Early Look

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

U.S. stocks are pulling back off record highs last week, trading flattish after major U.S. averages were closed for the July 4 holiday weekend, following record highs in the wake of the U.S. jobs report. Nonfarm-payrolls for June showed a strong gain of 850K on Friday, but there appeared to be enough concerns to keep the Fed from tapering its bond purchases for the time being. Oil prices hitting fresh multi-year highs after the OPEC+ meeting being postponed means no oil production increase agreement as the UAE position is unchanged and the OPEC+ JMMC co-chairs need more time discuss the UAE’s position. WTI crude futures surge above $76.50 to highest since October 2018. Stocks posted strong gains again last week as the Nasdaq led, posting a weekly gain of 1.9%, followed by the S&P up 1.6% and the Dow trailing, but still up 1%. Rates fell following payrolls, with the 10-year Treasury yield off 5 basis points to 1.43%. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rose 45 points to 28,643, the Shanghai Index slipped -4 points to 3,530, and the Hang Seng Index dipped -70 points to 28,072. In Europe, the German DAX is down around 50 points to 15,610, while the FTSE 100 dips a few points to 7,160.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index gained 32.40 points, or 0.75%, to 4,352.34

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 152.85 points, or 0.44%, to 34,786.35

·     The Nasdaq Composite climbed 116.93 points, or 0.81%, to 14,639.30

·     The Russell 2000 Index declined -23.60 points, or 1.01% to 2,305.76

Events Calendar for Today

·     7:45 AM ET         ICSC Weekly Retail Sales

·     8:55 AM ET         Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales

·     9:45 AM ET         Markit Composite Final June-F…

·     9:45 AM ET         Markit Services PMI June-F…

·     10:00 AM ET      ISM Non-Manufacturing Index for June…est. 63.5

World News

·     A measure of euro zone inflation expectations — the five-year, five-year inflation forward rose to 1.606%, its highest since May 19. A survey on Monday showed business activity in the euro zone expanding at the fastest rate in 15 years in June, as the easing of more coronavirus restrictions helped the bloc’s dominant service industry.

·     Eurozone July Investor Index missed: 29.8 vs 30.0 consensus; June Services PMI beat (final) 58.3 vs 58.0 consensus; German June Services PMI beat: 58.1 vs 57.5 consensus

·     Eurozone May Retail Sales: 4.6% m/m vs 4.4% consensus; 9.0% y/y vs 8.2% consensus

·     German July ZEW Economic Sentiment miss: 63.3 vs 75.2 consensus; German July ZEW Current Conditions beat: 21.9 vs 5.0 consensus; German May Industrial Orders missed: -3.7% m/m vs 1.0% consensus 54.3% y/y vs 59.4% consensus

·     Germany eased restrictions on travelers from Britain, Portugal, Russia, India, and Nepal placing them in “high-incidence areas” category. They can avoid quarantine if they can prove that they are fully vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Didi (DIDI) shares plunge over 20%; just days after Didi (DIDI) raised nearly $5B from investors in its U.S. IPO, China’s Cyberspace Administration has ordered the company’s app removed from app stores, noting serious issues with Didi’s usage of customers’ personal information. Those who already have the app will be able to continue to use the service, but new downloads on phones from the likes of Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi are nixed from Sunday on.

·     Porsche (POAHY) is a holding company that consists mainly of its controlling interest in Volkswagen (VWAGY) and, in turn, is one of the latter’s many divisions, along with VW and Audi and owns superluxury names including Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti, Barron’s said. Ferrari (RACE) has surged ahead of Porsche in the stock market, according to Barron’s but says that could soon change

·     Tyson Foods (TSN) is recalling ~8.5M lbs. of frozen, fully cooked chicken products as a precaution due to potential listeria contamination, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service says.

·     PlayAGS (AGS) files to sell 8.21M shares of common stock for holders

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     Crude oil prices advanced a sixth straight week on Friday while the dispute among OPEC+ ministers over plans to further ease production curbs dragged on at the alliance’s full meeting today. Negotiations resumed on Monday after last week ended without a deal, with the United Arab Emirates still blocking a proposal to increase supply. Energy edged lower last week, -0.8%, after leading the S&P sector standings with a 6.6% jump last week.

·     Brent crude oil rises above $77/bbl for the first time since 2018 after OPEC+ fails to reach a production deal, further squeezing an already tight oil market and raising concerns over inflation. With the United Arab Emirates continuing to block an agreement, today’s planned OPEC+ meeting has been called off with no new suggested date for the next gathering, which in effect leaves the group’s current production limits in place

·     Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN) agrees to acquire Pioneer Energy Services for ~$295M in cash and stock, which includes the retirement of all of Pioneer’s debt; says it will issue as many as 26.3M common shares and pay $30M of cash.

·     Seaspan Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas (ATCO) has received delivery of two high-quality 15,000 TEU scrubber-fitted containerships

·     Ingersoll-Rand (IR) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs

·     Virgin Galactic (SPCE) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS

·     General Dynamics (GD) mentioned positively in Barron’s saying the stock looks set to rise, noting commercial air travel gets all the attention-but investors should start paying attention to private jets. While commercial air travel is slowly returning to life, May business-jet departures, at 275,000, were just 1% below their October 2019 high of 278,000

Financials

·     NCR (NCR), which produces cash registers and ATMs, may be one of the best ways to play a post-Covid rebound in the consumer economy, according to Barron’s. Revenue fell in 2020 as customers halted upgrades, but a recovery is already here. CEO Michael Hayford said investors are missing the company’s potential as its stock trades at a discount to peers.

·     American Express (AXP) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs and raise tgt to $225 from $185

·     Principal Financial (PFG) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse

·     Santander Consumer (SC) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital

Healthcare

·     The CDC is investigating the death of a 13-year-old boy who died just three days after receiving the second dose of Pfizer’s (PFE) COVID-19 vaccine, The Detroit News reported over the weekend. His death was reported to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)

·     Puma Biotechnology (PBYI) files $50M mixed securities shelf

·     Zosano Pharma (ZSAN) files $150M mixed securities shelf

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Facebook (FB), Google (GOOGL) and Twitter (TWTR) have privately warned the Hong Kong government that they could stop offering their services in the city if authorities proceed with planned changes to data-protection laws, the WSJ reported this weekend. New amendments from Hong Kong’s Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau would make the co’s liable for doxing, or the malicious sharing of individuals’ information online so that they can be harassed

·     RADA Electronic Industries (RADA) said it has received $32M worth of new orders in Q2 2021, an increase of 33.3% Q/Q from $24M in Q1 2021, with majority of deliveries expected in H2 2021.