Early Look

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Futures	Up/Down	%	Last
Dow	85.00	0.25%	33,114
S&P 500	-0.25	0.01%	3,958
Nasdaq	-70.50	0.54%	12,874

 

 

Stock futures look mixed to start the day, with the Dow looking higher again, adding to its record gains behind strength in energy, industrials and pharma names, while the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite looks lower as Treasury yields reach fresh 14-month highs, as the 10-year tops to 1.76% level. Major U.S. averages remain buoyed as hopes rise for an economic recovery as the vaccine rollout in the U.S. was showing rapid progress and investors awaited details of President Joe Biden’s spending plans. Biden will outline how he would pay for his $3 trillion to $4 trillion plan to tackle America’s infrastructure needs on Wednesday, the White House confirmed on Monday, a proposal likely to include tax increases. Traders also weighed whether the implosion of U.S. hedge fund Archegos Capital will be isolated or exposure to the situation will spread to other banks (CSFB, Nomura among those with heavy exposure saw shares of each hit yesterday). In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rose 48 points to 29,432, the Shanghai Index rose 21 points to 3,456, and the Hang Seng Index gained 239 points to 28,577. In Europe, the German DAX is up around 100 points to 14,920, while the FTSE 100 is higher by 30 points to 6,765. Vaccines from Moderna (MRNA) and Pfizer (PFE), meanwhile, were “highly effective” in preventing COVID-19 infections “in real-world conditions among health care personnel, first responders, and other essential workers,” U.S. health officials said. Stocks finished mixed on Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded higher after opening lower as the major indexes all reversed off their lows of the days. The Dow rose to a new record despite weakness in bank stocks caught in the downdraft of Friday’s margin call. The S&P 500 was down 0.09%, closing just shy of its recent all-time highs while the Nasdaq fell 0.6% and the SmallCap Russell 2000 underperformed, falling over 2.6% (now down over 22% from 52-week highs and bespoke noted over 200 names are down over 50%).

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

·     The S&P 500 Index slipped -3.45 points, or 0.09%, to 3,971.09

·     The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 98.49 points, or 0.30%, to 33,171.37

·     The Nasdaq Composite dropped -79.08 points, or 0.60%, to 13,059.65

·     The Russell 2000 Index declined -62.80 points, or 2.83% to 2,158.68

 

Events Calendar for Today

·     7:45 AM ET         ICSC Weekly Retail Sales

·     8:55 AM ET         Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales

·     9:00 AM EST      CaseShiller 20-City MoM for January

·     10:00 AM EST    Consumer Confidence for March

·     4:30 PM ET         API Weekly Inventory Data

 

Earnings Calendar:

·     Earnings Before the Open: ANGO, ASO, FDS, FMTX, GVA, MACE, NGS, TH, XL

·     Earnings After the Close: APR, BLCM, CHWY, CRMD, CWBR, DARE, HYFM, HYRE, MILE, OSMT, PHR, PVH, REED, RKDA, TLMD

 

Other Key Events:

·     China NBS Non-Manufacturing PMI for March

·     Jefferies China Internet Conference (virtual), 3/29-3/30

·     JPM NAPAP Valley Biotech Forum (virtual), 3/29-3/31

·     Oppenheimer China Internet Bus Tour (virtual), 3/29-3/30

 

 

Macro	Up/Down	Last
Nymex	-0.43	61.13
Brent	-0.36	64.62
Gold	-16.35	1,695,85
EUR/USD	-0.0024	1.1741
JPY/USD	0.47	110.28
10-Year Note	+0.048	1.769%

 

 

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

·     Nike Inc (NKE) sued a New York-based company that produced “Satan Shoes” purported to contain a drop of human blood as part of a collaboration with “Old Town Road” rapper Lil Nas X

·     Albertsons Companies (ACI) and Google (GOOGL) has signed a multi-year partnership to make shopping easier and more convenient for millions of customers nationwide

·     Color Star Technology Co. (CSCW) said it is developing a non-fungible token (NFT) business for the production, release, and promotion of NFT through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Color China Entertainment

 

Energy, Industrials and Materials

·     Livent Corp (LTHM) said it has signed a $335M lithium supply contract with BMW where it will supply the key ingredient in EV battery cells directly to BMW’s battery-cell makers from 2022

·     Flotek industries Inc (FTK) unit delivered a notice of termination for supply agreement between Flotek chemistry and Florida chemical company, LLC

·     VirTra (VTSI) Q4 EPS 21c vs. est. 4c; Q4 revenue $6.6M vs. est. $5.49M; backlog increased to a record $14.6M as of December 31, 2020

 

Financials

·     PayPal (PYPL) enables PayPal customers in U.S. to checkout with cryptocurrency alongside other payment methods in PayPal wallet

·     T. Rowe Price (TROW) downgraded to Neutral on valuation at Credit Suisse

·     Texas Capital (TCBI) upgraded to Outperform at Keefe Bruyette

·     Qell Acquisition (QELL) is taking pubic German all-electric vertical takeoff company Lilium GmbH at $3.3B valuation.

·     The9 (NCTY) announced that it signed a Filecoin mining machine purchase and hosting agreement amounting to approximately $2M with a Filecoin mining service provider

·     Palomar Holdings Inc. (PLMR) said previous communicated growth outlook remains unchanged; announces two year, $40M share repurchase program

 

Healthcare

·     BioNTech (BNTX) and Pfizer (PFE) said they expect to increase BNT162b2 manufacturing capacity to up to 2.5B doses by the end of 2021

·     Astellas Pharma (ALPMF) said its Phase III confirmatory trial of Xospata (gilteritinib) in patients with relapsed or refractory FLT3 mutation-positive acute myeloid leukemia met its primary endpoint of overall survival

·     Merck (MRK) receives complete response letter from US FDA for supplemental biologics license application (SBLA) for Keytruda® (pembrolizumab) in high-risk early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (tNBC)

·     China Biologic (CBPO) Q4 adj EPS 91c on revs $112.1M vs. $102.2M YoY as GM’s increased to 66.5% from 62.6% YoY

·     Celldex Therapeutics (CLDX) 4Q EPS ($0.55) vs. est. ($0.37), says believes cash, equivalent and marketable securities sufficient to fund planned operations through 2023

·     Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, inc. (TARS) as part of strategic partnership, lianbio to obtain exclusive rights to develop, commercialize tp-03 in greater China; TARS will receive a $15 mln upfront payment, may also receive up to $185 mln in development and commercialization milestones

 

Technology, Media & Telecom

·     Taiwan Semi (TSM) will move 4nm process chips to volume production in the fourth quarter of 2021, ahead of the 2022 timeframe set previously, according to a report in Digitimes

·     Alphabet (GOOGL) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel and tgt upped to $2,350 from $2,025

·     Vipshop Holdings Limited (VIPS) authorized to repurchase up to $500M of its Class A ordinary shares

·     ViacomCBS (VIAC) upgraded to Neutral from Underperform with a $46 price target at Credit Suisse

·     The Federal Trade Commission said it would not ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review its appeals court loss against Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), which the agency had accused of breaking antitrust law in selling chips for smartphones.

·     Activision (ATVI) appoints company veteran Armin Zerza as chief financial officer; says on track to exceed prior outlook for Q1

·     T-Mobile (TMUS) said plans to expand its collaboration with Google (GOOGL) across a wide array of customer experiences later this year

·     SRAX Inc. (SRAX) sees 4Q revs $4.5Mm vs. est. $4.5Mm, says in 1Q has closed over $10Mm in contracts, expects 2Q revs $7Mm vs. est. $4.5Mm