Breaking News: European Central Bank left rates unchanged. Will continue to buy 20 billion Euros a month of bonds. Press conference at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Key Interview: After the close, NIH Director Dr. Anthony Fauci gave an indepth interview on state of Covid-19 and new Delta Variant. No political will for mask mandate again.

Earnings After The Close:

Capital Raises: 

IPOs Priced or News: Ryan Specialty Group (RYAN) priced at $23.50 at midpoint range of $22 to $25. Zenvia (ZENV) priced at $13. Instructure (INST) priced at $20 a share which midpoint range of $19 to $21. Zevia PBC (ZVIA) priced at $14 a share midpoint range of $13 to $15. Couchbase (BASE) priced at $24 above $20 to $23 range.

New SPACs launched: Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. (PSAC) will combine with Faraday Future, expected to start trading today with symbol FFIE.

Secondaries Priced: None of note.

Notes Priced of note: FOUR BLDR CCL STZ of note.

Common Stock filings: NTRA TCON of note.

Selling Shareholders of note:  HLLY of note.

Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE): None of note.

Mixed Shelf Offerings:  None of note.

Convertible Offering & Notes Filed:  None of note.

Note Offerings 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:

Enterprises Financial (EFSC) completes merger with First Choice Bancorp (FCBP).

Whiting Petroleum (WLL) to buy Williston Bain assets for $271 million.

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said he would accept Bitcoin again in the future. (NY Post)

Zoom (ZM) may use a blank check deal to take Cvent public. (Bloomberg)

Parsons (SPN) wins at $950 million Air Force contract.

After Hours + RGP +10% XL +7% VMI +5% UFPI +4%  and  –14% KALU -5% TXN -4% .

Dividend Increases: BAC CBU SWK MC PAG RF 

Stock Split:

Higher Guidance: LSTR 

Mixed Guidance:

Lower Guidance:

Buyback Announcements: MC NDAQ (accelerated)

What’s Happening This Morning: Futures value reflects the change with fair value. 

S&P 500 +1Dow Jones Industrial Average +47  NASDAQ +13 Russell 2000 10.  Fair values are mixed. Asia and Europe higher. VIX is at 20 from 21.30 in futures. VIX closed at $17.91 from $19.73. Gold lower, silver lower and copper higher. WTI Crude Oil higher and Brent Oil Futures higher. Natural Gas is lower. $ is lower vs Euro, higher vs Pound and lower vs Yen. US 10 year Treasury price is at $133.92 from $134.52 with yields at 1.24% yesterday. Bitcoin at $32095 from $31592 up +$356 or +1.12%.

Wednesday’s Action – 7/21 Close.  

Positive Sectors On Wednesday: Energy, Materials, Financials and Industrials of note.

Negative Sectors On Wednesday: Utilities of note.

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

Three Month Winners: Energy, Real Estate and Healthcare of note.

Six Month Winners: Real Estate, Communication Services, Energy and Financials of note.

Twelve Month Winners: Materials, Communication Services, Industrials, Financials and Energy of note.

Year to Date: Energy, Communication Services, Financials, Real Estate and Industrials of note.

Stocks were higher, Bonds lower, U.S. Dollar lower and Commodities higher ex gold. Updated 7/21 Close.

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

Above is the list of insider buys from this morning and is sorted by Erlanger Volume Swing (EVS). The idea here is simple. Find stocks where insiders are buying and the shorts are “dumb short sellers”.  None of note with heavy short selling and as note above Delta with moderate. Updated 7/22

Erlanger Research Advance/Decline Chart –Updated through 7/21 close.  The Market Daily AD Line continued its bounce but yet to give all clear.

Gap Ups & Down In Early Pre-Market:

Gap up: SP +21.6%, RGP +9.9%, OMF +8.5%, HRTX +5.5%, CLPT +5.4%, TPH +5.4%, XL +4.7%, UFPI +4.3%, VMI +3.9%, ACAD +3.7%

Gap down: NTGR -15%, TXN -5.3%, KALU -4.7%, UL -4.4%, THC -3.1%, GGG -3%

Rags & Mags: Highlighted Stories may be clicked through to the original story.  Repeated stories from prior days never listed, i.e. “rehashed news”.

Stocks making the biggest moves NTGR UL WHR DOW T DHI LUV BX BIIB    (CNBC)

5 Things To Know Before The Market Opens. (CNBC)

Covid Stats: Cases 46,318 versus 31,815 a week ago. 20,241 current hospitalizations versus 15,069 a week ago. (CDC)

White House considering recommendations  that Americans wear masks in more settings.  (The Washington Post)

President Biden expects “near term inflation” but unlikely to last. (Bloomberg)

Senate Infrastructure Bill pushed until Monday. (WSJ)

Pfizer (PFE) and AstraZeneca (AZN) are effective against the Delta variant.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb expects current wave of Covid-19 will peak in late August or early September. (CNBC)

Tesla (TSLA) Berlin factory is delayed in its opening. (NYT)

Robinhood looks at Tesla (TSLA) move to open its supercharger network to other EVs. Compare contracts of Snap (SNAP) and Twitter (TWTR).

Index Moving Averages: 7/21 Close – The Confidence Score moves to 85% from 30.  

Geopolitical:

Fed Speakers

None of note today.

Economic:

Weekly Jobless Applications are due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

June Existing Home Sales is due out at 10:00 a.m. EDT and is expected to come in at 5.90 million from 5.8 million.

June Leading Indicators are due out at 10:00 a.m. EDT and is expected to fall to 0.9% from 1.3%.

Weekly Natural Gas Inventories are due out at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

M&A Activity:

Meetings of Note:

Sellside Conferences: None of note

Company Meetings:  CYDY (Webcast) CGRN IPWR  (Fireside Chat) SCHW (Update) AGTC (R&D Day) 

Industry Meetings:

Upgrades & Downgrades: Todays recs see 10 upgrades and 5 downgrades.

Wednesday Recs