CAPIS Morning Note – 01/04/22: Daily Covid-19 Case Over 1 Million, Market Still Unphased

Overnight Summary: Stocks are modestly higher in the U.S., Asia and Europe. Asia is more mixed as China reported that the December Caixin Manufacturing PMI grew at 50.9 from November’s 49.9. Europe is mostly higher. S&P 500 Futures are higher at 4802.75 at 7:15 a.m. EST. The range overnight was 4781 to 4807.50. Breaking News:…

Overnight Summary: Stocks are modestly higher in the U.S., Asia and Europe. Asia is more mixed as China reported that the December Caixin Manufacturing PMI grew at 50.9 from November’s 49.9. Europe is mostly higher. S&P 500 Futures are higher at 4802.75 at 7:15 a.m. EST. The range overnight was 4781 to 4807.50.

Breaking News: Johns Hopkins reports that daily Covid-19 cases are now over 1 million cases at 1,082,549. (CNBC)

Note: Our tables and charts are not update through yesterday’s close as our data vendor did not update overnight. Check back around the open if you want to see those charts as we will update by then.

Earnings Out After The Close:

  • Beats: None.
  • Flat: None.
  • Misses: None

Capital Raises:

  • IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
  • New SPACs launched:
    • None of note.
  • Secondaries Priced: WMG priced sale of 8,562,500 shares of common stock.
  • Notes Priced of note: None of note.
  • Common Stock filings/Notes:
    • ITCI: Public Offering of $400 million shares of common stock.
    • ACFG: Public Offering of 3 million shares.
  • Pricing of Over-Allotment: None of note.
  • Direct Offering: None of note.
  • Selling Shareholders of note:
    • CNM: Public Offering of 20 Million Class A common shares by selling shareholders.
    • APG: Public Offering of 45 million common stock by selling shareholders.
    • WMG: Access Industries sells 8,562,500 shares of common stock.
  • Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE): None of note.
  • Mixed Shelf Offerings:
    • SBTX: Files $250 million mixed shelf offering.
  • Note Offerings Filed: None of note.
  • Convertible Offering & Notes Filed

Capital Raise Summary From The TradeXchange, bringing traders and investors real time news and Squawk Box, and other sources.

News After The Close:

  • After The Close Biggest Winners & Losers:
      • Trading Up: WKEY +10% LQDA +6%
      • Trading Down: CNM -7% ICTI -7% AFCG -5%.
  • News After The Close:
      • Restaurant Brands (QSR) to develop and open hundreds of Popeye’s in South Korea.
      • Greif (GREF) to divest 50% of Flexible Packing JV to Gulf Refined Packaging for $123 million.
      • Cable ONE (CABO) to enter JV with several private parties to support growth of Clearwave Fiber LLC.
  • Exchange/Listing/ Company Reorg and Personnel News
        • MX Names Shinyoung Park as CFO, retroactive to 1/1.
        • XPO President stepped down last week 12/27 but just announced yesterday.
        • Liquida Technologies (LQDA) names Dr. Roger Jeffs as CEO effective yesterday.
  • Buyback Announcements
          • ASGN: Up to $350 million through December, 2023.
          • Carrier Global (CARR) enters into an accelerated share repurchase agreement of $500 million of common stock.
  • Stock Splits:
    • None of note
  • Dividends Announcements:
    • BK to $0.30 up 3.45%.
    • ALG to $0.18 from $0.14.
    • LSI to $1.00 up 16%.

What’s Happening This Morning: Futures value reflects the change with fair value.

S&P 500 +9, Dow Jones +85, NASDAQ +8 and Russell 2000 +6. Asia and Europe mixed. VIX Futures are at 18.80 from 19.15 Monday morning. Gold higher with Silver and Copper lower. WTI Crude Oil and Brent Oil Futures higher. Natural Gas is higher. $ is higher vs Euro, lower vs Pound and higher vs Yen. US 10 year Treasury price is at $129.19 from $130.15 yesterday with yields at 1.661% from 1.5315% Monday morning. Bitcoin at $46,457 from $47,244yesterday morning and +1.21%. As of 8:15 a.m. EST.

Monday’s Action – 1/3 Close:  

  • Daily Positive Sectors: Energy, Consumer Cyclical, Financial and Technology of note.
  • Daily Negative Sectors: Materials, Utilities and Industrials of note.
  • One Month Winners: Real Estate, Consumer Defensive and Utilities of note.
  • Three Month Winners: Real Estate, Technology and Materials of note.
  • Six Month Winners: Technology, Real Estate, Utilities of note.
  • Twelve Month Winners: Energy, Real Estate, and Technology of note.
  • Year to Date Winners: Energy, Consumer Cyclical and Financials of note.

Selling into the close brought the major indexes down for the day.  Updated 12/31 close and not yesterday as missing vendor data.

Upcoming Earnings Of Note: (sorted by market cap, highest to lowest with most visible names)

  • Tuesday After the Close: MLKN of note.
  • Wednesday Before the Open: RPM of note.

Earnings of Note This Morning:

  • Beats: None.
  • Flat: None.
  • Misses: None.
  • Still to Report: None.

Erlanger Research Advance/Decline Chart: Updated through 12/31 close. A serious divergence exists between the S&P 500 and the Daily Market A/D Line.

Gap Ups & Down In Early Pre-Market:

  • Gap Up: LQDA +10.3%, MRSN +7.3%
  • Gap Down: CNM -8.4%, SE -6.6%, AFCG -5.4%, WMG -4%

Insider Action: No insider action of note this morning.

Rags & Mags: Highlighted Stories may be clicked through to the original story.  Repeated stories from prior days never listed, i.e. “rehashed news”.

  • Stocks Making the Biggest Moves: FL UA WMG  (CNBC)
  • Covid cases are not updated today from the CDC due to backlogs from the holiday weekend. The NYT reports at 484,000 for the 7 day average.
  • White House to select Philip Jefferson to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. (Bloomberg)
  • Democrats shift blame for inflation to corporations. (NYT)
  • Businesses, schools and government agencies are being impacted by Omicron related staffing issues. (NY Times)
  • Florida tells residents to stop getting Covid-19 test if there are no symptoms. (Orlando Sentinel)
  • Walmart (WMT) closes 60 stores to sanitize them. (Reuters)
  • Blackberry (BB) will no longer support original operating system. (NDTV)
  • Ford Motor (F) to increase production of all electric F-150 vehicles to 150,000.

Moving Average Update:

  • Score dipped down to 77% from 83%. Updated 12/31 close as awaiting vendor data.

Geopolitical: 

  • President’s Public Schedule:
    • The President and Vice President receive the Daily Briefing at 10:10 a.m. EST.
    • The President and Vice President meet with Covid-19 Response Team at 2:00 p.m. EST.
    • The President may be giving a speech on Omicron but no specific time yet.

Economic

  • December ISM Manufacturing Index is due out at 10:00 a.m. EST and is expected to fall to 60.3% from 61.1%.
  • Weekly API Petroleum Institute Data is due out at 4:30 p.m. EDT.

Federal Reserve Speakers:

  • None of note.

M&A Activity

  • Digital Realty Trust (DLR) to buy Teraco for $3.5 billion.
  • Blackbaud (BLKB) to buy EVERFI for $750 million in cash and stock. Reiterates full year outlook.
  • Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG) to buy Luxx Lighting for $215 million.

Meeting & Conferences of Note:

  • Sellside Conferences:  Citigroup 2022 AppsEconomy Conference Raymond James Deer Valley Summit 
    • Previously Posted and Ongoing Conferences:
      • Sankey Refining Conference (1/3-5)
  • Company Meetings: None of note.
  • Fireside Chat: None of note.
  • Investor/Analyst Day/Calls: AMD AMBA SSD BLKB
  • Update: None of note.
  • R&D Day: None of note.
  • Company Event: None of note.
  • Industry Meetings: OPEC Meeting (1/4)
    • Previously Posted and Ongoing Conferences:
      • Consumer Electronic Show (CES) (1/3-1/7).

Top Tier Sell-side Upgrades & Downgrades:

The recommendations listed below in this “Upgrade/Downgrade” section are compiled from what we believe are Tier I, II and III firms. Recommendations posted are taken from a variety of sources each day and we only post upgrades or significant initiations as well as downgrades to underweight or sell. The purpose of this posting it to make the reader aware of market moving recommendations. None of these recommendations should be interpreted as actual recommendations from CAPIS or its employees.

Today’s Upgrades and Downgrades:

 

Monday’s Upgrades and Downgrades: