The Daily Briefing For April 14th: Day Two Of Waiting For Godot, PPI Due At 8:30 a.m. EDT

Overnight Summary: The S&P 500 closed Wednesday lower by -0.41% at 4091.95 from Tuesday basically unchanged at 4108.94. The overnight high of 4131.75 was hit at 5:25 a.m. EDT. The low was hit at 4110.75 at 8:00 p.m. EDT, a range of ~21 points high to low which is below the recent range of 45. At 7:20 a.m. EDT the current price was 4123.25 which is 0.10% and 4.25 points.

Earnings Out After The Close: 

• Beats: SPWH +0.04 of note.
• Flat: None of note.
• Misses: None of note.

Short Interest Highlights: NYSE (revised) rose 2.06% and the NASDAQ rose 3.96% so shorts added while the S&P 500 rose 4.46%.

Capital Raises:

• IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
• New SPACs launched/News:
  • Acri Capital Acquisition Corporation (ACAC) Announces Extension of the Deadline for an Initial Business Combination.
  • Denali Capital Acquisition Corp. (DECA) Announces Extension of Deadline to Complete an Initial Business Combination.
• Secondaries Priced: None of note.
• Notes Priced of note:
  • MIRM: Prices Upsized $275.0 Million Convertible Senior Notes Offering.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • GCTK: Proposed Underwritten Public Offering of Common Stock. (Aegis bookmanager)
  • REI: Announces Exercise and Price Reduction of Nearly All of Its Outstanding Warrants.
• Direct Offering: None of note.
• Selling Shareholders of note:
  • TALO: Files 25,467,840 common stock offering by selling shareholders.
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE):
  • NXPL: Announces Completion of $6.0M Private Offering of Common Stock Priced Above Market.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • AVTX: Form S-3 Filed $375,000,000 Mixed Shelf.
  • AZ: Filed Form F-3.. $200,000,000 Mixed Shelf.
  • BBAI files mixed securities shelf, no amount given.
• Debt/Credit Filing and Notes:
  • SPWR: Secures New $450M Financing Commitment to Meet High Solar Loan Demand.
• 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: 
  • Trading Up: FUSN +4% GEVO +4%, SANA +4% of note.
  • Trading Down: SPWH -16%, BBAI -11%, RENT -5% of note.
• News After The Close:   
  • IBM Explores Sale of Weather Business, Sources Say — WSJ  Owner Could Fetch More Than $1 Billion in a Sale, Sources Say. (WSJ)
  • SiriusPoint (SIRI) stock adds to 10% boost after hours on Third Point interest. (MarketWatch)
  • Maker of Purell Hand Sanitizer Seeks Buyer. (WSJ)
  • Softbank Moves To Sell Down Most Of Its Alibaba (BABA) Stake. (FT)

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • Assets Under Management – March:
    • AllianceBernstein (AB) reports March 2023 AUM increased 2% to $676 billion.
    • Artisan Partners Asset Mgmt (APAM) reports that its preliminary assets under management as of March 31, 2023 totaled $138.5 billion.
    • Franklin Resources (BEN) reports preliminary month-end assets under management (AUM) of $1,422.1 billion at March 31, 2023, compared to $1,416.5 billion.
    • Invesco (IVZ) reports preliminary month-end assets under management (AUM) of $1,483.0 billion, an increase of 1.7%.
    • Lazard (LAZ) totaled approximately $232.1 billion, +$2.8 billion.
    • Victory Capital (VCTR) reports assets under management (AUM) of $158.6 billion.
    • Virtus Investment Partners (VRTS) reportes preliminary assets under management of $154.8 billion.
  • Citizens Financial Group (CFG) names Richard Stein as Chief Risk Officer.
  • Cutera’s (CUTR) J. Daniel Plants and David Mowry taking legal action after being stripped of Executive Chairman and CEO positions.
  • Digital World (DWAC) Announces Management Team Changes.
  • Gain Therapeutics (GANX) Appoints C. Evan Ballantyne as Chief Financial Officer.
  • Harley-Davidson (HOG) Announces CFO Transition. (MarketWatch)
  • Hasbro (HAS) appoints Gina Goetter as CFO.
  • Intl Flavors (IFF) announces recent passing of Dale Morrison, Chair of the IFF Board.
  • Rent the Runway (RENT) announces that CFO Scarlett O’Sullivan will transition out of her role effective May 25 and that Sid Thacker, currently the SVP, FP&A, has been appointed as CFO. (MarketWatch)
  • Soluna (SLNH) Announces Resignation of Chief Financial Officer.
  • Sportsman’s Warehouse (SPWH) CEO Jon Barker to retire, effective April 14. Joseph P. Schneider, current Chair of the Board, has been appointed as Interim CEO. (MarketWatch)
  • Unique Fabricating, Inc. (UFAB) Receives Notice of Late Filing from the NYSE.
• Buyback Announcements or News:
  • Garrett Motion (GTX)  announced an increase in the Company’s share repurchase authorization to $250 million.
• Stock Splits or News:
  • EJH trading r/s  price.
• Dividends Announcements or News: 
  • HRL Goes ex div tomorrow for $0.275.

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

S&P 500 +1, Dow Jones -125,  NASDAQ +18, and Russell 2000 +1. (as of 7:59 a.m. EDT).  Asia higher ex the ASX 200 and Europe higher. VIX Futures are at 20.86 from 21.86 yesterday.  Gold, Silver and Copper higher. WTI Crude Oil and Brent Crude Oil lower  with Natural Gas higher. US 10-year Treasury sees yields at 3.422% from 3.439% yesterday. The U.S. Dollar is lower versus the Euro, lower versus the Pound and higher against the Yen. Bitcoin is at $30,239 from $30,009  yesterday, higher by 1.24%.

Sector Action – (1/3/6/12/YTD Updated Weekly with Monday release):  

• Daily Positive Sectors: Industrials, Energy of note.
• Daily Negative Sectors: Consumer Cyclical, Communication Services, Technology, Real Estate, Consumer Defensive of note.
• One Month Winners: Communication Services, Healthcare, Utilities of note.
• Three Month Winners: Technology, Communication Services, Consumer Cyclical of note.
• Six Month Winners: Technology, Basic Materials, Communication Services of note.
• Twelve Month Winners: Energy of note.
• Year to Date Winners: Communication Services, Technology, Consumer Cyclical of note.

U.S. stocks erased earlier gains to end lower Wednesday after the release of Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) Minutes of its March policy meeting, March 21 and 22, pointed to concerns about stress in the banking sector and a coming recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 37 points, or 0.1%, ending near 33,647 and snapping a 4-session win streak. The S&P 500 index shed 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed 0.9% lower. It was a volatile day of trading, with the S&P 500 swinging nearly 50 points from its intraday high to low, its biggest such intraday move in roughly three weeks. (MarketWatch – edited by QPI)

Click here for a video explanation of Erlanger Value Lines.

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

• Thursday After the Close: 

• Friday Before the Open:

Earnings of Note This Morning:

• Beats: FAST +0.01 of note.
• Flat: None of note.
• Misses: DAL (0.05) of note.
• Still to Report: PGR of note.

Guidance:

• Positive Guidance: DAL of note.
• Negative Guidance: APEI, SPWH, VRAY of note.

Erlanger Research Advance/Decline Chart:

Gap Ups & Down In Early Pre-Market:

• Gap Up: GLSI +12%, FUSN +4%, DAL +4% of note.
• Gap Down: SPWH -16%, BBAI -8%, RENT -5% of note.

Insider Action: No stock sees Insider buying with dumb short selling.  HHC 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.

• 5 things to know before the stock market opens. (CNBC)
• 5 Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day. (Bloomberg) 
• Bloomberg Lead Story: Fed Leans Towards Another Rate Hike, Defying Staff’s Recession Outlook. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg Most Read Story: JP Morgan (JPM) Calls Managing Directors to Office Five Days A Week. (Bloomberg)
• US Futures Signal Recovery On Dovish Policy Hopes: Market Wrap. (Bloomberg)
• Apple (AAPL) triples India iPhone output to $7 billion in creep from China. (Bloomberg)
• Credit Investors see defaults rising, 84% chance of U.S. recession. (Bloomberg)
• Amazon (AMZN) CEO letter out and Andy Jassy to appear on CNBC in the 8:00 a.m. EDT hour. (CNBC)
• Bloomberg plans to integrate GPT style AI into its terminal. (CNBC)
• Delta Airlines (DAL) misses on revenues and earnings but forecasts profits due to a summer of travel. (CNBC)

Moving Average Update:

• Score slips to 68% from 77%.

Geopolitical: 

• President’s Public Schedule:
  • The President meets with President Michael Higgins of Ireland and participates in a tree planting ceremony and ringing of the Peace Bell, 4:15 a.m. EDT
  • The President meets with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar of Ireland, 6:00 a.m. EDT
  • The President attends a youth Gaelic sports demonstration, 6:40 a.m. EDT
  • The President addresses the Houses of the Oireachtas, 8:45 a.m. EDT
  • The President attends a Banquet Dinner, 12:00 p.m. EDT

Economic:

• Jobless Claims 8:30 a.m. EDT
• March PPI is due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT and is expected to rise to 0.10% from -0.10%.
• EIA Natural Gas Report 10:30 a.m. EDT

Federal Reserve / Treasury Speakers: None of note.

M&A Activity:

• Stratasys (SSYS) Board of Directors Unanimously Rejects the Nano Dimension Revised Unsolicited Proposal of $20.05 Per Share.

Meeting & Conferences of Note:

• Sellside Conferences:
  • Benzinga Psychedelics Capital Conference 2023
    •  Previously posted and ongoing conferences:
      • Wells Fargo Software Symposium

• Company Meetings: DOW, ISSC
• Fireside Chat: ARCT
• Investor/Analyst Day/Calls: FAST, FDS, OCS, TRX, UPS, VRAY
• Update: None of note.
• R&D Day: None of note.
• Company Event:
  • Verizon (VZ) Small Business Digital Ready Summit 2023
  • Liberty Media ( LCTX) Formula One Group Investor Q&A Session Webcast
• Industry Meetings:
  • Technology Virtual Investor Conference 2023
    • Previously posted and ongoing conferences:
      • Collaborate 2023 (04/12/23-04/14/23)
      • DATAVORE 2023 (04/12/23-04/13/23)
      • Cell & Gene Meeting on the Med 2023 (04/12/23-04/14/23)
      • The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) SPRING CONFERENCE 2023 (04/11/23-04/14/23)
      • International Facility Management Association (IFMA) FACILITY FUSION CONFERENCE & EXPO 2023 (04/11/23-04/13/23)
      • National Kidney Foundation Spring Clinical Meetings (04/11/23-04/15/23)
      • Verisk Insurance Conference (04/11/23-04/14/23)
      • MRS (Materials Research Society) Spring Meeting & Exhibit 2023 (04/10/23-04/14/23)
      • IEEE Grid Edge Technologies Conference 2023 (04/10/23-04/13/23)
      • 18th Annual Drug Discovery Chemistry Meeting 2023 (04/10/23-04/13/23)
      • Gatlinburg Conference (04/10/23-04/13/23)
      • Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group

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 it 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: