CAPIS Morning Note – 9/19/25: Russell 2000 Breaks To All Time High

Overnight Summary & Early Morning Trading: The S&P 500 finished Thursday higher by 0.48% at 6656.80 from Wednesday lower by -0.10% at 6600.35. S&P 500 hits its 24th All-Time Closing High of 2025 yesterday. Futures are higher this morning by +2.50 (0.04%) at 6696.25 on the S&P 500 around 5:45 a.m. EDT. Year to date […]

Overnight Summary & Early Morning Trading: 

  • The S&P 500 finished Thursday higher by 0.48% at 6656.80 from Wednesday lower by -0.10% at 6600.35.

  • S&P 500 hits its 24th All-Time Closing High of 2025 yesterday.

  • Futures are higher this morning by +2.50 (0.04%) at 6696.25 on the S&P 500 around 5:45 a.m. EDT.

  • Year to date the S&P 500 is up by 12.73% from 12.23% from Friday’s close.

Executive Summary:

  • The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) made its first rate cut of the year. The cut was 25 basis points or 0.25%.  Key was the messaging to the next two meetings in 2025. Looks like more 25 basis points ahead into year end. We note the Russell 2000 broke out to a new all time high yesterday.

Key Events of Note Today:  

  • Economic news of note today includes Baker Hughes Rig Count.
  • Fed Speak of note today:
  • President Trump is back from the U.K. and has an Intelligence Briefing and then signs Executive Orders.

Notable Earnings Out After The Close: 

  • Beats:  FDX +0.22, LEN +0.19 of note.
  • Misses: None of note.
  • Flat: None of note.

Capital Raises: 

  • IPOs For The Week: AGCC, DTDT, NPT, NTSK, PTRN, RGNT, STUB, WBI of note.
  • New IPOs/SPACs launched/News:
  • IPOs Filed/Priced:
  • Secondaries Filed or Priced:
  • Notes Priced:
  • Convertibles Filed:
  • Direct Offering: None of note.
  • Exchangeable Subordinate Voting Shares: None of note.
  • Private Placements:
  • Selling Shareholders of note:
    • STTK files for 105,270,692 share common stock offering by selling shareholders 
  • Mixed Shelf Offerings:
    • RTX files a mixed shelf offering.

News After The Close: 

  • FedEx (FDX) beat on earnings and revenues.
  • LPL Financial (LPLA) reports monthly activity for August 2025; Total advisory and brokerage assets increased 16.7% from end of July to $2.26 trillion.
  • Hess Midstream Partners (HESM) announces updated guidance for remainder of 2025; Expects relatively flat Adjusted EBITDA in 2026 as compared to 2025, with growth in 2027 from continued growth in gas throughput volumes and the inflation escalation provisions.
  • Cracker Barrel (CBRL) to face a proxy battle Sardar Bigliari who owns Steak & Shake.
  • RTX awarded a $219 mln Navy contract order; also awarded a $216 mln modification to previously awarded Navy contract.
  • 10-K Delays LSAK, 10-Q Delays IMMR

Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News: 

  • MGM appoints Ayesha Molino as COO, effective Jan 1 2026.

Buybacks: 

  • WTW increases repurchase agreement by $1.5 billion with $200 left on existing agreement.
  • JXN increases its repurchase agreement by $1 billion.
  • GNW adds $350 million to its repurchase agreement brings its total to $1.05 billion.
  • IEX increases the share repurchase authorization, bringing total repurchase capacity to $1 billion from approximately $440 million remaining as of June 30.
  • KFY announces $250 million increase in its common share repurchase program.

Dividends Announcements or News: 

  • Stocks Ex Div Today of note: VG CNQ DIA DIN DOC SPY VST LAMR  of note.
  • Stocks Ex Div tomorrow of note:  of note.
  • TXN increases quarterly dividend to $1.42 from $1.36.
  • WPC increases quarterly cash dividend to $0.91/share from $0.90/share

Stocks Moving Up & Down Yesterday: 

  • Gap Up: MPTI +6.5%, FDX +5.5%, UPS +2.6%, 
  • Gap Down: SCHL -11.5% 

What’s Happening This Morning: (as of 7:45 a.m. EDT)

  • Futures S&P 500 +3, NASDAQ 100 +19, Dow Jones -15 . Europe is lower ex the FTSE and Asia is lower ex Australia. Bond yields are at 4.13% from 4.05% on Thursday on the 10-Year. Crude Oil and Brent Crude are lower with Natural Gas lower. Gold and Silver higher with Copper lower. The U.S. Dollar is higher versus the Euro, higher against the Pound an lower against the Yen. Bitcoin is at $116,502 from $117,185 which is lower by $949 at 1.25%.

Sector Action: 
  • Daily Positive Sectors: Technology, Industrials, Healthcare and Communication Services led the way higher.
  • Daily Negative Sectors: Consumer Defensive, Consumer Cyclicals and Energy were lower.
  • One Month Winners:  Materials, Consumer Cyclicals, Technology, Financials, Communication Services and Utilities of note.
  • Three-Month Winners: Technology, Industrials, Communication Services, Consumer Cyclicals and Utilities of note.
  • Six-Month Winners: Financials, Utilities, Industrials, Materials and Communication Services of note.
  • Twelve-Month Winners: Financials, Communication Services, Utilities, Technology, Consumer Cyclical, and Industrials of note.
  • Year to Date Winners: Communication, Services Materials, Financials, Utilities, Industrials and Technology of note.

Bolded means the Sector is new to the period in which it falls.

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

  • Today After the Close:  None of note.
  • Monday Before The Open:  None of note

Notable Earnings of Note This Morning: 

  • Beats: None of note.
  • Misses: None of note.
  • Still to Report: None of note.

Company Earnings Guidance: 

  • Positive Guidance: None of note.
  • Negative or Mixed Guidance: None of note.

Advance/Decline Daily Update: Moves back below the Moving Average (30 Exp).

Gap Ups & Down In Early Pre-Market: (+2% or down more than -2%): 

  • GapUp: MPTI +8.4%, FDX +5.3%, PPTA +2.2% of note.
  • Gap Down: SCHL -12.8%, LEN -2.9%, HESM -2.5%, STTK -2.2% of note.

Options Activity: Calls and Puts Top Ten Names Sorted Volume. Highlighted names are new to the most active list.

Insider Action: None of note sees Insider Buying with dumb short selling.  None of note 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. 

  • Bloomberg Lead Story: Trump’s War With Media Expands with Jimmy Kimmel Suspension. (Bloomberg)
  • Market Wrap: . (Bloomberg)
  • Ray Dalio former hedge fund titan says U.S. Monetary Order at risk.
  • Apple (AAPL) iPhone 17 goes on sale today. (CNBC)
  • U.S. Treasury Yields inch higher.

Bolded on story link means behind a Pay Wall.

Economic & Geopolitical: 

  • Federal Reserve Speakers of note today.
    • Federal Reserve Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari appears on CNBC this morning and was out with a new academic paper.
  • President Trump has a quiet schedule after his return from the U.K.
    • President Trump has an Intelligence Briefing at 11:00 a.m. EDT.
    • President Trump signs Executive Orders at 3:00 p.m. EDT.
  • Economic Releases:
    • Baker Hughes Rig Count is out at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

M&A Activity & Daily Changes:

Moving Average Table: 

Meeting & Conferences of Note: 

  • Sellside Conferences:
  • Top Analyst, Investor:
  • Shareholder Meetings:
  • Fireside Chat: None of note.
  • FDA Presentation:
  • R&D Day: None of note.
  • Meetings:
    • Contract Pharm Contracting and Outsourcing Conference
    • Meta Connect
    • Ovarcoming Cancer Conference
    • Singular Research’s Emerging Growth & Value Alpha Leaders Conference

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.

Upgrades: FBILL EBAY FVRR INTC PAGS SITE of note.

Downgrades: REPL INTC  of note.