Executive Summary: The only thing you need to know about today is that The Big Dog aka Federal Reserve Chairman Powell speaks not once but twice today. The first time is 11 a.m. EST and the second is 2:00 p.m. EST. Watch for reaction to his comments. We also enter December trading and guess what, just because the calendar flips sometimes the market flips direction as well.

• November ISM Manufacturing Index is due out at 10:00 a.m. EST and is expected to rise to 47.5% from 46.7%.
• October Construction Spending  is due out at 10:00 a.m. EST and expected to fall to 0.3% from 0.4%.
• Federal Reserve Chicago President Austan Goolsbee 10:00 a.m. EST
• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell 11:00 a.m. EST
• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell 2:00 p.m. EST

• IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
• New SPACs launched/News:
  • M3-Brigade Acquisition II Corp. (MBAC) Announces Redemption of Class A Common Stock.
  • PROOF Acquisition Corp I (PACI) Announces Intention to Transfer to NYSE American LLC Upon Completion of Business Combination with Volato.
• Secondaries Priced:
  • POLA: Pricing of Public Offering 4,000,000 shares @$0.40. (ThinkEquity bookmanager)
  • SMCI: Prices offering of 2,100,700 shares of its common stock at $262.00 per share.
• Notes Priced of note:
  • AAOI: Announces Pricing of $80.2 million of Convertible Senior Notes due 2026.
  • GBDC: Prices Public Offering of $450 Million 7.050% Notes Due 2028.
  • GEL: Upsizes and Prices Public Offering of Senior Notes.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • CWAN: Launches a secondary offering of 17 million common shares of Class A common stock.
  • FEMY: Filed Form S-3.. 18,111,861 Shares Common Stock.
  • FTHM: Proposed Primary and Secondary Offering of Common Stock. (Roth Bookmanager)
  • LEXX: Filed Form S-1.. 1,618,330 Shares of Common Stock.
  • POLA: Proposed Public Offering of Common Stock. (ThinkEquity bookmanager)
  • SMCI: Announces proposed public offering of 2,100,700 shares of its common stock.
  • SMFL: Exercise of Warrants for $1.5 Million Gross Proceeds.
  • TGL: Announces Closing of $4.0 Million Public Offering.
  • THAR: Announces Closing of $11 Million Public Offering.
• Direct Offering:
  • KZIA: Announces $2 Million Registered Direct Offering.
• Selling Shareholders of note:
  • AIG: Announces Launch of Secondary Offering of Corebridge Financial, Inc. (CRBG) Common Stock.
  • VRDN: Files for 15,024,238 shares of common stock by selling shareholders.
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE): None of note.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • CRM: Files mixed shelf securities offering.
  • TMC: Files $100 million mixed shelf securities offering.
• Debt/Credit Filing and Notes:
  • CACC: Announces Completion of $200.0 Million Asset-Backed Financing.
• Tender Offer:
  • TMO: Extends the Expiration of Tender Offer for All Outstanding Common Shares and ADSs of Olink.
• 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: 
  • BIOR: +60% FDA Clearance of IND Application for Drug/Device Combination BT-600 Targeting Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis
  • ALT: +33% Positive Topline Results from MOMENTUM 48-Week Phase 2 Obesity Trial of Pemvidutide
  • ESTC: +16% Earnings
  • IOT: +15% Earnings
  • ULTA: +12% Earnings
  • PATH: +11% Earnings
  • GCT: +10% Earnings
  • DOMO: +8.5% Earnings
  • PD: +7% Earnings
  • CLSK: -10% Earnings
  • CWAN: -4.5% Secondary Offering of Class A Common Stock
  • MRVL: -4% Earnings
  • DELL: -4% Earnings
• News Items After the Close:
  • Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: DIS, ULTA, MRVL, DELL, PD, AMBA, IOT (CNBC)
  • Ulta Beauty (ULTA) shares pop as sales climb 6%. (CNBC)
  • JPMORGAN: Today’s “inflation reports brought some welcome news of further moderations in both headline and core. .. Should this disinflation trend continue, we think the Fed could be on track to ease sometime around mid-2024.” (Carl Q CNBC)
  • U.S. Buys 2.73 Million Barrels Of Oil For Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
  • Comcast (CMCSA): Vox Media cutting about 4% of its workforce, the second round of layoffs this year.
  • BofA: $2.1 billion of outflows from US Small Caps, largest in seven weeks.
  • Starting at $60,990, Tesla’s (TSLA) Cybertruck is priced 50% higher than initial estimate. (Reuters)
  • General Dynamics (GD) will compete with Tactical Systems, Inc. for a $655 mln U.S. Army contract.

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • AC Immune (ACIU) announces promotion of interim CFO Christopher Roberts to Chief Financial Officer; also announces appointment of Dr. Madiha Derouazi as Chief Scientific Officer.
  • AirNet (ANTE) Announces Receipt of Minimum Bid Price Notice from Nasdaq.
  • Beyond, Inc. (BYON) board of directors unanimously approves a declassification of the Board, subject to shareholder approval at the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
  • Cameco (CCJ) appoints Catherine Gignac as chair of the board of directors.
  • CNB Financial (CCNE) elects Jeffrey Powell as Chairperson.
  • CNX Announces Executive Leadership Addition.
  • Markel Group (MKL) COO Bob Cox to leave his role.
  • Rail Vision (RVSN) Regains Compliance with Nasdaq Minimum Bid Price Requirement.
  • Silence Therapeutics (SLN) promotes Curtis Rambaran, MD, to Chief Medical Officer.
  • StoneCo (STNE) Announces Board Changes
  • Skyward Specialty Insurance Group (SKWD) Chairman Cameron MacDonald resigning.
  • Ulta Beauty (ULTA) announces that Scott Settersen will reitre as CFO; SVP of finance Paula Oyibo promoted to CFO.
  • Vista Outdoor (VSTO) appointed Eric Nyman and Jason Vanderbrink to serve as Co-Chief Executive Officers in connection with and in preparation for the consummation of Revelyst Transaction.
• Buyback Announcements or News:
  • ACRES Commercial Realty Corp. (ACR) Reauthorizes an Additional $10 Million Share Repurchase Program.
  • American Woodmark Corporation (AMWD) Announces Second Quarter Results and a $125 Million Stock Repurchase Authorization.
  • Lattice Semi (LSCC) expands stock repurchase program with new $250 million authorization.
  • Raymond James (RJF) authorizes stock repurchase program of up to $1.5 bln of common stock. (see dividends)
• Stock Splits or News: None of note.
• Dividends Announcements or News: 
  • Bank of Montreal (BMO) increases quarterly dividend $0.04 to $1.51 per share.
  • Walt Disney (DIS) announces a cash dividend of $0.30 per share in respect of the second half of fiscal year 2023; company had suspended its dividend in the spring of 2020.
  • Park Hotels & Resorts (PK) issues Q4 dividend of $0.93 per share.
  • Raymond James (RJF) increases quarterly dividend by 7.1% to $0.45 per share.
• 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: Healthcare, Industrials, Financials, Consumer Defensive, Real Estate, Energy of note.
• Daily Negative Sectors: Communication Services of note.
• One Month Winners: Technology, Real Estate, Consumer Cyclical of note.
• Three Month Winners: Technology, Communication Services, and Financial of note.
• Six Month Winners: Consumer Cyclical, Technology, Communication Services of note.
• Twelve Month Winners: Communication Services, Technology and Consumer Cyclical of note.
• Year to Date Winners:  Communication Services, Technology, Consumer Cyclical and Industrials of note.

U.S. stocks recorded their best month in more than a year, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing Thursday to a 2023 high, while bonds posted their biggest monthly gain in years.  Commerce Department data on Thursday showed that Americans slowed their spending and that inflation continued to ease in October, boosting expectations that the Fed is done raising rates.  All three major U.S. stock indexes ended November at least 8% higher, snapping three-month losing streaks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led the way, ending the month up 10.7% despite a 0.2% decline on Thursday. The S&P 500 gained 0.4% Thursday to finish November 8.9% higher.  The blue-chip Dow, which on Thursday rose 1.5%, or 520 points, had its best month since October 2022, climbing 8.8% to its highest close since January 2022.  (WSJ – edited by QPI)

 

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

• Gap Up: ALT +36%, ESTC +18%, PATH +15%, IOT +15%, ULTA +11%, DOMO +8%, PD +6%, TV +4% of note.
• Gap Down: CWAN -6%, MRVL -5%, DELL -5% of note.

Insider Action: No stock sees Insider buying with dumb short selling.  PLSE, GDRX 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.

• Stocks Making The Biggest Move Before The Open: PFE DIS TSLA BABA PARA MRVL COIN ULTA DELL BNTX. (CNBC)
• 5 Things To Know Before the Stock Market Opens on Friday. (CNBC)
• Bloomberg Lead Story: Israel Latest: Army Expands Ground Activity in Gaza, Cease-Fire is over. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg Most Shared Story:   Banking Escapees make billions from private credit boom. (Bloomberg)
• Stock rebound wanes with stocks near key levels: Market Wrap. (Bloomberg)
• Pfizer (PFE) pulls twice a day weight loss drug in favor of daily drug. (CNBC)
• Bloomberg The Big Take: Taylor Swift is a pop icon and a billionaire. (Podcast)
• NPR Marketplace:  One year of ChatGPT. (Podcast)
• NY Times Daily:  Should you rent or buy? (Podcast)
• BBC Global News Daily Podcast: Blinken warns Israel to protect citizens of Gaza. (Podcast)
• Wealthion:  Decoding market disconnects with Michael Gayed. (Podcast)

Moving Average Update:

• Score goes to 88% from 82%.

Geopolitical: 

M&A Activity and News: 

• Nevro (NVRO) acquires Vyrsa Technologies for $40 million at closing and agreed to pay up to an additional $35 million in cash or stock tied to achievement of certain development and sales milestones.

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: