Early Look

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	8.00	0.02%	35,368
S&P 500	-4.25	0.09%	4,489
Nasdaq	-30.50	0.20%	15,334

 

 

Another day, and another record high for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite on Wednesday, but overnight futures paint a mixed picture amid a retreat in technology shares and caution ahead of a Federal Reserve gathering that may provide more clues about its approach to paring stimulus. With few negative catalysts to dampen the risk-on sentiment, all three major U.S. indexes crept modestly higher on Tuesday. The S&P 500 was able to notch its 51st record close of the year and the Nasdaq its 30th record closing highs for 2021. With the gains, the SPX and Nasdaq have now both risen 5-straight days (the Dow is on a 4-day win streak) – but volume on U.S. exchanges was just 8.29 billion shares, making it one of the slowest trading days of the year. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rose 17 points to 27,742, the Shanghai Index fell -38 points to hold just above the 3,500 level and the Hang Seng Index fell -278 points to 25,415. In Europe, the German DAX is down over -100 points to 15,755, while the FTSE 100 fell about -30 points to 7,120. On the calendar today, U.S. Q2 GDP is expected to be revised up to a 6.7% clip versus the disappointing 6.5% pace from the Advance report and weekly jobless claims are expected to be 350K, but focus still remains on tomorrow’s Jackson Hole speech from Fed Chair Powell for clues on the timing of a tapering of monetary stimulus. U.S. Treasury yields rose overnight, with that on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note hitting 1.359% for the first time since Aug. 13. There were a handful of earnings results in the software space moving tech as well with ADSK, SNOW,CRM, SPLK, ESTC all out with results, while in retail, WSM rises on its results.

Events Calendar for Today

·     8:30 AM ET         Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Q2-second est. 6.7%

·     8:30 AM ET         GDP Price Deflator Q2-prelim…est. 6.0%

·     8:30 AM ET         GDP Consumer Spending, prelim Q2…est.

·     8:30 AM ET         PCE Prices for Q2-E…prior 6.4%

·     8:30 AM ET         Core PCE prelim Q2-E…est. 6.1%

·     8:30 AM ET         Weekly Jobless Claims…est. 350K

·     8:30 AM EST      Continuing Claims…est. 2.79M

·     10:30 AM ET      Weekly EIA Natural Gas Inventory Data

·     11:00 AM ET      Kansas City Fed Manufacturing, for Aug

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: ANF, BBW, BURL, COTY, DG, DLTR, FLWS, HAIN, LANC, MBUU, MOV, RGS, SAFM, SJM, TITN

·     Earnings After the Close: BILL, DELL, DOMO, FXLV, GPS, HPQ, LTRX, MRVL, OLLI, PTON, RCEL, RPID, VMW, WDAY

 

Other Key Events:

·     UBS China Telco, Media, Internet Virtual Conference 2021, 8/23-8/27

·     Piper Sandler MedTech and Diagnostics California Bus Tour (virtual), 8/24-8/26

·     Jackson Hole 2021 Economic Policy Symposium, 8/26-8/28

 

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index gained 9.96 points, or 0.22%, to 4,496.19

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.24 points, or 0.11%, to 35,405.50

·     The Nasdaq Composite edged higher 22.06 points, or 0.15%, to 15,041.86

·     The Russell 2000 Index advanced 8.36 points, or 0.37% to 2,239.27

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	-0.65	67.71
Brent	-0.60	71.65
Gold	-4.25	1,786.75
EUR/USD	-0.0000	1.1772
JPY/USD	0.11	110.13
10-Year Note	+0.005	1.349%

 

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Guess Inc. (GES) shares fell -6% Q2 EPS $0.91 vs. est. $0.70; Q2 revs $628.6M vs. est. $648.6M; expect revenues in q3 of fiscal 2022 to be slightly negative to flat versus q3 of fiscal 2020; for FY22, assuming no additional covid-related shutdowns past q2, expect revenues to be down mid-single digits versus fiscal 2020; increases share repurchase authorization to $200M; increasing long-term operating margin goal to 12% and adjusted earnings per share to $3.50 by fiscal 2024

·     Ulta (ULTA) Q2 EPS $4.56 vs est. $2.42 on net sales $1.97B vs est. $1.76B, comp sales +56.3% (+13.1% vs 2Q19) vs est. +44.8%, gross margin 40.6% vs est. 35.9%; raised full-year outlook for EPS to $14.50-$14.70 (est. $12.50) from $11.50-$11.95 and sales to $8.1B-$8.3B (est. $7.92B) from $7.7B-$7.8B, comp sales +30-32%; sees 44 new net stores in FY21

·     William Sonoma (WSM) shares rise 12%; announces a 20% quarterly dividend increase and a new $1.25 billion stock repurchase; Q2 adj EPS $3.24 vs est. $2.61 on revenue $1.95B vs est. $1.49B, quarterly comp brand revenue growth +29.8%; now sees full-year net revenue growth in high-teens to low-20s from low-double digit to mid-teens; for long-term, company is planning net rev growth mid-to-high single digits with accelerated path to $10B in net rev over next 4 years

·     XPeng (XPEV) reports Q2 deliveries growth of 439% Y/Y and 30.4% Q/Q to 17,398 units; P7 deliveries rose 44.5% Q/Q to 11,522 units, of which 97% can support XPILOT 2.5 or XPILOT 3.0; revenues from vehicle sales increased 562.4% to $555.1M, mainly due to higher vehicle delivery, especially for the P7

 

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     ABM Industries (ABM) announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Able Services, a facilities services company headquartered in San Francisco, in a cash transaction valued at $830M

·     Raven (RAVN) Q2 EPS $0.19 vs. est. $0.17; Q2 revs $114.4M vs. est. $103.5M.

·     Transocean Ltd. (RIG) announced that BOE Exploration & Production LLC awarded Transocean a $252 million firm contract for its newbuild ultra-deepwater drillship, the Deepwater Atlas

 

Financials

·     SelectQuote (SLQT) shares tumble as Q4 EPS $0.02 vs. est. $0.04; Q4 revs $188.4M vs. est. $184.9M; Q4 Adjusted EBITDA of $21.3M, down 47% YoY

·     Bitcoin prices are tumbling as the largest cryptocurrency fell as much as 4.4% Thursday to $46,588, with other tokens including Ether retreating as well, paring Bitcoin’s rally since a July low to some 60% (after topping the $50K level for the first time in 3-months on Monday)

 

Healthcare

·     Becton Dickinson’s (BDX) BD Veritor At-Home COVID-19 Test has received an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA, the first at-home COVID-19 rapid antigen test to use computer vision technology in a smartphone to interpret and provide a digital display of testing results

·     BioCryst (BCRX) announced that the new drug submission for Orladeyo has been accepted for review by Health Canada for the prevention of recurrent attacks in patients with hereditary angioedema, or HAE, 12 years and older

·     Exelixis (EXEL) announces partner Takeda and ono receive approval in Japan for Cabometyx® (cabozantinib) in combination with Opdivo® (nivolumab) for treatment of unresectable or metastatic renal cell carcinoma

·     Lannett (LCI) Q4 adj EPS loss (-$0.19) vs. est. loss (-$0.12); Q4 revs $106M vs. est. $110.63M; sees FY22 revenue $400M-$440M vs. est. $472.06M; sees FY22 adjusted EBITDA $40M-$55M

·     RenovoRx (RNXT) 1.85M share IPO priced at $9.00

 

Software

·     Autodesk (ADSK) shares fell -6%; Q2 adj EPS $1.21 vs. est. $1.13; Q2 revs $1.06B vs. est. $1.05B; sees Q3 adj EPS $1.22-$1.28 vs. est. $1.26; sees Q3 revenue $1.11B-$1.125B vs. est. $1.11B; Q2 Total billings increased 29% to $1,015B

·     Box Inc. (BOX) Q2 EPS $0.21 vs. est. $0.18; Q2 revs $214.5M vs. est. $212.45M; Non-GAAP operating margin was 21%, a point better than projected earlier in the month; Remaining performance obligations, a measure of work contracted for but not yet delivered, was up 27%, to $922.4 million. Free cash flow was $29.8 million, up from $13.3 million in the year-earlier quarter; sees Q3 EPS 20c-21c vs. est. 20c; sees Q3 revenue $218M-$219M vs. est. $216.6M

·     Elastic NV (ESTC) Q1 EPS $0.04 vs. est. loss (-$0.10); Q1 revs $193.1M vs. est. $173.17M; Q1 Cloud revs up 89% YoY to $61.5M, or 85% on a constant currency basis; Q1 Calculated billings up 27% YoY to $165.0M, or 23% on a constant currency basis; Q1 deferred revenue was $364.4M, an increase of 31% YoY; Q1 total subscription customer count was over 16,000, compared to over 15,000 in Q4 FY21; sees FY22 EPS loss (67c) to (57c) vs. est. loss (50c); sees FY22 revs $808M-$814M vs. est. $789.1M

·     Salesforce.com (CRM) Q2 EPS $1.48 vs. est. $0.92; Q2 revs $6.34B vs. est. $6.24B; reports remaining performance obligation ended Q2 at approximately $36.2B, an increase of 18% YoY; current remaining performance obligation ended Q2 at approximately $18.7B, an increase of 23% YoY, 23% in constant currency; sees Q3 EPS $0.91-$0.92 vs. est. $0.81; sees Q3 revs $6.78B-$6.79B vs. est. $6.66B

·     Snowflake (SNOW) Q2 EPS ($0.64) vs est. ($0.15) on revenue $272.2M vs est. $256.5M; sees Q3 revenue $280M-$285M vs est. $292/3M, FY revenue $1.06B-$1.07B vs est. $1.11B; company now has 4,990 total customers and 116 with trailing 12-month product revenue above $1M

·     Splunk (SPLK) Q2 EPS loss (-$2.34) vs. est. loss (-$0.69); Q2 revs $606M vs. est. $562.8M; Q2 Cloud ARR was $976M, up 72% YoY while total ARR was $2.63B, up 37% YoY; reported 234 customers with cloud ARR greater than $1M, up 100% YoY; sees Q3 revs $625M-$650M vs. est. $635.4Ml sees FY revs $2.53B-$2.6B vs. est. $2.53B

·     Zuora Inc. (ZUO) Q2 Non-GAAP EPS loss (-$0.04), in-line with estimates; Q2 revs $86.5M vs. est. $83.4M; sees Q3 subscription revs $71m-$72M and total revs $86M-$87M vs. est. $85.4M; sees FY revs $340M-$342M vs. est. $338.2M; sees year EPS loss (13c-11c) vs. est. (9c)

 

Technology

·     NetApp Inc. (NTAP) Q1 EPS $1.15 vs. est. $0.95; Q1 revs $1.46B vs. est. $1.43B; sees Q2 EPS $1.14-$1.24 vs. est. $1.13; sees Q2 revenue $1.49B-$1.59B vs. est. $1.52B; 1Q Product Rev Grew 16% YoY to $730M and Q1 Billings Increased 20% YoY to $1.38B

·     Pure Storage (PSTG) Q2 non-GAAP EPS $0.06 vs. est. $0.05; Q2 revs $496.8M vs. est. $469.48M; sees Q3 revs $530M vs. est. $495.15M; sees FY22 revenue $2.04B vs. est. $1.96B; sees FY22 non-GAAP operating income $150M; Q2 Subscription services revenue $171.9 million, up 31% year-over-year; Q2 GAAP gross margin 68.4%; non-GAAP gross margin 70.5%

·     ON Semiconductor (ON) announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which it will acquire GTAT for $415M in cash

·     Analog Devices (ADI) increases share repurchase authorization by $8.5 billion to approximately $10 billion

·     Joyy Inc. (YY) +7% after Reuters reported its two top shareholders, Chairman David Li and Xiaomi founder Lei Jun, aim to take the Chinese social media company private in a deal that may value it at up to $8B https://reut.rs/3DnlazS