Early Look

Monday, April 29, 2024

Interesting start to the day as stock futures are pointing up, bonds are higher (yields lower), and gold is higher after a strong finish last Friday boosted the S&P 500 index to a weekly gain of 2.69%, the Nasdaq climbed 4.23%, and the Dow climbed 0.67% as markets overlooked another round of higher inflation readings (PCE) and focused on corporate earnings from GOOGL, MSFT on Friday to bolster chip stocks on AI growth optimism and software names on cloud software strength. This week brings about another round of big earnings, including Apple in tech and Amazon in retail, along with many others. This week carries the most volume of the S&P components earnings results of the quarter. The yen briefly tumbles past 160 per dollar for the first time since 1990, before rebounding sharply back below to the 155-handle (last 155.75, down -2.58) amid mounting intervention speculation. Japanese stock and bond markets remain closed for a public holiday. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index was closed, the Shanghai Index gained 24 points to 3,113, and the Hang Seng Index jumped 95 points to 17,746. In Europe, the German DAX is flat at 18,159, while the FTSE 100 rises 48 points to 8,187. West Texas Intermediate edged lower as the US pushed to broker a peace deal between Israel and Hamas that would reduce geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Outside of earnings, we get the FOMC meeting Wednesday, where no rate changes are expected, but all eyes on language towards inflation/the economy/and rate outlook.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 153.86 points, or 0.40%, to 38,239.66.
• The Nasdaq Composite surged 316.14 points, or 2.03%, to 15,927.90.
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 20.88 points, or 1.05% to 2,002.00.

• Earnings After the Close: AIN AKR AMKR ARI BRX CCK CHGG CLW CNO COUR CSR ESI ETWO FFIV FLS FLXS HLIT KFRC LTC LXU MED MSA MSTR BTST PARA PCH PLOW RIG SBAC ST STRM SUI TRUE TWO WELL WWD

• China Non-NBS Manufacturing PMI for April

• AMC Entertainment (AMC) prelim Q1 adj. EBITDA loss $31.6M vs. est. loss $31.2M; Q1 revs $951.4M vs. est. $861M and EPS loss of (-$0.62 vs. est. loss (-$0.76).
• Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) Q1 EPS $3.58 vs. est. $3.39; Q1 revs $1.08B in-line with consensus $1.08B; Q1 comp sales rose +5.6% vs. est. 4.04%; said beat comes consumers in US tap into its loyalty program and other promotions; domestic comps +8.5% and international comps rose +0.9% both topping the consensus.
• Viking Holdings (VIK) upsizes IPO to 53M shares from 44M shares, as pricing expected later this week.

• Boeing (BA) was downgraded to "negative" from "stable" by Fitch and reaffirmed its "BBB-" long-term issuer default rating, said it could stabilize the outlook if BA liquidates over 100 of its pre-2023 built 737 MAX and half of its 787 inventories by early 2025, along with increasing production of its MAX jets towards 38 per month.
• EHang Holdings (EH) unveiled on Sunday a partnership with Guangzhou Greater Bay Technology Co. to develop "ultra-fast" charging/extreme fast charging battery products for EHang’s electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.

• Heartland Financial (HTLF) shares rose late Friday after reports UMB Financial (UMBF) is in talks to acquire the banks in what would be the biggest US regional bank merger this year. https://tinyurl.com/mr6accsy

• Altimmune (ALT) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim.
• MannKind (MNKD) announces IND Clearance from U.S. FDA to Start Phase 3 Study of Clofazimine Inhalation suspension for nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease.
• MorphoSys (MOR) said its takeover by Novartis (NVS) is still expected to close in the first half of this year, after a news report on a possible drug safety risk knocked the German biotechnology company’s stock price on Monday. MorphoSys’ statement came after a report by specialist website STAT News, citing two people familiar with the matter, of a safety issue with its experimental drug pelabresib.
• PTC Therapeutics (PTCT) upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley and raised tgt to $30.
• X4 Pharmaceuticals (XFOR) announces FDA Approval of XOLREMDI™ (Mavorixafor) capsules, first drug indicated in patients with WHIM syndrome,

• Apple (AAPL) has renewed talks with OpenAI about using the company’s technology to power some new features coming to the iPhone later this year, Bloomberg reported late Friday.
• Apple’s (AAPL) upcoming iPad Pro may launch with an M4 chip, kicking off Apple’s AI strategy that will be expanded at WWDC, Bloomberg reported this weekend.
• AT&T (T) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays with an unchanged price target of $20.
• Duolingo (DUOL) language-learning app and the e.l.f Beauty (ELF) cosmetics site have both found great success using TikTok to drive their growth. That could be threatened now that the U.S. has banned the social-media platform because of its Chinese ownership, according to Barron’s. https://tinyurl.com/28n92zzp