Early Look

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	47.00	0.14%	34,211
S&P 500	-0.25	0.01%	4,280
Nasdaq	-11.50	0.08%	14,501

 

 

Stocks are looking mixed as concerns over a highly infectious Covid-19 strain overseas spurred caution among investors, partially offset by strength in banks after several (MS, GS, WFC, BAC) announced stock buybacks or dividends overnight following the recent Fed stress test results. Stocks finished mixed on Monday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Russell 2000 slip behind weakness in energy and industrials while the S&P 500 and the tech heavy Nasdaq 100 outperformed, each setting new all-time highs. Energy companies led the losses with oil sliding on expectations of increased supply from OPEC+ producers just as a Covid-19 variant threatens the demand recovery. Meanwhile, cruise operators and airlines sank as governments from Europe to Asia imposed new limits on travel from Britain, where infections spiked to the highest daily rate since January. Treasuries gained due in part to month-end, quarter-end and half-year-end demand from pensions and balanced funds. Bitcoin climbed after last week’s volatility, rebounding after hitting key technical levels this weekend (and has extended those gains today as Bitcoin surpasses the $35K level (after dipping to around 30K lows this weekend), while Ethereum extends its gains above $2,150. All eyes on the nonfarm payroll report coming up later this week, especially that 3-4 million people will lose their jobless benefits over a 6-week period – which could bode well for jobs hiring over the next few months. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index fell -235 points to 28,812, the Shanghai Index dropped -33 points to 3,573, and the Hang Seng Index declined -274 points to 28,994. In Europe, the German DAX is up over 130 points to 15,690, while the FTSE 100 edges higher about 10 points to 7,085. Investors continue to weigh whether an economic recovery might be stalled by a worrying rise of cases of the highly transmissible coronavirus Delta variant that has impacted travel restrictions in parts of Europe.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index gained 9.91 points, or 0.23%, to 4,290.61

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -150.57 points, or 0.44%, to 34,283.27

·     The Nasdaq Composite spiked 140.12 points, or 0.98%, to 14,500.51

·     The Russell 2000 Index declined -12.06 points, or 0.52% to 2,322.34

 

Events Calendar for Today

·     7:45 AM ET         ICSC Weekly Retail Sales

·     8:55 AM ET         Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales

·     9:00 AM ET         Monthly Home Prices YoY for April

·     9:00 AM ET         CaseShiller 20 city Index MoM for April

·     10:00 AM ET      Consumer Confidence for June

·     4:30 PM ET         API Weekly Inventory Data

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: EPAC, FDS

·     Earnings After the Close: AVAV, BNED, CDMO, LMPX, POWW, PYYX

 

Other Key Events:

·     American Diabetes Association Scientific Session of the ADA (virtual), 6/25-6/29

·     Raymond James Company Meetings at Mobile World Congress (virtual), 6/28-7/1

·     Piper Student Housing REIT Forum (virtual), 6/29

·     China NBS Manufacturing PMI

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	-0.42	72.49
Brent	-0.27	74.41
Gold	-9.00	1,769.50
EUR/USD	-0.0021	1.1904
JPY/USD	-0.05	110.58
10-Year Note	+0.005	1.483%

 

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Herman Miller (MLHR) Q4 adj EPS 56c vs. est. 39c; Q4 revs $621.5M vs. est. $583.04M; Q4 gross margin 36% vs. 34.9% a year ago; sees Q1 adj EPS 52c-58c vs. est. 62c; sees Q1 revs $640M-$670M vs. est. $623.67M

·     Playboy owner PLBY Group (PLBY) is acquiring Australian luxury lingerie retailer Honey Birdette for $333M

·     Luminar Technologies (LAZR) files for 9M shares of Class A stock offering by selling shareholders

 

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     Solar stocks continue to outperform the broader markets with shares of the Invesco Solar ETF (TAN +6.4%) surging to its highest level since late April and trimming its YTD loss to 13.5%, while other strong gainers include JKS +22.2%, CSIQ +12.2%, SPWR +11.5%, MAXN +11.3%, NOVA +8.5%, SEDG +6.2%, FSLR +5.8%, RUN +5.8%. Sector jumps as worries have eased over the Biden administration’s plan to ban some shipments of solar materials made in China’s Xinjiang region, with Daqo New Energy (DQ +13.3%) wiping out nearly two weeks’ worth of losses. Solar shares also have been helped recently by growing talk of legislation that would offer tax credits for each stage of the solar manufacturing supply chain, including polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules.

·     Hollysys Automation Technologies (HOLI) rises after CPE Funds Management, Ace Lead Profits and the company’s former CEO started solicitation of consents from shareholders to acquire the company by offering $17.10 a share

·     United Airlines (UAL) announces its largest-ever aircraft order and the biggest by a single carrier in a decade, for 270 narrow-body jetliners from Boeing (BA) and Airbus (EADSY) worth more than $30B; order includes 200 737 MAX jets, including 150 for the largest member of the family the 737-10

·     Textron (TXT) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

·     XPO Logistics (XPO) 5M share Secondary priced at $138.00

 

Financials

·     Bank of America Corp. (BAC) said it would increase its dividend to $0.21 a share from $0.18 (had announced an open-ended $25 billion buyback plan in April)

·     Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) raised its dividend to $2.00 a share from $1.25 (no new buyback)

·     Citigroup Inc. (C) was the lone megabank not to increase its dividend, keeping it unchanged at 51c, but left the door open for an increase and didn’t announce a new buyback plan

·     JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) said it would lift its dividend to $1 a share from 90c (had announced in December an open-ended $30B share repurchase plan that started in Q1)

·     PNC Financial Services (PNC) plans to recommend that its board boosts its quarterly cash dividend by 9% to $1.25 in Q3 2021 and plans to reinstate its share repurchase program for up to $2.9B

·     Morgan Stanley (MS) announces 100% increase of its quarterly dividend from $0.35 to $0.70 per share and authorization of the repurchase of up to $12 billion of common stock over the next 12 months

·     State Street Corporation (STT) announces preliminary stress capital buffer requirement, intention to increase its quarterly common stock dividend 10% to $0.57 per share

·     Wells Fargo (WFC) doubled its dividend to $0.20 from $0.10 (but still down from $0.51 before the pandemic and said it expects to buy back $18 billion of stock over the next four quarters

 

Healthcare

·     Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) said it completed its submission of a new drug application to the U.S. FDA for lenacapavir, an investigational treatment for certain patients with HIV-1

·     Intellia Therapeutics Inc. (NTLA) has commenced an underwritten public offering of $400 mln of shares of its common stock

·     Kymera Therapeutics Inc. (KYMR) files for offering 4 mln shares of common stock

·     Celcuity (CELC) 2.25M share Spot Secondary priced at $25.00

·     Zentalis (ZNTL) 3.1M share Spot Secondary priced at $48.50

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Carvana (CVNA) downgraded to neutral from Overweight

·     CoreLogic (CLGX) has extended its collaboration with Xceedance, a provider of insurance consulting, managed services and technology

·     LiveXLive Media, Inc. (LIVX) Q4 revs $65.2M vs. est. $20.1M; Q4 EPS loss (-$0.20) vs. est. loss (-$0.10); raises guidance for FY22 revs to $110M-$120M from prior $107M-$115M and ups 2022 adjusted operating income of $6M-$12M from prior view of $5M-$10M’; said paid subscribers as of march 31, 2021 increased 27% to 1,073,000