Hammerstone Markets Early Look

By admin | 04/05/2022

Early Look

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

U.S. equity futures are a touch lower as the S&P E-mini is down 0.25% and the Nasdaq E-mini is down 0.30% while Asian equities are mixed. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained on Monday as traders shook off recession fears and bought technology shares that were beaten up in the first quarter. The Dow was up a modest 0.30%, but the S&P 500 gained 0.81% and the Nasdaq surged 1.90%. Tech shares drove gains in the U.S. equity market, led by stocks including Twitter Inc, which surged 27% after Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk took a 9.2% stake in the social media company. The dollar was stronger against peers while Treasury yields edged higher. Crude futures rose, with WTI climbing back above $100 a barrel. The S&P 500 has now gained more than 16.2% since reaching its 2022 lows on March 14, even as interest rate traders continue to bet on faster, and deeper, rate hikes from the Federal Reserve are expected. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rose 50 points or 0.19% to 27,787, the Shanghai Index and Hang Seng Index were both closed. In Europe, the German DAX is…while the FTSE 100. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were rising as sentiment for risk-sensitive assets got a boost with Bitcoin up about +0.7% to above $46,500. The dollar is mostly higher while oil futures edge higher and gold is flat. Fed speakers today: Brainard speaks at forum on inflation at 15:05, Daly discusses the US economy at 17:30 and Williams speaks at 19:00. European and U.S. yields are looking higher initially. U.S. data today consists of the February Trade Balance, March final Services and Composite PMIs and the March ISM Services Index. Euro extends losses, weakens to more than one-week lows at $1.0960 vs. the dollar.

Market Closing Prices Yesterday

• The S&P 500 Index jumped 36.78 points, or 0.81%, to 4,482.64
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 103.61 points, or 0.30%, to 34,921.88
• The Nasdaq Composite surged 271.05 points, or 1.90%, to 14,532.55
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 4.33 points, or 0.21% to 2,095.44

Economic Calendar for Today

• 7:45 AM ET         ICSC Weekly Retail Sales
• 8:30 AM ET         International Trade for February
• 8:55 AM ET         Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales
• 10:00 AM ET       ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI Index, for March
• 4:30 PM ET         API Weekly Inventory Data

Earnings Calendar:

• Earnings Before the Open: AYI, LNN
• Earnings After the Close: ARRY, LNDC, SGH

Other Key Events:

• JPMorgan 11th Annual Napa Valley Biotech Forum,4/5-4/7, in San Francisco
• JPMorgan 8th Annual Retail Round-Up, 4/5-4/7, in NY
• Credit Suisse Inaugural Healthcare REIT Summit, in NY
• Piper Annual Private MedTech Symposium (virtual), 4/5-4/6
• American College of Cardiology 2022 Annual Meeting, 4/2-4/7, in Seattle
• China Caixin Services PMI for March

World News

• Bank of Japan’s Kuroda says that recent forex moves somewhat rapid, forex moves have big impact on Japan’s economy. BOJ Executive Director Shinichi Uchida says that consumer inflation will likely pick up to around 2% and stay there for some time
• The U.S. said Russia can’t use cash at U.S. banks to pay bonds. The US has decided to cut off Moscow’s access to frozen funds, after allowing some payments on a case-by-case basis. Russia’s must make sovereign bond coupon payments for bonds due in 2022 and 2042, due on Monday
• The RBA kept the cash rate unchanged at 0.10%, as expected, but did make some significant hawkish changes to the statement. The RBA removed ‘patient’ reference from and in doing so are moving a lot closer to removing accommodation, albeit with a few qualifiers around inflation and wages

Sector News Breakdown

Consumer

• Carnival (CCL) said it had its busiest booking week in the company’s history, seeing a double-digit increase between March 28 and April 3 from the previous seven-day record, according to a news statement. The company is operating nearly at its pre-pandemic capacity as 22 of its 23 ships are back in operation across its year-round US homeports.
• Tesla (TSLA): authorities in Shanghai extended lockdown orders in China’s biggest city, potentially extending the closure of its Gigafactory. With Covid cases in the city of 26 million surging past 13,000 — the highest in two years — Shanghai officials extended their nine-day lockdown order, while ramping up testing and vaccinations, to nearly all parts of the country’s financial hub.
• VF Corp. (VFC) downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Wells Fargo
• Xponential (XPOF) announces offering of 4.5M shares of common stock for holders

Energy, Industrials and Materials

• Acuity Brands (AYI) Q2 adj EPS $2.57 vs. est. $2.37; Q2 revs $909.1M vs. est. $884.62M
• Generac (GNRC) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs with an unchanged $410 tgt
• Cemex (CX) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs and cut tgt to $6
• The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index fell for the eighth straight session on Monday, with lower dayrates across all vessel segments; the Baltic Dry Index fell 2.1% to 2,307 points,

Financials

• Citigroup (C) is among underwriters that have halted initial public offerings of new U.S. blank-check companies, also known as SPACs, until they receive more clarity on the possible legal risks posed by recently proposed rules from the SEC – Bloomberg
• MarketAxess (MKTX) reported trading volume for March of $894.6 billion vs. $689.6 billion y/y; U.S. high-grade volume $134.13 trillion vs. $145.7 billion y/y; other credit volume $150.95 trillion vs. $146.87 billion y/y
• Marathon Digital (MARA) CEO Fred Thiel said that the cryptocurrency miner is open to the possibility of being purchased at the right price, Bloomberg’s reported. The company is among the globe’s biggest public Bitcoin mining companies with a market cap of approximately $2.9B
• Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) announces bitcoin production and mining operation updates for March 2022; produces a record 1,259 Bitcoin in Q1 2022, up 556% year-over-year from q1 2021 and up 15% sequentially from q4 2021; total Bitcoin Holdings Increase to 9,374 BTC
• Sphere 3D Corp. (ANY) and Gryphon Digital Mining Inc. mutually agreed to terminate their merger agreement from last year due to changing market conditions, the passage of time, and other factors
• Evergrande agrees to pay the adviser fees of a bondholder group that is working with the company to restructure debt, and to share more information with bondholders – Bloomberg

Healthcare

• Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclay’s and raise tgt to $13 from $11
• Change Healthcare (CHNG) and UNH’s Optum, a diversified health services company, agreed to extend their merger agreement to Dec.31, 2022. Under the extension, Optum will pay a $650M fee to Change Healthcare in the event the merger is unable to be completed because of the court’s decision.
• Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA) files to sell 292M shares of common stock for holders
• Theravance Biopharma, Inc. (TBPH) announces results from study 0170, a second phase 3 study of ampreloxetine, in patients with symptomatic neurogenic orthostatic hypotension (nOH)

Technology, Media & Telecom

• Twitter’s (TWTR) CEO Parag Agrawal told users to vote carefully after a poll was posted by Elon Musk, now the platform’s biggest shareholder, when he asked the question about an “edit” button.

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