Market Tone:  Can we hold above 3700 on the S&P 500 and move to 3800 by year end?

Tesla Impact: Telsa (TSLA) will join the S&P 500 on Monday but may impact trading this afternoon. Expect the unexpected. (WSJ)

Covid-19 Statistics: 

Total Cases 17,004,147 from 16,762,527

Deaths 302,261 from 298,823

New Tests 1,873,340 from 1,791,968

New Cases 241,620 from 232,258 with positivity rate of 12.8% (down 0.1)

Daily Deaths 3,438

Current Hospitalizations 114,237 from 113,090

Capital Raises:

IPOs Priced: 908 Devices (MASS) priced at $20 above range of $18 to $19.

Secondaries Priced:   None of note.

Notes Priced of note: None of note.

Common Stock filings: EGLE AHCO of note.

Selling Shareholders of note: None of note.

Mixed Shelf Offerings:  TGI of note.

Convertible Offering Files:  None of note.

Senior Notes Filed: None of note.

Earnings Out After The Close:

Beats: FDX +0.84, AIR +0.14, SCS +0.05, BB +0.03

Flat:

Misses: SCHL (0.23)

News After The Close (sorted by time starting at the close):

Amgen (AMGN) gets approval for RIABNI.

Texas Roadhouse (TXRH) names Jerry Morgan as President.

SolarWinds (SWI) updates 8-K on cyber attack.

FDA Advisory Panel vote 20-0 in favor of Moderna (MRNA) vaccine.

VEREIT (VER) completes a 1:5 split, effective today.

Honeywell (HON) wins a $1.1 billion Army contract.

Perspecta (PRSP) wins a $610 million Air Force contract.

Repare Therapeutics (RPTX) to be added to NASDAQ Biotechnology Index on Monday.

Dividend Increase:  ALEX WMC TWO ENSG WSBF STXB

Raises Guidance: 

Lowers Guidance: SCS X CNC

Stock Buyback New Or Increase: EVTC HIG SBCF EGBN

Hourly Action: Earlier has been a struggle.

What’s Happening This Morning: Futures value reflects the change with fair value. We will still indicate the fair value direction.

S&P 500 +0.02   Dow Jones Industrial Average -30   NASDAQ +22    Russell 2000 +5.05. Fair values are mixed to lower. Asia higher and Europe mixed. VIX is at 23.95 from 24.39 this morning in futures. VIX closed at 21.93 from 22.50 and the three month futures at 25.15 from 25.47.

Gold higher, silver lower and copper higher. WTI Crude Oil and Brent Oil Futures modestly lower. Natural Gas is higher. $ is lower vs Euro, higher vs Pound and higher vs Yen. US 10 year Treasury price is at $137.83 from $137.88  with the yield at 0.91% from 0.905%.

Positive Sectors On Thursday: Materials, Healthcare and Consumer Cyclical of note.

Negative Sectors On Thursday: Energy and Communication Services of note. 

One Month Winners: Energy, Financials Real Estate and Industrials  of note.

Three Month Winners: Industrials, Communication Services, Utilities and Financials of note.

Six Month Winners: Consumer Cyclical, Industrials, Technology and Materials of note.

Twelve Month Winners: Technology, Consumer Cyclical, Communication Services and Healthcare of note.

Year to Date: Technology, Consumer Cyclical, Communication Services, Healthcare and Materials of note.

Upcoming Earnings Of: (sorted by market cap, highest to lowest with most visible names)

Today After the Close: NKE of note.

Monday Before the Open: FDS of note.

Earnings This Morning Of Note:

Beats: WGO +0.68, APOG +0.21, DRI +0.03

Flat: none

Misses: none

Erlanger Research Advance/Decline Chart –  Updated 12/17 Close.

Gap Ups & Down In Early Pre-Market:

Gap Up:

MREO +41%, DMTK +24%, BEAT +16%, TLC +6%

Gap Down:

MESO -32%, SCHL -13%, GLSI -12%, EGLE -8%, SCS -8%, BB -6%, CKPT -4%, X -3%, FDX -3%,

Rags & Mags: Highlighted Stories may be clicked through to the original story. 

Stocks Making The Biggest Moves – WGO SCHL. (CNBC)

5 things to know before the market opens. (CNBC)

Biggest analyst calls of the day AAPL MU ABNB DASH. (CNBC Pro)

Stimulus Bill update, no deal yet but close. (NYT)

Government shuts down ahead this weekend as omnibus spending bill is tied to stimulus? (The Hill)

Vice President Pence along with the Second Lady got their vaccine shots.

The list of companies breached by the Russian cyber attack continues to grow as Microsoft (MST) was hacked. (Reuters)

Trump Administration to blacklist dozen of Chinese companies impacted U.S. tech companies. (Reuters)

 

Stock Index Trading:

Current through 12/17 close. Overall confidence remains at 100%.

Bold means a change from prior day.

Economic:

November Leading Indicators are due out at 10:00 a.m. EST and is expected to fall to 0.4% from 0.7%.

Geopolitical & Related:

President Trump meets with the Acting Secretary of Defense 3:30 p.m. EST Oval Office.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) announces their latest decision and holds a on Thursday night.

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard will speak at 11:10 a.m. EST.

Federal Reserve latest stress tests for banks are released at 4:30 p.m. EST.

Government funding deadline at midnight. There is a chance the government will be shut down this weekend.

Investor Meetings & Conferences of Note:

 CNC TLC (Investor Day) CNSP (Conference Call)

Sellside Conferences:

Industry Conferences: NASH Summit Digital Conference (12/15-12/18)

M&A:

Earthstone Energy (ESTE) to buy Independence Resources Management for $186 million.

Philips (PHG) to buy BioTelemetry (BEAT) for $72.

PPG Industries (PPG) to buy Tikkurila for $1.1 pounds.

Upgrades & Downgrades: