Early Look

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

U.S. futures are looking slightly lower after the S&P 500 climbed all day Monday to record its 6-straight winning session and closed near the highs on a light volume day. Wall Street awaits commentary from Federal Reserve officials through the day, watching for commentary as to what the latest downgrade of the United States’ credit rating means on policy. At least seven Fed officials are expected to speak later in the day. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index gained 30 points to 37,529 (with lots of focus on bond markets as yields surge), the Shanghai Index rose 12 points to 3,380, and the Hang Seng Index jumped 348 points to 23,681. In Europe, the German DAX is up 126 points to 24,061, while the FTSE 100 is up 40 points to 8,739. In stock news, Dow component Home Depot (HD) reported mixed earnings results this morning, but reaffirmed its guidance for the year, good for shares to edge higher initially. Concerns around ballooning U.S. debt remained in focus, with a vote on President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut bill in the House of Representatives expected sometime this week.

Following a nonstop market rebound on Monday from the open until closing highs, the S&P 500 managed to extend its winning streak to 6-straight days (and 8 of the last 9), following a recent streak of 9-winning days in a row from 4/22-5/2 as every market pullback has been aggressively bought since the early April tariff related fear lows. Investors were able to look past the U.S. credit downgrade by Moody’s as a “non-event” and a potential buying opportunity even after Moody’s cut deposit ratings at major banks. Bonds also rebounded on Monday after falling initially as the 30-yr yield ended around 4.91% after highs above 5.03% and the 10-yr yield fell 10bps off its high of 4.56%.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 137.33 points, or 0.32%, to 42,792.07
• The Nasdaq Composite edged higher 4.36 points, or 0.02%, to 19,215.46
• The Russell 2000 Index declined -8.82 points, or 0.42% to 2,104.43

• 8:55 AM ET                  Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales
• 4:30 PM ET API Weekly Inventory Data

• Earnings After the Close: AUNA EVLV KEYS MOD PANW SKY TOL TUYA VSAT XP ZTO

• Piper 2025 Financial Services Conference, 5/20-5/21, in New York
• RBC Capital Global Healthcare Conference, 5/20-5/21, in New York
• Truist 2025 Financial Services Conference, 5/20-5/21, in New York

• The Japan 20-year JGB yield rose as much as 15 basis points to 2.555%, the highest since October 2000, after the Ministry of Finance announced the auction results in the early afternoon in Tokyo. The 30-year JGB yield soared 17 bps to a record high of 3.14%, while the 40-year yield surged 15 bps to 3.6%, also an all-time high.
• China’s LPR’s were cut for the first time in seven months, in line with earlier central bank guidance aimed at countering the economic impact of US tariffs. The one-year loan prime rate was cut to 3.00% (prev. 3.10%) and the five-year rate, used for mortgages, was lowered to 3.50% (prev. 3.60%).
• Vietnam has begun a second round of trade talks with the US in Washington, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Thailand’s finance minister said a trade proposal has been submitted to address imbalances, with Thailand reaffirming its commitment to a fair and balanced trade relationship

• Amer Sports (AS) Q1 adjusted EPS $0.27 vs. est. $0.16; Q1 revs $1.47B vs. est. $1.39B; raises 2025 view to $0.67-$0.72 from prior $0.64-$0.69 (est. (0.69) and boosted its 2025 revenue growth view to 15%-17% from 13%-15% (est. $5.94B).

• American Water Works (AWK) announced that it has agreed with Nexus Regulated Utilities, LLC, a subsidiary of Nexus Water Group, Inc., to purchase multiple water and wastewater systems located in eight states for a total of approximately $315M, subject to adjustment as provided for in the purchase and sale agreement.
• Eagle Materials (EXP) Q4 adj EPS $2.08 misses the consensus $2.48; Q4 revs $470.2B miss consensus $482.1M; Q4 adj Ebitda $141.2M vs. est. $156.4M.
• Equinor (EQNR) has restarted production at its Johan Castberg oilfield in the Arctic Barents Sea late on Monday, after repairs following an outage; the field is estimated to hold some 450 million-650 million barrels of recoverable oil and has a capacity to produce about 220,000 barrels per day.
• Safe Bulkers (SB) Q4 adj EPS $0.05 on revs $64.3M (down from $81.7M y/y); Q1 adj Ebitda $29.4M 9down from $46.8M y/y); expects down time for scheduled dry dockings of 96 days for the second quarter of 2025 and of 21 days for the third quarter of 2025.
• The Trump administration has lifted a month-old stop-work order on Empire Wind, a $5 billion wind farm project off the coast of New York, in a compromise with the state that could also see cancelled plans for a gas pipeline revived, officials said on Tuesday. Norway’s Equinor (EQNR) said construction work can now resume on the project, which is expected to provide power for half a million homes from 2027 onwards.

• Ryman Hospitality (RHP) announced a definitive agreement under which the company will purchase the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix, Arizona, for $865M; upsized its offering to 2.6M shares, pricing at $96.20 per share.

• Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP) and Sirius Therapeutics announce multi-target collaboration to develop novel siRNA Therapies; CRSP will make an upfront payment of $25M in cash and $70M in equity to Sirius Therapeutics.
• Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc (EKSO) announces 1-for-15 reverse stock split effective May 27^th.
• Regenxbio (RGNX) announced the closure of a non-dilutive, limited recourse royalty bond agreement of up to $250M with Healthcare Royalty.
• Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (VRTX) authorizes a $4B stock repurchase program.

• Agilysys (AGYS) Q4 adj EPS $0.54 vs est. $0.29, adj EBITDA $14.8Mm vs est. $11.3Mm on revs $74.3Mm vs est. $71.4Mm; guides FY revs $308-312Mm vs est. $318.84Mm and adj EBITDA mgn 20%.
• Alphabet’s (GOOGL) self-driving unit Waymo said on Monday it received approval from California to expand its robotaxi operations in more areas of the San Francisco Peninsula and further south, including San Jose.
• Bilibili Inc. (BILI) Q1 total net revenues were RMB7.00 billion (US$965.1 million), rising 24% y/y; advertising revenues were RMB2.00 billion (US$275.3 million), rising 20% y/y and Mobile games revenues were RMB1.73 billion (US$238.6 million), rising 76% y/y; Q1 Average daily active users (DAUs) were 106.7M vs. 102.4M y/y.
• MongoDB (MDB) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Loop Capital and cut tgt to $190 from $350 saying recent industry checks indicate that MongoDB’s Atlas platform continues to show lackluster market adoption.
• Nintendo (NTDOY) is partnering with Samsung (SSNLF) to produce the main chips for the Switch 2, which may help Nintendo sell more than 20 million units by March next year – Bloomberg.
• Pegasystems Inc. (PEGA) will replace Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) in the S&P MidCap 400 effective prior to the opening of trading on Thursday, May 22. The Nordstrom family and El Puerto de Liverpool S.A.B. de C.V. are acquiring Nordstrom in a deal expected to be completed on May 20.
• Transcat Inc. (TRNS) Q4 adj EPS $0.64 vs est. $0.37, adj EBITDA $12.7Mm vs est. $11.00Mm on revs $77.1Mm vs est. $76.39Mm.
• Vodafone (VOD) FY ADJ ebitda EU10.932B vs. est. EU11.499B; FY revs EU37.448B vs. est. EU38.090B; Expect to see broad-based momentum across Europe and Africa, and for Germany to return to top-line growth during this year; New EUR 2.0B buyback program launched with initial tranche of EUR 0.5B