Early Look

Monday, May 20, 2024

U.S. futures open the new trading week with modest gains, tracking European and Asian markets higher initially and building on last week’s advances. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 40K for first time ever Friday, while the S&P 500 booked its 4th straight weekly gain, rising 1.54%, the Nasdaq climbed 2.11%, and the Dow climbed 1.24%. Commodity prices continue to soar as gold and copper both hit record highs, with gold topping $2,440 an ounce and silver also rising. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rose 282 points to 39,069, the Shanghai Index gained 17 points to 3,171, and the Hang Seng Index rose 82 points to 19,636. In Europe, the German DAX is higher by 58 points to 18,762, while the FTSE 100 is up 20 points to 8,441. News sparse returning from the weekend with no major earnings on tap this morning or major economic data for that matter. One of the more interesting stories this morning is Mike Wilson, one of Wall Street’s most prominent bears throwing in the towel, turning positive on the outlook for US stocks. Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson now sees the S&P 500 rising 2% by June 2025, a major about turn from his view that the benchmark will tumble 15% by December. Wilson finally gave in and boosted his target for the S&P 500 to 5,400 points from 4,500. That catapults his forecast from among the lowest on Wall Street to one that projects a fresh record for the index. Lots of FOMO, and little to no market fear has major averages at or near all-time highs for most major indexes, with the likes of commodities, technology, industrials, utilities all near record bests. What can derail or even slow this market remains to be seen. Bitcoin prices +1% moving back above 67,000.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 134.21 points, or 0.34%, to 40,003.59.
• The Nasdaq Composite dipped -12.35 points, or 0.07%, to 16,685.97.
• The Russell 2000 Index slipped -0.53 points, or 0.03% to 2,095.72.

• 9:00 AM ET                  Fed’s Barr Gives Keynote Remarks
• 7:00 PM ET                   Fed’s Bostic Moderates Keynote Remarks

• Earnings After the Close: BEEM KEYS NDSN PANW TRNS ZM

• JP Morgan 52nd Annual Global technology, Media, and Comm Conference, 5/19-5/22, in Boston, MA

• Expedia Group Inc. (EXPE) chief technology officer and a senior engineering leader were fired due to “a violation of company policy,” just days after the firm’s annual product and partner conference – Bloomberg.
• Li Auto (LI) Q1 EPS $0.17 vs. est. $0.35; Q1 revs $3.55B vs. est. $3.7B; total Q1 deliveries were 80,400 vehicles, representing a 52.9% year-over-year increase; sees Q2 revenue $4.1B-$4.3B.
• Nestlé SA (NSRGY) mentioned positively in Barron’s saying the company shares have languished for the past five years amid weak sales volume despite its portfolio of popular brands, from Perrier to Nescafé to Gerber…but positive signs lately are giving reason for hope for a turnaround.

• Johnson Controls (JCI) shares rise premarket after Bloomberg reported Activist investor Elliott Investment Management has built a position worth over $1 billion in Johnson Controls International Plc. https://tinyurl.com/4sfr3ucv
• United States Steel Corp. (X): Nippon Steel Corp. is stepping up efforts to win over US workers and politicians for its $14.1 billion takeover of the company despite stiff opposition from union leaders and the Biden administration.

• Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) announces offering of 26.51M ordinary shares for holders.

• Esperion (ESPR) and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals said the primary endpoint was achieved in the Phase 3 trial in Japan for bempedoic acid as a potential treatment for patients with hypercholesterolemia. The trial demonstrated statistically significant outcomes on the primary endpoint for bempedoic acid and highlighted its potential future value to patients in Japan.
• MediciNova (MNOV) said it receives notice of allowance for new patent covering mn-166 (Ibudilast) for the prevention of metastasis of eye cancer.

• Micron (MU) upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley and raise tgt to $130 from $98 saying they overestimated how much significant 2023 losses would weigh on the stock’s valuation and underestimated both the economic and narrative elements of artificial intelligence memory.
• Microsoft (MSFT) plans to announce several pieces of hardware and software related to consumer devices on Monday at an event at its Redmond, Washington, campus. MSFT is expected to reveal a new version of its Surface Pro tablet and Surface Laptop that feature Qualcomm (QCOM) chips based on Arm Holdings’ (ARM) architecture. – Reuters
• Thoma Bravo is exploring a sale of Instructure (INST), Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Thoma Bravo, which holds an 83% stake in the company, has tapped JPMorgan Chase (JPM) to gauge the interest of potential buyers that include other buyout firms – Reuters. https://tinyurl.com/224x6m45
• Wix.com (WIX) raises FY24 revenue view to $1.74B-$1.76B from $1.73B-$1.76B (est. $1.75B); now expect non-GAAP operating expenses to be 50-51% of revenue for the full year, down slightly from our previous expectation of 51-52% of revenue.