Executive Summary:

• US small-business optimism ticked up to a five-month high in December, largely reflecting less pessimism around sales, earnings trends and economic expectations. (Bloomberg via CQ CNBC)
• Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael S. Barr 12:00 p.m. EST

• IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
• New SPACs launched/News:
  • Northern Revival Acquisition Corporation (NRAC): $572 Million Business Combination Between Braiin and Northern Revival Acquisition Corporation (Nasdaq: NRAC) Has Been Proposed and Form F-4 Jointly Filed With SEC.
• Secondaries Priced:
  • AKR: Prices offering of 6.9 million shares of common stock at $16.75 per share.
• Notes Priced of note:
  • BFH: Pricing and Upsize of Private Offering of $300 Million of Additional 9.750% Senior Notes Due 2029.
  • FRT: Prices upsized $425 million exchangeable senior notes.
  • MFA: Pricing of Public Offering of Senior Notes.
  • O: Prices $1.25 Billion Dual-tranche Offering of Senior Unsecured Notes.
  • REG: Prices $400 Million Senior Unsecured Notes Offering.
  • TSLX: Prices Public Offering of $350.0 million 6.125% Unsecured Notes due 2029.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • AKR: Offering of 6,000,000 Common Shares. (JPM and BAC bookmanagers)
  • ASNS: Filed Form S-1.. 2,631,357 Shares of Common Stock.
  • CISS: Filed Form F-1.. 9,090,909 Units consisting of Common Shares or Pre-Funded Warrants and Class B-1 Warrants to purchase Common Shares and Class B-2 Warrants to purchase Common Shares.
  • CYTO: Filed Form F-3..162,548 Common Shares Altamira Therapeutics Ltd.
  • FWBI: Filed Form S-3.. 1,762,674 Shares of Common Stock.
  • NTBL: Form RW Filed.
• Direct Offering: None of note.
• Selling Shareholders of note: None of note.
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE): None of note.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • SCLX: Form S-3/A Amended Filing — $500,000,000 Mixed Shelf.
• Debt/Credit Filing and Notes:
  • CTAS: Filed Form S-3ASR.. Senior Debt Securities.
• Tender Offer: None of note.
• Convertible Offering & Notes Filed: None of note.

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

News After The Close :

• After Hours Movers: 
  • BARK: +17% Total Revenue was Approximately $125 Million, Ahead of the Company’s Guidance Range
  • MXCT: +9.5% Preliminary Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Results
  • URBN: +6% Reports Record Holiday Sales and Personnel Update
  • AVIR: +5.5% Positive Initial Data from Phase 2 Study for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and Significant Enrollment Milestone for Phase 3 SUNRISE-3 Trial for COVID-19
  • U: +4% Plans to Cut 25% of Workforce
  • EXTR: -10% Provides Update to Q2 Outlook
  • MCHP: -4% Provides Preliminary Fiscal Third Quarter Revenue Results
  • JEF: -3.3% Earnings
  • ES: -3% Fourth Quarter 2023 Impairment
• News Items After the Close:
  • Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: U, MCHP, JBLU, URBN, BA, UAL, EXTR. (CNBC)
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPQ) Near Deal to Buy Juniper Networks (JNPR). (WSJ)
  • Fed Governor Bowman adjusts rate stance, says hikes likely over but not ready to cut yet. (CNBC)
  • JPMORGAN: “.. this is the first Fed tightening cycle where we saw corporate profits increase and net interest expense decrease. This suggests that profitability will hold up better than in previous cycles and may mean increases in unemployment are more gradual.”  (Carl Q. CNBC)
  • GSK’s  CEO Is Hunting for Acquisitions to Keep Up Drugmaker’s Momentum. (Bloomberg)
  • Urban Outfitters’ (URBN) stock rallies as chain reports 10% sales gain through holiday period. (MarketWatch)
  • Rumble (RUM) Is Part of an ‘Active and Ongoing’ SEC Investigation. (Wired)
  • Unity Software (U) to reduce its current workforce by 25% as it restructures and refocuses on its core business. (CNBC)
  • Microchip Technology (MCHP) stock drops after company forecasts bigger sales drop, amid ‘weakening economic environment’. (MarketWatch)
  • JetBlue Airways (JBLU) COO Joanna Geraghty named CEO becoming first female CEO of a U.S. airline. (MarketWatch)
  • NVDA “.. the forward P/E of NVDA has actually dropped sharply from a record high of 84.3 on June 14, 2023 to 26.4 now. .. The stock market may have started to discount our tech-driven, productivity-led Roaring 2020s scenario ..” (Yardeni via Carl Q. CNBC)
  • Investigators Outline Critical Questions in Boeing (BA) 737 Max 9 Incident. (NYTimes)

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • AllianceBernstein (AB) names Jackie Marks as CFO.
  • BYND Cannasoft Enterprises (BCAN) receives Nasdaq notice for non-compliance.
  • Correlate Energy (CIPI) gets new finance chief.
  • Greenbrier (GBX) CFO steps down.
  • Now (DNOW) announces plans to change its corporate legal name to ‘DNOW Inc.’
  • PetMed Express (PETS) names Leslie Campbell as Chairman of the Board.
  • Skillz (SKLZ) discloses new CFO.
  • Tarena (TEDU) to Change Ticker Symbol and Ring Nasdaq Opening Bell on January 10, 2024.
  • Tremor (TRMR) parent company name has changed to Nexxen International; will begin trading under the ticker ‘NEXN’
• Buyback Announcements or News: None of note.
• Stock Splits or News:
  • TTNP 1/20 reverse split stock for today.
• Dividends Announcements or News: 
  • Ellington Financial (EFC) last night declared a monthly dividend of $0.15/share of common stock, payable on February 26, 2024.
  • Plains GP and Plains All American (PAA) last night announced increased distributions.
    • PAA Common Units — $0.3175 per Common Unit ($1.27 per unit on an annualized basis), which represents a $0.05 increase from the distribution paid in November 2023 ($0.20 per unit increase, or 19%, on an annualized basis).
    • PAGP Class A Shares — $0.3175 per Class A Share ($1.27 per Class A Share on an annualized basis), which also represents a $0.05 increase from the distribution paid in November 2023 ($0.20 per unit increase, or 19%, on an annualized basis).
    • PAA Series A Preferred Units — $0.61524 per Series A Preferred Unit (approximately $2.46 per unit on an annualized basis).
• Insider Sales Of Note: None of note.

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

Sector Action – (1/3/6/12/YTD Updated Weekly with Monday release):  

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

U.S. stocks posted solid gains Monday, easing investor anxieties after the market’s rough start to 2024 last week.  Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite logged their best days since November, climbing 1.4% and 2.2%, respectively.  Large technology companies were at the forefront of the rally, just as they were the major driver of last week’s declines and 2023’s gains. All of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks climbed more than 1%, with chip maker Nvidia (NVDA) jumping 6.4%.  (WSJ – edited by QPI)

 

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

• Gap Up: MXCT +9%, URBN +7%, ACMR +4% of note.
• Gap Down: TCS -8%, EXTR -6%, JBLU -5%, MCHP -4%, DENN -4% of note.

Insider Action: AXR sees Insider buying with dumb short selling.  No stock sees Insider buying with smart short sellers.

Rags & Mags: Repeated stories from prior days never listed, i.e. “rehashed news”. Sorted by Global, U.S. and stock specific.

• What You Need To Know To Start Your Day. (Bloomberg)
• 5 Things To Know Before the Stock Market Opens on Tuesday. (CNBC)
• Bloomberg Lead Story: Boeing Probe Focuses on Door Bolts. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg  Most Shared Story:  Bottled Water contains more plastic particles than previously thought. (Bloomberg)
• Stocks, Bonds retreat under wave of debt supply: Markets Wrap. (Bloomberg)
• The hottest year on record puts Earth within touching distance of critical warming threshold. (CNBC)
• Biden Administration reverses Trump’s “gig worker” classification as of March 11. (CNBC)
• Cardinal Health (CAH) provides upbeat profit outlook. (MarketWatch)
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPQ) Near Deal to Buy Juniper Networks (JNPR). (WSJ)
• Bloomberg The Big Take:  What the world’s top financial minds are saying about 2024. (Podcast)
• NPR Marketplace:  Grumpy, grouchy and cranky. (Podcast)
• NY Times Daily:  The Afterlife of A Gun. (Podcast)
• BBC Global News Daily Podcast: Secretary of State Blinken arrives in Gaza. (Podcast)
• Wealthion:  Bianco’s call for 5.50% rates in 2024. (Podcast)

Moving Average Update:  Score rockets up to 88% from 42%.

Geopolitical: 

M&A Activity and News: 

• Stantec (STN) to acquire Morrison Hershfield.

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 is 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:

Previous Day’s Upgrades and Downgrades: