• IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
• New SPACs launched/News: None of note.
• Secondaries Priced:
  • VBTX: Pricing of Common Stock Offering .. 3,947,369 shares @$38.
• Notes Priced of note:
  • BSX: Boston Scientific Announces Pricing of €3.0 Billion of Senior Notes.
  • ENR: Upsizing and Pricing of $300 Million Senior Notes.
  • KMPR: Kemper Prices $150 Million Fixed-Rate Reset Junior Subordinated Debentures Offering.
  • LSB Industries (LXU) Announces Upsize and Pricing of $200 Million Private Offering of 6.250% Senior Secured Notes Due 2028.
  • Lumentum (LITE) announces pricing of $750 million convertible notes offering.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • Main Street Capital (MAIN) filed prospectus supplement to sell up to 15 million shares of common stock and entered into separate equity distribution agreements.
• Pricing of Over-Allotment:
  • iQIYI (IQ) announced a private placement of $285 million.
• Direct Offering:
  • WPP plc (WPP) entered into an agreement with Goldman Sachs (GS) to the purchase WPP’s ordinary shares for an aggregate purchase price of up to £200 million.
• Selling Shareholders of note:
  • Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT) files for 1,745,260 share common stock offering by selling shareholders.
  • Affirm (AFRM) selling shareholders file to sell 22 million shares.
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE): None of note.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • AFRM: Filed Form S-3ASR — Mixed Shelf Offering.
  • GOSS: Files Form S-3ASR .. Mixed Shelf.
• Convertible Offering & Notes Filed:
  • Secoo (SECO) Announces Refinancing of US$175 million Convertible Note.
  • SACH: Prices Registered Public Offering of $50.0 Million of 6.00% Notes.

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: 
  • Trading Up: SG +19%, FNKO +17%, PBYI +13%, DUOL +12%, VERI +11%, ALHC +11%, CVT +10%, GPS +9%, GDYN +8%, EVC +5%, AVGO +4%.
  • Trading Down: SWBI -15%, PAYO -4%.

• News After The Close:
  • Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: AVGO, GPS, SWBI, SG   (CNBC)
  • International Atomic Energy Agency says that fire (following Russian shelling) at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine has not affected “essential” equipment; no change reported in radiation levels; CNBC reporting that fire has been extinguished, but Russia seized control of the plant.
  • Major credit rating agency lowers Russia rating as risk of default rises.
  • Amazon (AMZN) gives FTC deadline in mid-March to act on MGM acquisition as all information provided to FTC. (MarketWatch)
  • Chip shortage forces Ford (F) to cut SUV, truck production at two plants. (CNBC)
  • Disney (DIS) Discusses Launching Ad-Supported Tier of Disney+ in U.S. (The Information).
  • Panasonic planning massive battery plant in U.S. to supply Tesla -NHK. (Reuters)
  • Sweetgreen (SG) stock rallies more than 20% after Q4 sales beat (MarketWatch)
  • Gap (GPS) beat estimates by $0.12 and guided Fiscal Year 2023 EPS above estimates.

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • AVANGRID (AGR) Appoints Pedro Azagra CEO.
  • Eneti Inc. (NETI) Announces Purchase of Call Options by the President of the Company and Purchase of Common Shares by Scorpio Holdings Limited.
  • Evolus (EOLS) announces retirement of CFO Lauren Silvernail, effective May 31.
  • Inogen (INGN) appoints Kristin Caltrider as EVP & Chief Financial Officer, effective March 21.
  • Nam Tai Property (NTP) appointed Yu Chunhua to the role of interim CEO.
  • Ranger Oil (ROCC) announces the promotion of Julia Gwaltney to the role of Senior Vice President and COO effective immediately.
  • Sentage Holdings Inc. (SNTG) Receives Nasdaq Notification Regarding Minimum Bid Price Deficiency.
  • vTv Therapeutics (VTVT) Announces CEO Transition.
• Buyback Announcements:
  • Cognex (CGNX) authorizes new $500 mln share repurchase plan.
  • Entravision (EVC) approves $20 million share repurchase program.
  • Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) Announces $600 Million Share Repurchase Authorization.
• Stock Splits:
  • See ACMR below in Dividends.
• Dividends Announcements:
  • ACM Research (ACMR) approves 3-for-1 stock split in form of stock dividend.
  • Academy Sports + Outdoors (ASO) initiation of quarterly cash dividend of $0.075 per share.
  • Digital Realty Trust (DLR) raises quarterly cash dividend for common stock to $1.22 per share, a 5% increase.
  • Synovus (SNV) increases quarterly dividend by $0.01 to $0.34 per share.

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

S&P 500 -36, Dow Jones -300 , NASDAQ -99, and Russell 2000 -23.  Asia and Europe mixed. VIX Futures are at 31.85 from 30.02 yesterday morning. Gold, Silver and Copper higher. WTI Crude Oil and Brent Oil Futures higher. Natural Gas is higher. $ is higher vs Euro, higher vs Pound and lower vs Yen. US 10 year Treasury with yields at 1.78% from 1.859% yesterday.  Bitcoin is at $41,400 from $43,752 at -1.43%. As of 8:07 a.m. EST

Wednesday’s Action – 03/03/22 Close:  

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

Benchmark indexes fades the opening highs and ended in the red.  NASDAQ was down 1.56%.  Oil and Natural gas pulled back 1.18% and 2.23%.    Updated 03/03/22 close.

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

Gap Ups & Down In Early Pre-Market:

• Gap Up: SG +19%, FNKO +17%, ALHC +11%, VERI +10%, DUOL +10%, GPS +7%, EVC +6%, CVT +5%.
• Gap Down: YNDX -21%, SWBI -20%, HHR -15%, VZIO -8%, ING -6%, PAYO -5%, WPP -4%.

Insider Action: OEC, AZO sees Insider buying with dumb short selling. NDLS, TUP sees Insider buying with smart short sellers. 03/03/22 close.

Rags & Mags: Repeated stories from prior days never listed, i.e. “rehashed news”.

• Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: TSLA, SG, GPS, COST, MRVL, AVGO (CNBC)
• 5 Things To Know To Start Your Day. (Bloomberg)
• Russian forces attack Ukrainian power plant, damage it and take over. No leakage at this point. Putin warns against more sanctions. (CNBC)
• Russian and Ukrainian talks fall to produce a ceasefire but agreed on civilian evacuations. (WSJ)
• North American Class 8 Truck Orders fell 53% in February. (Freight Waves)
• White House will not support a ban on Russian oil imports despite House and Senate approval from both parties. (Bloomberg)
• U.S. nearing agreement with Iran on a nuclear deal. (CNN)
• CDC notes “vast majority” of counties in the U.S. are in low or moderate transmission levels and as such they lower mask mandate in those areas. (CDC)
• Google (GOOGL) suspends ad sales in Russia. (Reuters)
• Airbnb (ABNB) suspends all operations in Russia and Belarus.
• Robinhood Snacks looks at efforts to pressure Russian President Putin through the oligarchs and their superyachts. Women come back to workforce, new data today.

Moving Average Update:

• Score slips to 36% from 46%.  Updated 03/03/22 close.

Geopolitical: