Executive Summary: Today is all about the monthly Job’s Data. A mild increase is expected but a drop could send yields lower and stocks higher. On the other hand, a strong number could send yields higher and stock back to 4500 on the S&P 500. We will know the answer shortly. FOMC due up next week. How convenient.

• November Nonfarm Payroll is due out at 8:30 a.m. EST and is expected to rise to 175,000 from 150,000. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 3.90%.
  • Here’s what the market will be looking for in Friday’s key jobs report. (CNBC)
• The December University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment (prelim) is due out at 10:00 a.m. EST and is expected to rise to 62.6 from 61.30.

• IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
• New SPACs launched/News:
  • Vaso Corporation (AVHI), a Diversified Medical Technology Company Currently Trading on the OTCQX Market, to List on Nasdaq via SPAC Merger.
• Secondaries Priced:
  • GTES: Announces Pricing Of Secondary Offering Of 15,000,000 Ordinary Shares.
  • PR: Pricing of $500.0 Million Private Placement of Additional 7.000% Senior Notes Due 2032.
  • SEAT: Announces Pricing of Secondary Offering and Repurchase of Class A Common Stock 18,500,000 shares of the Company’s Class A common stock (“Class A common stock”) by Hoya Topco, LLC (the “selling stockholder”) at a price to the public of $6.50 per share.
• Notes Priced of note:
  • ATH: Prices $600 Million Investment Grade Notes Offering.
  • VTMX: Pricing of Follow-On Offering of US$ 148.8 Million (Gross Proceeds) of ADSs @$35.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • CMS: Filed Form 8K .. commencement of an equity offering program.
  • CZOO: Filed Form F-3.. Secondary Offering of 4,499,721 Class A Ordinary Shares.
  • DRMA: Filed Form S-3.. 7,187,237 Shares of Common Stock Issuable Upon Exercise of Outstanding Warrants.
• Direct Offering: None of note.
• Selling Shareholders of note:
  • GTES: Files for 15,000,000 shares of common stock by selling shareholders. (Citi, GS and Jefferes Bookmanager)
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE):
  • PEGA: Increases Private Placement Offerings.
  • SYRE: Announces $180 Million Private Placement.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • GLAD: Filed Form N-2.. $700,000,000 Mixed Shelf Offering.
  • NAMS: Filed Form F-3.. $400,000,000 Mixed Shelf.
  • PHGE: Filed Form S-3.. $150,000,000 Mixed Shelf.
• Debt/Credit Filing and Notes: None of note.
• Tender Offer: None of note.
• Convertible Offering & Notes Filed:
  • NKLA: Prices Offerings of Common Stock and Convertible Senior 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 Movers: 
  • MBI: +61% Declares Extraordinary Cash Dividend on MBIA Inc. Common Stock and Dividends from National Public Finance Guarantee Corporation
    • Shorts got vaporized!

• • ALGS: +21.5% Positive Clinical Data at Hep-DART 2023 from Phase 1 Studies in HBV (ALG-000184) and NASH (ALG-055009)
  • SMAR: +3% Earnings
  • HCP: -21% Earnings
  • TRKA: -15% Receives Notice from Nasdaq Regarding Delisting
  • RH: -9% Earnings
  • GTES: -7% SECONDARY OFFERING OF 15,000,000 ORDINARY SHARES
  • SWBI: -5% Earnings
  • LULU: -3% Earnings
  • DOCU: -1.5% Earnings
  • SPOT: -1.5% CFO transition
  • AVGO: -1% Earnings
• News Items After the Close:
  • Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: AVGO, LULU, RH, LEVI, DOCU, HCP (CNBC)
  • DocuSign’s (DOCU) stock jumps 8% then cools on results, guidance. (MarketWatch)
  • Lululemon’s (LULU) Sales Growth Is Slowing Ahead of the Holidays. (Bloomberg)
  • Something strange is happening in the financial plumbing under Wall Street. (MarketWatch)
  • MBIA (MBI) announces extraordinary cash dividend on MBIA common stock of $8.00 per share to shareholders of record as of December 18 to be paid on December 22, which totals ~$409 million.
  • Ventyx Biosciences (VTYX) to reduce its workforce by approximately 20%.
  • Primoris Services (PRIM) receives several awarded totaling over $800 million.

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • Agora (API) announces that its Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer to step down; responsibilities to transition to company’s Chief Revenue Officer and its Chairman and CEO.
  • Arco (ARCE) Announces Merger Completion and Becomes a Private Company.
  • Cassava Sciences (SAVA) Appoints Three New Members to its Board of Directors.
  • Coherus BioSciences (CHRS) Announces CFO Transition Plans.
  • Crown Castle (CCI) announces retirement of Jay Brown as CEO, Antony Melone appointed interim CEO. (CNBC)
  • Global Ship Lease (GSL) announces retirement of CEO Ian Webber, effective March 31; Thomas Lister appointed to succeed as CEO.
  • Infobird Co., Ltd (IFBD) Regains Compliance with Nasdaq Minimum Bid Price Requirement.
  • Lanvin Group (LANV) Announces New CEO.
  • Levi Strauss (LEVI) CEO Chip Bergh to retire on April 26, 2024; to be succeeded by current President Michelle Gass. (MarketWatch)
  • S&P Global (SPGI) announces departure of CFO Ewout Steenbergen.
  • Spotify (SPOT) CFO Paul Vogel will be leaving the company on March 31, 2024; Ben Kung, VP of Financial Planning and Analysis to take on responsibilities in the interim. (MarketWatch)
  • Torrid (CURV) promotes Paula Dempsey to CFO.
  • Troika Media Group Inc. (TRKA) Receives Notice from Nasdaq Regarding Delisting.
• Buyback Announcements or News:
  • AerCap (AER) approved a share repurchase program authorizing total repurchases of up to $250 million.
  • lululemon athletica inc. (LULU) Board of Directors Authorizes $1.0 Billion Stock Repurchase Program.
• Stock Splits or News:
  • American Battery Materials (BLTH) Announces Reverse Stock Split.
  • AUVI: Applied UV Announces 1-for-25 Reverse Stock Split
• Dividends Announcements or News: 
  • AMAT: Applied Materials declares $0.32 dividend.
  • Broadcom (AVGO) raised its quarterly dividend by 14% to $5.25 per share.
  • CubeSmart (CUBE) increases quarterly cash dividend to $0.51 per share from $0.49 per share.
  • DTE Energy (DTE) increases quarterly dividend to $1.02 per share from $0.9525 per share.
  • Ecolab (ECL) increases quarterly cash dividend by 8% to $0.57 per share.
  • Hillenbrand (HI) raises its quarterly dividend by 1.1% to $0.2225 per share.
  • Invitation Homes (INVH) increases quarterly cash dividend to $0.28 per share from $0.26 per share.
  • Marriott Vacations (VAC) increases quarterly cash dividend by 5% to $0.76 per share.
  • MBI: See news after the close.
  • Owens Corning (OC) increases quarterly cash dividend 15% to $0.60 per share from $0.52 per share.
  • U-Haul Holding Company (UHAL) Announces Increase to Quarterly Cash Dividend.
  • Universal Health (UHT) increases quarterly cash dividend to $0.725 per share from $0.72 per share.
  • W.P. Carey (WPC) decreases quarterly cash dividend to $1.071 per share from $0.86 per share reflecting both the Company’s strategic plan to exit the office assets within its portfolio and a lower payout ratio.
  • Zoetis (ZTS) increases quarterly cash dividend 15% to $0.432 per share from $0.375 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: Communication Services, Technology, Basic Materials, Consumer Cyclical, Financial of note.
• Daily Negative Sectors: Energy of note.
• One Month Winners: Real Estate, Technology, Consumer Cyclical of note.
• Three Month Winners: Technology, Financial, and Communication Services of note.
• Six Month Winners: Consumer Cyclical, Financial and Technology of note.
• Twelve Month Winners: Technology, Communication Services, and Consumer Cyclical of note.
• Year to Date Winners:  Technology, Communication Services, Consumer Cyclical, and Industrials of note.

Stocks resumed their climb Thursday, led by the shares of big technology companies that have powered the market for much of the year. The S&P 500 was up 0.8%, closing near its high for the year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.4%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2%. After a big November rally fueled by encouraging inflation data, stocks had mostly stalled to start December. The rally was back on Thursday thanks to more artificial intelligence speculation, a driver of this year’s gains. Advanced Micro Devices was the S&P 500’s best performer, closing up 9.9% after the chip maker said Microsoft, Meta  and Oracle adopted—or are in the process of adopting— their new AI chips. Google parent Alphabet 5.34% soared more than 5% a day after unveiling its new AI system that will become widely available early next year. Tech titans  Amazon.com AMZN and META were up more than 1.5%. Shares of Nvidia NVDA, the big winner of the AI trade, rose 2.4% as well. (WSJ – edited by QPI)

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

• Gap Up: MBI +62%, CURV +18%, MOMO +8%, SMAR +4% of note.
• Gap Down: HCP -24%, CDMO -19%, RH -9%, GTES -8%, SWBI -8%, SYRE -4% of note.

Insider Action: NSA sees Insider buying with dumb short selling.  BOC, PLSE 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 Wednesday. (CNBC)
• Bloomberg Lead Story: U.S. Unemployment Rate to Tick Up Amid Early Signs of Recession. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg Second Most Shared Story: Harvard and Penn Heads walk back Genocide answers after backlash. (Bloomberg)
• Stock futures slip in nervy wait for U.S. payrolls. (Bloomberg)
• Bank of America says rising yields will drag on stocks in Q1. Not sure how that happens if a recession takes hold, worthy read. (Bloomberg)
• Here’s what markets will be looking for in today’s Job’s Data. (CNBC)
• Bloomberg The Big Take:  The U.S. has a defense supply chain problem. (Podcast)
• NPR Marketplace: Layoffs hit Spotify, Google launches its AI tool and unexpected cameo star. (Podcast)
• NY Times Daily:  Biden is trying to reign in Israel. Is it working? (Podcast)
• BBC Global News Daily Podcast: U.N. says aid operation in southern Gaza no longer called that. (Podcast)

Moving Average Update:

• Score recovers to 94% from 68%.

Geopolitical: 

M&A Activity and News: 

• Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG) acquires Adelaide, Australia-based My Plan Manager.
• Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) enters into agreement to acquire Automotive Business Solutions.
• Carrier (CARR) Announces Agreement to Sell Global Access Solutions Business to Honeywell (HON) for $4.95 Billion.

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: