Executive Summary: Well, markets took Federal Reserve Chairman’s dovish stance hook, line and sinker bidding stocks higher as we saw yields break 4.00% on the 10 year which is a first since the close of July. It was also the first close above 4700 since the first week of January in 2022. As Jerry Garcia said, “What a long strange trip its been.” Two data economic data points out this morning of note that confirm or deny the action of yesterday.

• Jobless Claims 8:30 a.m. EST
• November Retail Sales are due out at 8:30 a.m. EST and are expected to stay at -0.1%.

• IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
• New SPACs launched/News:
  • Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) received termination notices from PIPE Investors representing approximately $17,500,000 of the PIPE.
• Secondaries Priced:
  • ASLE: Announces prices secondary offering of 4.0 mln shares of common stock by selling shareholders.
  • OCUL: Prices offering of 30.8 million shares of common stock at $3.25 per share.
• Notes Priced of note: None of note.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • AXDX: Filed Form S-1.. Offering of Units.
  • BTTX: Filed Form S-1.. Up to 20,000,000 Shares of Common Stock.
  • MLSS: Announces Closing of $3.0 Million Public Offering of Common Stock.
  • OCUL: Commences public offering of its common stock; subsequent 15% share buyback. (Jefferies, BAC and Piper bookmanager)
  • SVRE: Filed Form f-1.. Up to 20,000,000 American Depositary Shares Representing 100,000,000 Ordinary Shares.
  • VERU: Proposed Public Offering of Common Stock. (RJ and Oppenheimer bookmanager)
• Direct Offering:
  • AZ: Announces US$1.5 Million Registered Direct Offering of Common Shares and Common Warrants.
• Selling Shareholders of note:
  • ASLE: Secondary Offering of Common Stock by selling shareholders. 4 Million shares. (RBC Underwriter)
  • NEXT: Filed Form S-3.. 44,900,323 shares of Common Stock for Sale by the Selling Stockholder.
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE): None of note.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • PBA: Form F-10 Filed Mixed Shelf.
• Debt/Credit Filing and Notes: None of note.
• Tender Offer: None of note.
• 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: 
  • NXU: +26% Nxu Engages in Strategic Partnership and Investment in Lynx Motors
  • TEX: +2.5% Insider Purchase
  • ADBE: -5.5% Earnings
  • PBA: -4% Announces Accretive Consolidation of Alliance Pipeline and Aux Sable, and Concurrent $1.1 Billion Bought Deal Offering of Subscription Receipts

• News Items After the Close:
  • DJIA closes at all time highs.
  • Adobe (ADBE) shares slide on weaker-than-expected forecast for 2024. (CNBC)
  • JPMORGAN: “.. with the Committee signaling that further inflation progress will be sufficient for easier policy, we now look for a first cut in June (previously July) and for a target range 125bp lower by year end.” (Carl Q Cnbc)
  • Barclays Expects Fed To Deliver Three 25Bps Rate Cuts In 2024 Starting In June – Vs One December 2024 Rate Cut Expected Previously.
  • Goldman Sachs Now Sees Fed To Deliver Three Consecutive 25Bps Rate Cuts In March, May And June
  • DoubleLine’s Jeffrey Gundlach says 10-year Treasury yield will fall to 3% next year. (CNBC)
  • UBS Steps Up Bid to Claw Back Cash From Credit Suisse Defectors. (Bloomberg)
  • Alibaba (BABA) pumps $630 million more into Lazada in race with TikTok, Sea (NikkeiAsia)
  • Robinhood Markets (HOOD) crypto notional trading volumes up 74% at $4 billion for November 2023.
  • GM fires 9 execs at Cruise, may face $1.5 million in fines.

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • 3D Systems (DDD) appoints Jeffrey Creech as CFO.
  • Crown Castle (CCI) informed its employees that the Company has canceled the plan announced on October 18, 2023 to relocate approximately 1,000 employee positions to a centralized location.
  • EOG Resources (EOG) promotes Jeffrey R. Leitzell to COO, promotes Ann D. Janssen to CFO.
  • KKR announces the appointment of Dane Holmes as Chief Administrative Officer.
  • Light & Wonder (LNW) appoints Oliver Chow as Executive Vice President, CFO, and Treasurer.
  • MAA Appoints Brad Hill to President and Chief Investment Officer.
  • Marten Transport (MRTN) appoints Adam D. Phillips to COO.
  • Mercury General (MCY) promotes Victor Joseph to COO position.
  • Quanex (NX) announces that George Wilson, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, will also become its Chairman of the Board.
  • RGS: NYSE Announces Intent to Commence Delisting Proceedings for Regis Corporation Common Stock; Opportunity to Appeal.
  • Veradigm Inc. (MDRX) Announces that Nasdaq Hearings Panel has Granted its Continued Listing, Pending Return to Compliance with Nasdaq Filing Requirements.
• Buyback Announcements or News:
  • Cadence Bank (CADE) announces 2024 share repurchase program to purchase up to an aggregate of 10 million common stocks.
  • New Mountain Finance Corporation (NMFC) Announces the Extension of its Stock Repurchase Program. (see Dividends below)
  • Seadrill (SDRL) initiates new $250 million share reppurchase program .
  • Toll Brothers (TOL) approves new 20 million share repurchase authorization replacing its current program. (see Dividends below)
• Stock Splits or News:
  • Virax Biolabs Group Limited (VRAX) Announces 1-for-10 Share Consolidation.
• Dividends Announcements or News: 
  • American Eagle (AEO) raises its quarterly dividend by 25% to $0.125 per share; 2.4% annual yield.
  • ARMOUR Residential REIT (ARR) reduces monthly dividend to $0.24 per share for January, down from $0.40 pre share prior
  • New Mountain Finance Corporation (NMFC) Declares a Special Distribution.
  • Preferred Bank (PFBC) increases its quarterly dividend 27.3% to $0.70 per share; 4.0% annual yield.
  • SITE Centers (SITC) declares cash special dividend of $0.16 per share.
  • Toll Brothers (TOL) announces dividend.
• 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: Utilities, Real Estate, Basic Materials, Healthcare, Financial, Consumer Defensive of note.
• Daily Negative Sectors: Definitely none of note.
• One Month Winners: Real Estate, Industrials, Financials of note.
• Three Month Winners: Technology, Financial, and Industrials of note.
• Six Month Winners: Technology, Communication Services 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.

Investors searched for hints Wednesday on whether the Federal Reserve might begin cutting interest rates next year. The central bank didn’t disappoint. Stocks hovered near the flatline throughout the trading session until Fed members unanimously voted to hold rates steady and signaled that they could begin easing monetary policy next year. While Chair Jerome Powell left the possibility of additional hikes on the table, markets paid little attention.  The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.4% apiece. The Dow Jones Industrial Average breached 37000 for the first time, settling at an all-time high of 37090. (WSJ – edited by QPI)

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

• Gap Up: ESPR +14%, CDXS +13%, SDRL +6% of note.
• Gap Down: OCUL -17%, ASLE -10%, MDRX -10%, ADBE -5% of note.

Insider Action: OXY, HTLD, NSA, WVE, AAP sees Insider buying with dumb short selling.  LOVE, 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 before the bell: MRNA, ADBE, LYV, UAL, DAL, FL, DHR, LEN, TRIP, OXY, OPEN (CNBC)
• What You Need To Know To Start Your Day. (Bloomberg)
• 5 Things To Know Before the Stock Market Opens on Thursday. (CNBC)
• Bloomberg Lead Story: Wall Street Traders Go All In On The Great Monetary Pivot 0f 2024 (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg Most Shared Story: Citigroup (C) offers early bonuses to encourage early departures. (Bloomberg)
• Bank of England (BOE) leaves rates unchanged but warns of “higher for longer”. (CNBC)
• Here’s why bringing down inflation is different this time says Chairman Powell. (CNBC)
• IEA Survey shows oil demand dropping indicating a sharper slowdown. (Bloomberg)
• BNP Strategist saws to overweight Europe over the U.S. (CNBC)
• Merck (MRK) -Moderna (MRNA) vaccine cuts risk skin cancer returns by half. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg The Big Take:  The Presidential Race no one wants. (Podcast)
• NPR Marketplace:   Meta has a problem with hosting predators on its platform. (Podcast)
• NY Times Daily:  The woman who fought the Texas abortion ban. (Podcast)
• Wealthion:  Navigating the Global Energy Crisis with Daniel Yergin. (Podcast)

Moving Average Update:

• 100%.  Day 4.  Strong.

Geopolitical: 

M&A Activity and News: 

• Carrier Global (CARR) Announces agreement to sell carrier commercial refrigeration to Haier for $775 million, including approximately $200 million of net pension liabilities.
• Certara (CERT) acquires Applied BioMath.
• Pembina Pipeline (PBA) announces accretive acquisition of Enbridge’s (ENB) interests in Alliance for an aggregate purchase price of ~$3.1 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: