Executive Summary: This is a busy news week. Today we have 2 bond auctions. Pay attention to market reaction as stocks have moved on lukewarm auctions. Second, we get new inflation data. Last the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) will hold their last meeting of the year. Over the weekend, Macy’s gets a bid as does CrownRock from Occidental.

• 3 Year Note Auction 11:30 a.m. EST
• 10 Yr Note Auction 1:00 p.m. EST

• IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
• New SPACs launched/News: None of note.
• Secondaries Priced:
  • MLSS: Pricing of $3.0 Million Public Offering of Common Stock.. 4,765,000 shares $0.63.
• Notes Priced of note:
  • CVI: Pricing of Private Placement of $600 Million of 8.500% Senior Notes due 2029.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • AIMD: Filed Form S-1.. Up to 10,200,000 Shares of Common Stock.
  • CNSP: Filed Form S-1.. Up to 3,809,524 Shares of Common Stock.
  • EYPT: Announces Closing of Upsized Public Offering and Full Exercise of Option to Purchase Additional Shares.
  • GGE: Proposed Public Offering. (Maxim Bookmanager)
  • IPA: Closing of $1.265 Million Public Offering of Common Shares.
  • ISUN: Filed Form S-3.. $50,000,000 Common Stock.
  • MLSS: Announces Proposed Public Offering of Common Stock.
  • NHWK: Form 8K.. entered into a Sales Agreement.
  • SWTX: Announces Closing of Upsized Public Offering of Common Stock and Full Exercise of Underwriters’ Option to Purchase Additional Shares.
• Direct Offering:
  • BODY: Announces $5,300,000 Registered Direct Offering.
• Selling Shareholders of note:
  • HARP: Files for 25,751,025 shares of common stock by selling shareholders.
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE): None of note.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • ICU: Filed Form S-3.. $100,000,000 Mixed Shelf.
  • OABI: Files for $300 million mixed securities shelf offering.
• Debt/Credit Filing and Notes:
  • BFH: Intends to offer $500 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes in a private offering.
  • HASI: Files for share common stock offering by selling shareholders; relates to Green Exchangeable Senior Unsecured Notes.
• Tender Offer: None of note.
• Convertible Offering & Notes Filed:
  • AFRM: Form 8-K.. BoD authorized the repurchase of up to $800 million in aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 0% Convertible Senior Notes due 2026.

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 Weekend:

• Weekly Wrap Up: Best and Worst performing large cap stocks:
  • Trading Up: HA 175%, MBI 82%, SLDB 67%, GTHX 61%, ALLK 36%, DERM 32%, SNBR 32%, RILY 26%, RIGL 21%, AAOI 21%, AX 19%, TREE 19%, SMTC 18%, CARA 18%, JBLU 17%, LOVE 17%.
  • Trading Down: BLUE -33%, CMTL -27%, MESO -24%, DAKT -23%, MDRX -18%, RH -15%, BPT -15%, SSL -15%, FATE -15%, GDS -15%, DSX -14%, ARCB -14%, IAG -14%, BTE -13%, AU -13%, MDB -13%, AR -12%, TPIC -12%.
• News Items After the Close:
  • American Electric (AEP) awarded a $315.9 million Defense Logistics Agency contract.
  • Boeing (BA) awarded a modification to an existing US Special Operations Command delivery order with a value of $271 million.
  • Textron (TXT) awarded a $128 million modification to a US Navy contract.
  • Parsons (PSN) Awarded $21 Million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Contract For Munitions Response Geophysics.
• News Items Over the Weekend:
  • The Score: Stocks That Defined the Week: SPOT, HA, ALK, CVS, GOOG, GME (WSJ)
  • Cigna (CI) Calls Off Humana (HUM) Pursuit, Plans Big Stock Buyback. (WSJ)
  • This week’s Fed meeting could slam the brakes on the year-end stock rally. (MarketWatch)
  • Macy’s (M) receives $5.8 billion buyout offer, sources say. (CNBC)
  • Why Treasury Auctions Have Wall Street on Edge. (WSJ)
  • LSU QB Jayden Daniels wins 2023 Heisman Trophy. (YahooSports)
  •  Barron’s:
    • Positive View: VRNS, FLYW, FOUR, CWAN, GWRE of note.
    • Cautious View: JPM, C, WFC, BAC, DAR of note.
    • Mixed View: INTC of note.

• Erlanger Type 1 Short Squeezes and Type 4 Long Squeezes reporting earnings this week:

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • Annual Changes to the Nasdaq-100 Index:
    • Added to the Index: CDW Corporation (CDW), Coca-Cola Europacific Partners plc (CCEP), DoorDash, Inc. (DASH), MongoDB, Inc. (MDB), Roper Technologies, Inc. (ROP), and Splunk Inc. (SPLK).
    • The following six companies will be removed from the Index: Align Technology, Inc. (ALGN), eBay Inc. (EBAY), Enphase Energy, Inc. (ENPH), JD.com, Inc. (JD), Lucid Group, Inc. (LCID), and Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (ZM).
  • ALLR CEO let go.
  • Aveanna Healthcare Holdings (AVAH) Announces Appointment of Chief Financial Officer.
  • Boeing (BA) names Stephanie Pope as executive vice president and chief operating officer.
  • Beyond, Inc. (BYON) CTO Joel Weight resigns at the request of management.
  • Commercial Vehicle Group (CVGI) names James Ray as President and CEO.
  • DTE Energy (DTE) reduced the threshold of outstanding shares required to call a special shareholder meeting from 25% to 15%.
  • Gildan Activewear (GIL) announced that Glenn J. Chamandy has left his position as President and Chief Executive Officer and director of the Company.
  • Snow Lake (LITM) Receives Nasdaq Notification Regarding Minimum Bid Price Deficiency.
  • Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE) CFO David F. Byrnes resigned.
  • Silicon Labs (SLAB) announces CFO transition; John Hollister will depart to join partner GlobalFoundries (GFS) as CFO; CAO Mark Mauldin to be named interim CFO.
  • SouthState (SSB) Announces Transfer of Listing of Common Stock to NYSE.
  • TELL: Martin Houston Becomes Chairman of Tellurian Inc.
• Buyback Announcements or News:
  • The Cigna Group (CI) announces significant increase to share repurchase program of $10 billion; will consider bolt-on acquisitions.
  • Kontoor Brands (KTB) authorized $300 million share repurchase program.
• Stock Splits or News: None of note.
• Dividends Announcements or News: 
  • AES approves 4% dividend increase; to $0.1725 per share – new yield is 3.8%.
  • Albany Intl (AIN) increases quarterly cash dividend 4% to $0.26 per share from $0.25 per share.
  • W.R. Berkley (WRB) declares special cash dividend of $0.50/share to be paid on December 27 to stockholders of record at the close of business on December 18.
• 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: Energy, Technology, Financial, Industrials of note.
• Daily Negative Sectors: Consumer Defensive, Communication Services of note.
• One Month Winners: Real Estate, Industrials, Financials Technology, Consumer Cyclical of note.
• Three Month Winners: Technology, Financial, and Industrials Communication Services of note.
• Six Month Winners: Technology, Communication Services, Consumer Cyclical Financial  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.

Markets ticked higher to end the week after closely watched Job’s Data came in slightly hotter than expectations.  U.S. employers added 199,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department said, a slowdown from earlier in the year but more than economists expected. The unemployment rate slipped to 3.7%.  The S&P 500 closed 0.4% higher to post a weekly gain, its sixth straight. The Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average also added 0.4%. All three major indexes closed at their highest level of the year. For traders, Friday’s data added to optimism that the economy is gliding toward a soft landing. Stocks have rallied and bond yields have dropped since the beginning of November as investors have bet that the Federal Reserve will get inflation under control without causing a steep recession. (WSJ – edited by QPI)

 

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

• Gap Up: PSTX +25%, CI +11%, MOR +6%, BLUE +5%, NKTX +5%, CRVS +5% of note.
• Gap Down: BMEA -12%, COGT -6%, ADPT -5% of note.

Insider Action: HTLD sees Insider buying with dumb short selling.  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.

• Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: CI, SNAP, M, OXY, PINS, JWN, KSS, NKE, BBY (CNBC)
• 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:  Rate Cut Pivot Can’t Come Soon Enough For Debt Strapped Companies. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg Second Most Shared Story:  Battery Startup ONE demotes founder and CEO during cash crunch. (Bloomberg)
• Stocks make cautious start to event-packed week: Market Wrap. (Bloomberg)
• Oppenheimer Strategist John Stoltzfus sees S&P 500 hitting 5,200. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg The Big Take: Ukraine struggles for weapons as winter nears. (Podcast)
• NPR Marketplace:  Green bubble shaming pits iPhone fans against Android users. (Podcast)
• NY Times Daily:   Can an “Anarcho Capitalist” President save Argentina’s economy? (Podcast)
• BBC Global News Daily Podcast:  Argentina needs “shock treatment” to fix economy. (Podcast)
• Wealthion: Weekly Market Recap with Adam Kobeissi. (Podcast)

Moving Average Update:

• 100%.  All green!

Geopolitical: 

M&A Activity and News: 

• Macy’s (M) – See News over the weekend.
• Manulife (MFC) announces $13 billion reinsurance deal, including $6 billion of long-term care, with Global Atlantic.
• Occidental Petroleum (OXY) bids $12 billion to buy privately held CrownRock, a petroleum producer. (CNBC)

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: