Overnight Summary: The S&P 500 closed Friday higher by 0.94% at 4358.34 from Thursday higher by 1.89% at 4317.78. The overnight high was hit at 4386.75 at 6:45 p.m. EST while the low was hit at 4374 at 7:35 p.m. EST. The range overnight was 12 points as of 7:30 a.m. EST. The 10-day average of the overnight range is at 25.80 from 29.20 down from a peak of 31.50 on 8/15.  The average for May-September average was 20.96 from 21.10 in May through August and the September average was 19.87. Currently, the S&P 500 is higher by  +6.50 points which is  +0.15% at 7:25 a.m. EST.

Earnings Out After The Close: 

• IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
• New SPACs launched/News:
  • Healthwell Acquisition Corp (HWEL): Starton Therapeutics announces termination of business combination agreement with Healthwell Acquisition Corp. I
• Secondaries Priced: None of note.
• Notes Priced of note: None of note.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • American Intl (AIG) announces launch of secondary offering of Corebridge Financial (CRBG) common stock.
  • AVRO: Filed Form RW.
  • FWBI: Filed Form S-1.. Files to sell common stock.
  • SPRC: Filed Form F-3.. Up to 3,860,216 Ordinary Shares.
  • ZVSA: Filed Form S-1 – Common stock offering.
• Direct Offering:
  • GDC: Closing of $10 Million Registered Direct Offering Priced At-the-Market Under Nasdaq Rules.
• Selling Shareholders of note: None of note.
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE): None of note.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • ALPN: Commenced an underwritten public offering of $150 million of shares pursuant to its existing shelf registration statement.
  • CLDX: Filed Form S-3ASR.. Mixed Shelf.
  • CPG: Files mixed securities shelf offering.
  • CVE: Files mixed securities shelf offering.
  • LVS: Files mixed shelf securities offering.
  • OVID: Filed Form S-3.. $250,000,000 Mixed Shelf.
  • PRME: Files for $500 mln mixed securities shelf offering.
  • SNOA: Filed Form S-3.. $51,300,000 Mixed Shelf.
  • VIR: Files mixed securities shelf offering.
  • WRB: Files mixed shelf securities offering.
• Debt/Credit Filing and Notes:
  • CPT: Closes $500 Million 5.850% Senior Unsecured Note Offering.
  • ECL: Filed Form S-3ASR.. Debt Shelf.
• Tender Offer:
  • KEYS: Completes the Acquisition of a Controlling Block of Shares of ESI Group and Confirms its Intent to Launch a Tender Offer for the Remaining Outstanding Shares.
• 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 and Over the Week:

• Weekly Wrap Up: Best and Worst performing large cap stocks:
  • Trading Up: TGTX 60%, TREE 53%, ROKU 50%, CPS 49%, FATE 44%, OMI 42%, HMST 42%, EGHT 41%, ALLO 40%, CERS 38%, PRLB 37%, CHRS 37%, AAOI 35%, PBI 35%.
  • Trading Down: PAYC -34%, COMM -32%, SRPT -27%, FOXF -26%, PETS -23%, SAVE -23%, ASTE -20%, ON -18%, EXTR -18%, LSCC -18%, PCTY -17%, SQQQ -17%, RGR -16%, BPT -16%, SSRM -13%, TNDM -13%.

• News Items After the Close:
  • Atlanta Fed President Bostic (not a FOMC voter) says Fed should watch and be patient with rates. (Bloomberg)
  • WE: Cole Capital Funds Seeks to Acquire 51% of all minority ownership shares of WeWork, Inc. for $9.00 per share in Cash. (News and Press releases were quickly deleted after appearing).
  • BAE Systems (BAESY) awarded a $211 million modification to a previously awarded US Navy contract.
• News Items Over the Weekend:
  • The Score: Stocks That Defined the Week. (AAPL, JBLU, AMD, WE, NVO, FUN) (WSJ)
  • Ford (F) Announces Layoffs For 1,600 Staff At Louisville Assembly Plant.
  • South Korea will prohibit stock short-selling from Monday until June 2024 to allow regulators to “actively” improve rules and systems, the Financial Services Commission said Sunday.
  • Where Are Commodities Prices Headed? (WSJ)
  • Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/BRK.B) (WSJ)
    • BRK.B invested $29.1 Billion into Treasury Bills during Q3.
    • BRKA cash a record $157 billion
  • Elon Musk’s X Has Started Selling Off Old Twitter Handles For Upwards Of $50,000 Emails obtained by Forbes reveal that a team within the company, known as the HandleTeam, has begun work on a handle marketplace for the purchase of account names left unused by the people who originally registered them. In at least some cases, X/Twitter has emailed solicitations to potential buyers requesting a flat fee of $50,000 to initiate a purchase.
  • JPM warns that the current upbeat momentum in equities / stocks may be short-lived, with a shift to ‘unattractive risk-reward’ by year’s end. As rates peak, the initial positive market reaction could face headwinds, with 2024 earnings likely to adjust downward. They highlight waning pricing power and possible margin contractions amidst top-line growth slowdowns.
  •  Barron’s:
    • Positive View: DELL, HPQ, LNVGY, VSTS, CVX, VRTX of note.
    • Cautious View: AAPL of note.
    • Mixed View: None of note.
• Erlanger Type 1 Short Squeezes and Type 4 Long Squeezes reporting earnings this week:

        

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • Chemed (CHE) CFO David Williams to retire at year end.
  • Earlyworks Co., Ltd. (ELWS) Receives Nasdaq Notification Regarding Minimum Bid Price Deficiency.
  • Fisker (FSR) promotes David King as its new Chief Technology Officer.
  • Guardant Health (GH) COO Ines Dahne-Steuber to resign.
  • IceCure Medical (ICCM) Announces Receipt of Nasdaq Minimum Bid Price Notification.
  • Lantronix (LTRX) appointed Saleel Awsare to serve as the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer effective as of November 20, 2023.
  • Mayville Engineering (MEC) COO Rand Stille to step down in connection with the restructuring of the operations team.
  • Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) CFO Gautam Ranji resigns.
• Buyback Announcements or News: 
  • Align Tech (ALGN) is planning to repurchase $100 million of Align’s common stock through open market repurchases under Align’s $1.0 billion stock repurchase program.
  • Tenaris (TS) to Commence a USD 300 million First Tranche of its USD 1.2 Billion Share Buyback Program.
• Stock Splits or News:
  • CREV trading 10/1 reverse split.
  • JCSE trading reverse split.
  •  MDXH 1-for-10 reverse split. To delist from Euronext and transition to sole listing of shares on Nasdaq.
• Dividends Announcements or News: 
  • Air Lease (AL) raises quarterly dividend by 5%.
• 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: Real Estate, Consumer Cyclical, Basic Materials, Communication Services, Financial, Technology, Industrials of note.
• Daily Negative Sectors: Energy of note.
• One Month Winners: Utilities, Energy, Basic Materials of note.
• Three Month Winners: Energy of note.
• Six Month Winners: Communication Services, Technology, Energy of note.
• Twelve Month Winners: Communication Services, Technology, and Consumer Cyclical of note.
• Year to Date Winners:  Communication Services, Technology, Consumer Cyclical of note.

The S&P 500 rallied Friday, capping its best weekly performance since November 2022, after the latest monthly jobs report suggested the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate raising campaign is working.  The broad index gained 0.9%, bringing its gains for the week to 5.9%. The index is up 14% this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added about 200 points, or 0.7%, on Friday, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.4%. Those indexes also recorded their biggest weekly percentage gains of the year.  (WSJ – edited by QPI)

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

• Gap Up: CLDX +14%, PHIN +7%, PRME +6%, CRSP +6%, VIR +4%, HUT +4% of note.
• Gap Down: KOD -9%, DISH -8%, ALPN -4% of note.

Insider Action: No stock sees Insider buying with dumb short selling. RPTX 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.

• Five Things You Need To Know Before You Start Your Day. (Bloomberg)
• 5 Things To Know Before The Stock Market Opens. (CNBC)
• Bloomberg Lead Story: Israel Latest: Evacuations of foreigners from Gaza strip stalls. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg Most Shared Story: Amazon’s Bezos makes move from Seattle to Miami. (Bloomberg)
• South Korea will eliminate short-selling until the end of 2024. (Bloomberg)
• Former President Donald J. Trump will testify in the New York fraud trial on his businesses. (CNBC)
• Hedge funds pile into stocks at the fastest pace in 2 years. (Reuters)
• Starbucks (SBUX) to raise wages 3% in January. (MarketWatch)
• NPR Morning Report Marketplace:  Military service members’ personal data for sale. Is this a threat to national security? (Podcast)
• NY Times The Daily:  Swing state voters are souring on Biden. (Podcast)
• BBC Global News: Israel says it has cut Gaza in two. (Podcast) 
• Bloomberg: The Big Take: Growing pressure on Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. (Podcast) 
• Wealthion: The battle between inflation and deflation, Stephanie Pomboy. (Podcast)

Moving Average Update:

• Score improves to 88% from 74%.  Major indexes have cleared all moving averages.  Mid and Small Cap still need more work.

Geopolitical: 

M&A Activity and News: 

• BEST Inc. (BEST) Announces Receipt of a Preliminary Non-Binding Proposal to Acquire the Company and Formation of Special Committee.
• BigBear.ai (BBAI) to acquire Pangiam for approximately $70 million in an all-stock transaction.
• Bluegreen Vacations Holding (BVH) to be acquired by Hilton Grand Vacations (HGV) for $75.00/share in an all cash transaction.

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: