Early Look

Monday, May 6, 2024

US equity futures are looking to extend gains on Monday as investors awaited comments from several Federal Reserve officials and more earnings that could provide more clues on the likely timing of interest-rate cuts. Last week, the S&P 500 gained 0.55%, the Nasdaq climbed 1.43%, and the Dow climbed 1.14% with most of the gains coming on Thursday and Friday as markets rebounded. Trading volumes are lower than average after UK and Japanese markets shut for a holiday. Treasury yields look lower, while gold, oil, Bitcoin prices are looking higher to start the trading week. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index remained closed for holiday the Shanghai Index rose 35 points to 3,140, and the Hang Seng Index gained 102 points to 18,578. In Europe, the German DAX is up 165 points to 18,167, while the FTSE 100 is closed for holiday. After stumbling below $58K mid last week, Bitcoin prices have since sharply rebounded, rising 3% this morning at $64,750, lifting shares of COIN, MSTR and other crypto related names. Note roughly 80% of the S&P 500 has reported coming into this week, with a large chunk of the remaining reporting this week. After the FOMC kept rates unchanged (as expected) last week, attention turns to several central banks in Europe and Emerging markets with the Bank of England (BoE) on Thursday as the debate is raging over whether they will/won’t signal a plausible start to the easing cycle as soon as June. Other central banks in cation include: The RBA is expected to keep the cash rate target steady at 4.35% at its May 7 meeting; The Riksbank meets Wednesday 8 May; and Brazil central bank on Wednesday the 8th, Mexico central bank on Thursday the 9th along with Poland and Peru bank meetings. Overall a quiet week of economic data in the U.S.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 450.02 points, or 1.18%, to 38,675.68.
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 315.37 points, or 1.99%, to 16,156.33.
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 19.61 points, or 0.97% to 2,035.72.

• 12:50 PM ET                Fed’s Barkin Speaks on Economic Outlook
• 1:00 PM ET                   Fed’s Williams Participates in Fireside Chat
• 2:00 PM ET                   Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices

• Earnings After the Close: AAN ACM ADTN ADUS AL ALTO AMBC APLE ASRT AXON BODI BRBR BSM BWXT BYON CBT CMTG COHU COTY CPS CVGI DOOR ENTA EVER FGEN FIS FMC GOOD GT HIMS HSII IFF JELD JJSF LCID LINC LITE MTTR MWA NCMI NE NNBR O OTTR PARR PAY PLTR PLYA PRA PRAA PRI REI RKLB RRX SAFE SAR SPG SYM TALO TBI TCMD TDC TDUP TVTX VAC VNO VRNS VRTX WMB ZETA

• Oppenheimer 19th Annual Industrial Growth Conference, 5/6-5/8

• Freshpet (FRPT) Q1 EPS $0.37 vs. est. loss (-$0.23); Q1 revs $223.8M vs. est. $216.42M; forecasts FY adj. EBITDA at least $120M, forecast $100M to $110M; Q1 ADJ gross margin 45.3% vs. 38.5% y/y, vs. est. 40.3%.
• Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) filed a Form 8K noting on April 29, 2024, company began employee notification process for an additional global workforce reduction plan. Total costs for these actions were $23 million, of which we incurred $14 million in employee termination costs and $9 million in other associated costs within the first quarter.
• Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding Ltd., the high-end electric car brand under Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., is seeking to raise as much as $367.5 million in a US initial public offering. The EV maker said in a filing Friday that it plans to market 17.5 million American depositary shares for $18 to $21 apiece.
• Meritage Homes starts (MTH) said it is offering $500m of convertible senior notes due 2028.

• Saudi Arabia raised the price of its flagship crude to Asia for a third consecutive month, as the kingdom tries to tighten the oil market to prevent a global surplus.

• CNO Financial (CNO) raises the quarterly dividend to $0.16 from $0.15 per share.
• ManpowerGroup (MAN) boosted its semi-annual dividend by 4.8% to $1.54 from $1.47 per share.
• Marathon Digital (MARA) to replace Aaon (AAON) in S&P 600 on 5/8; Aaon to replace Vistra in S&P 400 at open on 5/8.
• Nasdaq (NDAQ) files to sell 85.61M shares of common stock for holders.
• Steward Health files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, to get $75M from Medical Properties Trust (MPW) https://tinyurl.com/hvy6fyru

• Grifols (GRFS) said it has completed all domestic, overseas government approval procedures for selling 20% stake in Shanghai RAAS to Haier; says it expects the deal to be finalized by June.
• Integra LifeSciences (IART) Q1 adj EPS $0.55 was in-line with consensus on revs $368.9M vs. est. $361.96M; lowers FY24 adj EPS view to $3.01-$3.11 from $3.15-$3.25 and boosts FY24 revenue view to $1.672B-$1.687B from $1.603B-$1.618B.
• Novavax (NVAX) shares active after Hedge fund Shah Capital says it is urging shareholders to vote against election of three directors on the board of NVAX; Shah Capital intends to vote against the election of the board members; Shah Capital says it currently owns about 7.5% of co’s outstanding shares.

• Elbit Systems (ESLT) gets an initial $37M contract to supply protection systems to General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems for upgrades to US Army infantry vehicles.

• Adobe Inc. (ADBE) mentioned positively in Barron’s noting while shares of the company have fallen as investors bet artificial intelligence will erode the market for content creation software, some investors expect that Adobe’s own AI-powered tools for consumers and professional designers will eventually be worth the investment.
• Luminar Technologies Inc. (LAZR) said it will cut about 20% of jobs and sub-lease parts or all some facilities.
• Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. posted strong growth in April sales, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales; the company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc.’s smartphones, reported a 19% rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion ($15.8 billion), compared with revenue of NT$429.2 billion in April 2023.