Early Look

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

U.S. futures pointing to a slightly lower open for the second straight day after U.S. stocks were essentially unchanged at the close of a choppy session on Monday, with a solar eclipse offering distraction ahead of crucial inflation data and the kick-off of first-quarter earnings season starting Friday. All three major U.S. stock indexes were held in check on Monday as Treasury yields hit their highest levels since November following Friday’s blowout employment report. Yields have pared recent gains this morning moving back below 4.4%, while gold prices reach yet another all-time high above $2,375 an ounce. Mixed messages from Fed officials again last night as Fed’s Kashkari says can’t stop short on inflation fight, it’s around 3%, need to get to 2%, while the Fed’s Bullard says three interest rate cuts this year is base case. More sideways trading anticipated after a lackluster session Monday as investors await the March Consumer Price Index (CPI) report tomorrow morning 4/10), which is expected to show a slight cooldown in monthly price growth and a nominal decrease in the annual core number, which excludes volatile food and energy items. Year-on-year headline CPI is expected to gain some heat, rising to 3.4% from 3.2% in February. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index jumped 426 points to 39,773, the Shanghai Index finished higher by one point to 3,048, and the Hang Seng Index gained 95 points to 16,8328. In Europe, the German DAX tumbled -152 points to 18,166, while the FTSE 100 is up a few points to 7,946.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -11.24 points, or 0.03%, to 38,892.80.
• The Nasdaq Composite edged higher 5.44 points, or 0.03%, to 16,253.95.
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 10.24 points, or 0.50% to 2,073.71.

• 7:45 AM ET                  ICSC Weekly Retail Sales
• 8:55 AM ET                  Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales
• 1:00 PM ET                   US Treasury to sell $56B in 3-year notes.
• 4:30 PM ET                   API Weekly Inventory Data

• Earnings After the Close: AEHR GREE PSMT SGH WDFC

• Goldman Sachs Private Company Software and Internet Conference, 4/8-/49, in San Francisco
• Needham 23rd Annual Healthcare Conference, 4/8-4/11 (virtual)
• TD Cowen Business Services Summit, 4/9-4/11, in Marina Del Rey
• China M2 Money Supply for March

• Fed’s Kashkari said last night in a speech that oil prices are creeping higher; the inflation rate is running around 3% and the Fed must get back down to 2%; says the bank cannot ‘stop short’ on the inflation fight; says the labor market is not ‘red hot’ like it was 12 months ago but it’s still tight.
• Former Fed President Bullard told Bloomberg last night that the base case for the Fed was three cuts, and that the first cut was justified now.
• In the UK the BRC reported a sizable uptick in retail sales last month, rising above inflation for the first time in two years, largely attributed to an early Easter which bolstered food spending. UK BRC same store sales rose 3.2% (prev. 1.0%), while total sales rose 3.5% (prev. 1.1%).
• UConn Huskies beats Purdue to win second straight NCAA Basketball Title.

• Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH) said new ship orders across all three brands are scheduled for delivery over a ten-year period, between 2026 and 2036.

• Coeur Mining, Inc. (CDE) provided an update on its newly expanded Rochester silver and gold mine in Nevada, saying since the new three-stage crushing circuit and truck load-out facility was completed on March 7, the average throughput of nearly 70,000 tons per day and has exceeded 88,000 tons per day.
• Maxeon Solar (MAXN) guides prelim Q4 revs $229 vs. consensus $236.8M saying decision to ramp down all Maxeon 6 capacity faster than expected, resulting in higher than initially planned restructuring costs in Q4; sees Q1 revs about $186M below consensus $241.5M.
• Methode Electronics (MEI) announced that its chief financial officer is retiring from the company in July.
• U.S. Steel (X) upgraded to Outperform from Peer Perform at Wolfe Research and the firm downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) to Underperform from Peer Perform.

• First Horizon (FHN) upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital.
• HSBC Holdings (HSBC) is selling its Argentina business to Grupo Financiero Galicia, the country’s largest private financial group, for $550 million, and said will take a $1 billion hit from the divestment in the first quarter.

• BlackBerry (BB) announced a collaboration with AMD (AMD) designed to revolutionize next-generation robotic systems by enabling new levels of low latency and jitter, and repeatable determinism.
• Iqvia (IQV) and Salesforce (CRM) announced an expanded global strategic partnership to accelerate the development of Salesforce’s Life Sciences Cloud, a next-generation customer engagement platform for the global life sciences industry.