Early Look

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	77.00	0.22%	34,346
S&P 500	11.25	0.28%	4,197
Nasdaq	40.50	0.30%	13,697

 

 

U.S. stocks are looking slightly higher, coming off a day where stocks slipped following disappointing economic data that showed declining consumer confidence amid higher inflation fears and weaker housing news. Gold prices extend gains, topping the $1.900 an ounce level as Treasury yields continue to slide with the 10-year down at 1.56%. The reopen trade names such as airlines, cruise lines, restaurants and retailers have led markets higher the last few days along with a bounce in technology stocks, while early 2021 winners such as industrials, materials and energy have pared gains. Federal Reserve official’s day-after-day keep telling markets that rising inflation will prove to be largely transitory, which has helped push the dollar and Treasury yields lower. Crypto assets wild ride continues, with prices of Bitcoin and the likes finding solid footing this morning (Bitcoin above 40K). In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rose 88 points to 28,642, the Shanghai Index rose 12 points to 3,593, and the Hang Seng Index jumped 255 points to 29,166. In Europe, the German DAX is down a few points to 15,455, while the FTSE 100 slipped about -10 points to 7,015.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index slipped -8.92 points, or 0.21%, to 4,188.13

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -81.52 points, or 0.24%, to 34,312.46

·     The Nasdaq Composite dipped -4.00 points, or 0.03%, to 13,657.17

·     The Russell 2000 Index declined -21.59 points, or 0.97% to 2,205.75

 

Events Calendar for Today

·     7:00 AM ET         MBA Mortgage Applications Data

·     10:30 AM ET      Weekly DOE Inventory Data

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: ANF, BBW, CMCO, DKS, PLAB, REX

·     Earnings After the Close: AEO, APPS, CHNG, CVCO, DBI, ELF, HEI, MOD, NVDA, NXGN, OKTA, OOMA, PSTG, QADB, QMCO, SNOW, UHAL, WDAY, WSM, ZUO

 

Other Key Events:

·     Goldman Sachs TechNet Conference Asia Pacific 2021 (virtual), 5/24-5/28

·     JPMorgan Global technology, Media & Communications Conference (virtual), 5/24-5/26

·     UBS Global Healthcare Conference (virtual), 5/24-5/26

·     Microsoft Build Conference (virtual), 5/25-5/27

·     New Relic Future Stack Conference (virtual), 5/25-5/27

·     Truist Securities 22nd Annual Financial Services Conference (virtual), 5/25-5/26

·     UBS Global Oil & Gas Conference (virtual), 5/25-5/27

·     Wolfe Research Transport & Industrials Conference (virtual), 5/25-5/27

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	-0.12	65.95
Brent	0.07	68.72
Gold	8.45	1,907.70
EUR/USD	-0.0014	1.2236
JPY/USD	0.12	108.90
10-Year Note	+0.002	1.567%

 

 

World News

·     Iran has banned the energy-intensive mining of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin for nearly 4 months, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, as the country faces major power blackouts in many cities.

·     Bank of Japan board member Hitoshi Suzuki said on Wednesday it was premature to consider an exit strategy for the central bank’s purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETF). However, he also said it was “undesirable” for the BOJ’s ETF holdings to keep increasing

·     New Zealand’s central bank held interest rates on Wednesday but hinted at a hike as early as September next year

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Nordstrom (JWN) Q1 EPS loss ($1.05) vs. est. loss ($0.57); company remains on pace to achieve annual sales, earnings and cash flow goals; Q1 sales rose 44% YoY to $2.92B vs. est. $2.9B; Q1 digital sales increased 28% YoY and represented 46% of total; reaffirmed revenue expectations for fiscal 2021; says balancing inventory levels with sales while managing receipt flows to mitigate potential supply chain disruptions

·     Red Robin (RRGB) Q1 adj EPS loss (30c) vs. est. loss ($1.16); Q1 revs $318.7M vs. est. $310.4M; Q1 comp sales rose 10% over the same period in 2020, and decreased 12.8% compared to the same period in 2019; at the end of Q1, 55% of Company-owned restaurants had positive comparable restaurant revenue compared to 2019; says all company-owned units have re-opened with varying levels of capacity

·     GSX Techedu (GOTU) posts Q1 loss of 5.20 yuan per share, compared to a profit of 0.76 yuan a year earlier; operating expenses triple from last year on increased marketing expenses and staff compensation

·     Skyline Champion (SKY) 4Q adj EPS $0.61 vs. est. $0.38 on revs $447.6Mm vs. est. $384.4Mm

·     Toll Brothers (TOL) 2Q EPS $1.01 vs. est. $0.80, home sales revs $1.84B, backlog $8.69B at qtr end; guides 3Q deliveries 2,675 units, sees FY deliveries 10,200-10,400 units; Q2 contracted homes were 3,487, up 85% from last year; Q2 backlog value was $8.69B, up 58% from last year; homes in backlog were 10,104, up 57% from last year

·     Urban Outfitters (URBN) 1Q EPS $0.54 vs. est. $0.17 on sales $927Mm vs. est. $900Mm, retail comps +10% (+44% at free people, +9% at urban, +1% at Anthro), total inventory +17%; says cancelled or delayed many orders during the qtr to reduce inventory levels; Gross margin rose 130 bps during the quarter to 32.4% of sales; sees Q2 revenue up low teens percentage range

 

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a weekly draw of 439K barrels of oil; showed a draw of 1.98M barrels, distillate inventories show a draw of 5.13M barrels and Cushing inventories show a draw of 1.15M barrels.

·     Crown Holdings (CCK), Ardagh Group (ARD), and Ball Corp. (BLL) all downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital following news that Can-Pack is building a second U.S. beverage can plant in Indiana; says Can-Pack’s “aggressive” expansion into the U.S., as well as a smaller entrance by Envases Universales raises fresh questions and suggests that heady expansion plans by the incumbents could be challenged

·     Columbus McKinnon (CMCO) Q4 adj EPS 50c vs. est. 51c; Q4 revs $186.2M vs. est. $182.4M; sees Q1 revs $212M-$217M vs. est. $203.76M

·     Heico (HEI) Q2 EPS $0.51 vs. est. $0.48; Q2 sales $466.7M vs. est. $443.1M; says cannot provide fiscal 2021 net sales and earnings guidance at this time; consolidated operating margin was 20.0% in the first six months of fiscal 2021, as compared to 22.5% in the first six months of fiscal 2020

·     ReneSola (SOL) Q1 EPS 1c vs. est. loss (2c); Q1 revs $22.8M vs. est. $19.04M; sees 2Q revs $19-22Mm and gr margin 36-39% vs. est. $23.2Mm and 31.5%; guides FY revs $90-100Mm vs. est. $98.5Mm, sees FY gr mgn over 25% vs. est. 27.8%

·     July corn prices dropped over 5% on Tuesday to $6.20 3/4 per bushel and has now fallen 15% since May 7, when the contract maxed at $7.35 1/4 per bushel. Prices were pressured after the Department of Agriculture reported that U.S. farmers had planted 90% of their corn crops, above the five-year average of 80%.

 

Financials

·     Intuit Corp. (INTU) 3Q adj EPS $6.07 vs. est. $6.47 on revs $4.2B vs. est. $4.4B; guides 4Q adj EPS $1.55-1.60 vs. est. $0.34; guides FY revs $9.362-9.4B vs. est. $9.06B

·     Bank of Montreal (BMO) reported a rise in Q2 profit amid higher revenue; bet income was C$1.3 billion in the quarter, compared with C$689 million a year ago; revenue rose to C$6.08 billion from C$5.26 billion; net efficiency ratio rose to 69.3% in the quarter, up from 64.4%, while return on equity rose to 10.2% from 5.5%.

·     Dynamics Special Purpose Corp (DYNS) 20M share IPO priced at $10.00

·     Flywire (FLYW) 10.44M share IPO priced at $24.00

 

Healthcare

·     Agilent (A) Q2 adj EPS 97c vs. est. 83c; Q2 revs $1.525B vs. est. $1.4B; sees Q3 adj EPS 97c-99c above est. 91c; sees Q3 revs $1.51B-$1.54B, also above est. $1.42B; raises FY21 adj EPS view to $4.09-$4.14 from $3.80-$3.90 (est. $3.90); boosts FY21 revs view to $6.15B-$6.21B (est. $5.94B)

·     Nabriva Therapeutics (NBRV) surges the co and Chinese partner Sinovant Sciences said Lefamulin met the main goal in treating Chinese adults with community acquired bacterial pneumonia in a late-stage study

·     Travere Therapeutics (TVTX) provides a regulatory update for its Sparsentan program in focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS); said based upon the feedback from the U.S. FDA, the company said it no longer expects to submit for accelerated approval for FSGS in the U.S. during the second half of 2021.

·     Larimar Therapeutics (LRMR) plunges over 40% after saying the FDA has placed a clinical hold on the CTI-1601 clinical program and that the company will not be closing a previously announced private placement financing

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Zscaler (ZS) 3Q adj EPS $0.15 vs. est. $0.07 on revs $176.4Mm vs. est. $163.7Mm; guides 4Q adj EPS $0.08-0.09 vs. est. $0.10, sees 4Q revs $185-187Mm vs. est. $173.9Mm; Q3 Calculated billings grows 71% YoY to $225.0M and deferred revenue grows 65% YoY to $495.4M

·     DoubleVerify Holdings (DV) Q1 EPS 4c on revs $67.6M; sees Q2 revs $72M-$74M (est. $69.5M) and FY21 revs $322M-$326M (est. $315.1M)

·     LiveRamp Holdings (RAMP) 4Q adj EPS $0.04 vs. est. $0.02 on revs $119.18Mm vs. est. $116.14Mm; guides 1Q revs $112Mm vs. est. $112.9Mm; sees FY22 revs of up to $509Mm vs. est. $507.7Mm

·     Elastic (ESTC) announced an expanded strategic partnership with Microsoft (MSFT)

·     Apple (AAPL) is expected to outpace Samsung (SSNLF) as the largest buyer of AMOLED displays for smartphones in 2021, as new iPhones for the year are likely to adopt flexible AMOLED screens, pushing up the penetration of such displays in iPhone devices to around 80% – Digitimes

·     Ambarella (AMBA), Lumentum (LITE) and ON Semiconductor (ON) announced two new joint reference designs that accelerate AIoT device deployment across verticals, building on the companies’ previous joint solution for contactless access systems

·     Photronics (PLAB) Q2 EPS 17c (in-line w ests) and Q2 revs $159.8M vs. est. $158.27M; sees Q3 EPS 19c-25c vs. est. 21c; sees Q3 revs $162M-$172M vs. est. $168.1M

·     Globant (GLOB) 1.2M share Secondary priced at $214.00