Overnight Summary: The S&P 500 closed Wednesday higher by 1.10% from Tuesday lower by -0.28% at 4387.55. Overnight ranges saw the high hit at 4485.50 at 3:10 a.m. EDT while the low was hit at 446.50 at 4:15 p.m. EDT. The range overnight was 39 points. The 10-day average of the overnight range is at 28.60 from 27.70 yesterday.  The average for May/June/July average was 18.81 from 19.94 in May/June. Currently, the S&P 500 is higher by +28 points and by +0.63% at 7:20 a.m. EDT.

Earnings Out After The Close: 

• IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
• New SPACs launched/News:
  • Waverley Capital Acquisition Corp. 1 (WAVC) Will Redeem Its Public Shares and Will Not Consummate an Initial Business Combination.
• Secondaries Priced:
  • SCTL: Pricing of $8.3 Million Public Offering of Common Stock — public offering of 20,750,000 shares of its common stock (or common stock equivalents) at a public offering price of $0.40 per share of common stock.
• Notes Priced of note: None of note.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • CYBN: Announces Renewed At-The-Market Equity Program of up to US$35 Million.
  • EOSE: Form 8K.. Sales Agreement – from $100,000,000 to $200,000,000.
  • OTMO: Announces Expiration and Results of Exchange Offer and Consent Solicitation Relating to its Warrants and Notice to Exercise Right to Exchange Remaining Outstanding Warrants.
  • RVLP: Filed Form S-3.. 24,572,651 Ordinary Shares Underlying Series A-1 Warrants, Series A-2 Warrants and Placement Agent Warrants.
  • SCTL: Proposed Public Offering of Common Stock. (CraigHallum bookmanager)
• Direct Offering: None of note.
• Selling Shareholders of note:
  • DNA: Filed Form S-3.. 5,283,679 Shares of Class A common stock by selling shareholders.
  • HRTX: Filed Form S-3.. 21,897,808 Shares of Common Stock by selling shareholders.
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE):
  • OPT: Is seeking to raise $51.2 million via $6.4 million private placement and $44.8 million Accelerated Non-Renounceable Entitlement Offer.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • MPB: Files for $250 million mixed securities shelf offering.
  • NUE: Filed Form S-3ASR. Mixed Shelf.
• Debt/Credit Filing and Notes:
  • LNW: Successful Completion of Notes Offering.
• Tender Offer:
  • WYNN: Announces Early Results and Upsizing of Tender Offer for Cash by Wynn Las Vegas, LLC for its 5.500% Senior Notes due 2025.
• Convertible Offering & Notes Filed:
  • IONS: Entered into separate privately negotiated agreements with holders of 0.125% Convertible Senior Notes due 2024 to repurchase approx. $30.2 million of the 2024 Notes for approx. $29.2 million.
  • PRO: Entered into privately-negotiated agreements with holders of its 1.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2024 to exchange approx. $122 million of existing 2024 Notes for an amount of the previously-issued 2.250% Convertible Senior Notes due 2027.

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

News After The Close and Over the Holiday:

• After Hours: 
  • Trading Up: GES +15%, SPLK +11%, SMCI +8%, NVDA +8%, EHAB +8%, ADSK +6% of note.
  • Trading Down:  VNET -5% of note.
• News Items After the Close:
  • Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: NVDA, SPLK, ADSK, GES, SNOW, TSM, AMD, MRVL, SMCI (CNBC)
  • NVDA:
    • Dan Ives It’s all about AI demand and use cases. The rest of tech will see this unprecedented spending wave not seen since 1995 over the coming years but Nvidia is on the front lines and the best barometer of true spending. This is NOT hype, it’s jaw dropping spending happening NOW.
    • Tops Forecasts With Booming AI Chip Sales. (WSJ)
    • Approved An Additional $25 billion In Share Repurchases.
    • “A new computing era has begun. Companies worldwide are transitioning from general-purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA.
    • Nvidia’s stock soars after AI boom pushes chip giant to record earnings and blowout forecast. (MarketWatch)
  • Guess’ (GES) stock jumps 14% as retailer’s sales in Europe and Asia grow. (MarketWatch)
  • Autodesk’s (ADSK) stock jumps 7% on revenue, earnings beat. (MarketWatch)
  • Fed Chairman Powell Is Using Jackson Hole as Final Push in Inflation Fight. (Bloomberg)
  • General Motors (GM) to shut Arizona IT center, cuts 940 jobs.
  • BlackLine (BL) announces restructuring; to reduce global workforce by approximately 9%.

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • Exelixis (EXEL) names Amy Peterson, M.D. as CMO.
  • The LGL Group (LGL) Reports Second Quarter 2023 Results, Chairman Marc Gabelli Welcomes the Election of Two Independent Board Members and the Appointment of a CO-CEO.
  • Hain Celestial Group (HAIN) Announces New Chief Financial Officer.
  • Lytus Technologies (LYT) Receives Nasdaq Notification of Noncompliance with Audit Committee Requirements.
  • Mirati Therapeutics (MRTX) Announces Departure of Chief Financial Officer Laurie Stelzer.
  • Smith-Midland (SMID) Announces Receipt of Nasdaq Letter and Engagement of New Audit Firm.
  • Societal CDMO (SCTL) Announces Appointment of Matt Arens to Board of Directors.
• Buyback Announcements or News:
  • Nvidia (NVDA) Approved An Additional $25 billion In Share Repurchases.
  • Td Bank (TD) Announces New $8 Billion Dollar Stock Buyback.
• Stock Splits or News: None of note.
• Dividends Announcements or News: 
  • American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG) Increases Annual Common Stock Dividend by 12.7%; Eighteenth Consecutive Year of Dividend Increases.
• 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: Communication Services, Technology, Real Estate, Financial, Industrials, Basic Materials, Consumer Cyclical, Utilities of note.
• Daily Negative Sectors: None of note.
• One Month Winners: Energy, Communication Services of note.
• Three Month Winners: Energy, Consumer Cyclical, Industrials of note.
• Six Month Winners: Communication Services, Technology, Consumer Cyclical of note.
• Twelve Month Winners: Energy, Industrials, Technology of note.
• Year to Date Winners:  Communication Services, Technology, Consumer Cyclical of note.

Technology and real-estate shares lifted the S&P 500 to its best daily performance since June despite surveys of purchasing managers that flashed warnings of economic slowdown on both sides of the Atlantic.  The S&P 500 rose 1.1%. Energy shares were the only segment of the broader index that ended the day down, drifting lower along with prices for oil and gas futures.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5% or about 184 points. The Nasdaq Composite, which is loaded with tech stocks, gained 1.6% and is now up 31% this year thanks to investor excitement over artificial intelligence and chip makers powering the latest computing boom.  Shares of retailers and consumer-focused firms that reported quarterly results Wednesday were widely divergent. Foot Locker (FL) shares dropped 28%, while Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) popped 24%. Williams-Sonoma (WSM) added 13% and Kohl’s (KSS), Advance Auto Parts (AAP) and Bath & Body Works (BBWI) each climbed at least 3% on their own results.  (WSJ – edited by QPI)

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

• Gap Up: GES +14%, SPLK +14%, SMCI +8%, EHAB +8%, NVDA +7%, ADSK +6%, MRVL +4%, IXHL +4%, HKD +4% of note.
• Gap Down: OOMA -7%, SPR -7%, ZUO -4% of note.

Insider Action: No stock 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.

• 5 Things to Know Before the Stock Market Opens. (CNBC)
• Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg Lead Story:  Nvidia Nears Record High as AI Demand Fuels Blowout Forecast. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg Most Shared Story:  More people call in sick on August 24th than any other day. (Bloomberg) 
• NASDAQ futures jump 1% as Nvidia stokes tech rally: Market Wrap. (Bloomberg)
• Turkey hikes interest rate to 25% in bid to tame inflation. (CNBC)
• BRICs expand adding Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and Argentina to the makeup. (Bloomberg)
• Credit card delinquencies are on the upswing. (Fox Business)
• UAW to vote on strike today. (CBS News)
• Boeing (BA) finds new defect in 737 Max. (Bloomberg)
• Petco (WOOF) issues a warning and is down -9%. (MarketWatch)
• NPR Marketplace: The theme of this year’s Federal Reserve symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is “Structural Shifts in the Global Economy.” Today, we ask a handful of economists who aren’t sitting around the campfire with Jay Powell to weigh in. Then: Just half of CEOs see climate change as a threat to their business. And later: Could teaching more women poker narrow the boardroom gender gap? (Podcast)
• BBC Global News: Prigozhin pronounced dead after plane crashes or was shot down. (Podcast) 
• NY Times The Daily: A fiery first GOP debate without Trump. (Podcast)
• Bloomberg:  The Big Take: Chris Christie’s Anti-Trump strategy: Act like Trump. (Podcast)
• Wealthion: Perfect Storm dead ahead for markets. get your money to safety. (Podcast)

Moving Average Update:

• The score jumps to 51% from 31%.  All short term (5 day) are on the upside and the long term (200 day).

Geopolitical: 

M&A Activity and News: None of note.

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: