susquehanna

·     J2 Global board (JCOM) announced that its board approved its previously announced separation into two independent publicly traded companies – J2 Global, Inc., which will be known as Ziff Davis, Inc. after the separation

·     Liberty Global (LBTYA) is selling its Poland operations to iliad S.A.’s Polish mobile subsidiary Play for PLN7B ($1.8B) subject to customary debt and working capital adjustments.

·     Marin Software (MRIN) said it entered into a Revenue Share Agreement with Google LLC (GOOGL) for the Company to develop its enterprise tech platform and software products. The Agreement is effective as of October 1, 2021.

·     Toast (TOST) 21.74M share IPO priced at $40.00

·     Warner Music Group (WMG) announced a sale of 2.34M shares of common stock by affiliates of access industries and the company will not receive any proceeds from the offering

·     Ambarella (AMBA) upgraded to Overweight from Sector Weight at KeyBanc

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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.