The Daily Briefing For April 21st: Stocks To Deal With April Options Expiration Today, Will Vol Rise Into Close?

Overnight Summary: The S&P 500 closed Thursday lower by -0.60% at 4129.70 from Wednesday lower by -0.01% at 4154.52. The overnight high of 4157.75 was hit at 9:05 p.m. EDT. The low was hit at 4140 at 7:05 a.m. EDT, a range of ~17 points high to low which is well below the recent range of 45. At 7:10 a.m. EDT, the current price was 4143 which is -0.23% and -9.50 points. The biggest drop hit around 5:45 a.m. EDT to 7:05 a.m. EDT as it fell 16 points.

Earnings Out After The Close: 

• Beats: VMI +0.28 PPG +0.27 HTH +0.15 CATY +0.07 CSX +0.05 FFBC +0.05 OZK +0.03 ASB +0.02 of note.
• Flat:  None of note.
• Misses:  SEIC -0.03 GBCI -0.06 KNX -0.08 WRB -0.24 of note.

Unusual Options Activity:

Daily Screen in Erlanger Chartroom that highlights unusual Call and Put Options activity in the S&P 500.  It looks for volume outliers relative to the Open interest in Calls or puts.  Usually, the stock price activity reflects the outlier situation (earnings/buyout/announcement), but once in a while, you can uncover stocks prior to a pop or drop.

Capital Raises:

• IPOs Priced or News: None of note.
• New SPACs launched/News: None of note.
• Secondaries Priced:
  • SIDU: Pricing of $10 Million Public Offering 30,303,030 shares.
• Notes Priced of note:
  • VTR: Pricing of its Tender Offers for 2.80% Senior Notes Due 2024 and 4.125% Senior Notes Due 2024.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • BIOC: Filed Form S-1.. Common stocks and Warrants.
  • BKKT: Form S-3 Filed .. 7,140,808 shares of Class A common stock. (see Mixed Shelf)
  • DGLY: Filed Form S-3.. Up to 1,925,000 Shares of Common Stock.
  • VGAS: Filed Form S-1.. UP TO 32,528,461 shares of Class A common stock.
• Direct Offering: None of note.
• Selling Shareholders of note:
  • SPRY files 64,779,432 common stock offering by selling shareholders.
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE): None of note.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • BKKT: $115 Million Mixed Shelf. (see Common Stock)
  • NAVI files a mixed shelf offering.
• 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: 
  • Trading Up:  WISH 29.4% VMI +3.4%, CSX +2.4% of note.
  • Trading Down:  CNXN -6.3% of note.
• News After The Close:   
  • Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: CSX, KNX, PPG, WRB (CNBC)
  • CSX Corp (CSX) beat estimates by 5 cents and revenues rose 8.7% year over year.
  • PPG Industries (PPG) blew the doors off earnings by $0.27, revenues in line and guided Q2 above consensus.
  • T-Mobile (TMUS) faces DOJ scrutiny over its Mint Mobile acquisition. (NY Post)
  • Brookfield Asset Mgmt (BAM) may file a counterbid for Network International Holdings. (WSJ)
  • Redfin (RDFN) median home price fell 2.6% during the four weeks ended 4/16/23. Biggest decline in a decade.
  • President Biden to announce his re-election campaign. (The Washington Post)
  • Federal Reserve Governor Waller talks crypto. (Speech)
  • Federal Reserve Governor Bowman speaks about the economy and worker shortage. (Speech)

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • Amazon (AMZN) to cut a couple hundred corporate jobs at Whole Foods unit.
  • Stoneridge (SRI) Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Technology Officer Laurent P. Borne notified the Company of his resignation to pursue other opportunities.
• Buyback Announcements or News:
  • CANG $50 Million buyback.
  • Wish (WISH) increases its buyback to $50 million of common stock.
• Stock Splits or News:
  • FRLN 1-for-15 reverse ADS split.
  • OUST 1-10 reverse split announced.
  • VLON Announces Stockholder Approval of Merger with GRI Bio, Inc. Implements 1-for-30 reverse split.
• Dividends Announcements or News: 
  • SBCF raises dividend by 5.9% to $0.18 per share.

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

S&P 500 -8, Dow Jones -30,  NASDAQ -52, and Russell 2000 -3. (as of 7:54 a.m. EDT).  Asia lower and Europe lower ex the FTSE. VIX Futures are at 19.90 from 19.50 yesterday.  Gold, Silver and Copper lower. WTI Crude Oil and Brent Crude Oil higher with Natural Gas lower. US 10-year Treasury sees yields at 3.538% from 3.562% yesterday. The U.S. Dollar is lower versus the Euro, higher versus the Pound and lower against the Yen. Bitcoin is at $28,005 from $28,749  yesterday, lower by -0.49%.

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

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

U.S. stocks finished lower on Thursday, with disappointing earnings report from Tesla Inc. weighing on technology stocks, while a slump in oil prices dragged down shares in the energy sector. The debt ceiling debacle in Washington also continued to worry investors. The S&P 500 fell 24.73 points, or 0.6%, to end at 4,129.79, its biggest daily percentage drop since March 22. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 110.39 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 33,786.62, posting a third straight session of declines. The Nasdaq Composite slid 97.67 points, or 0.8%, ending at 12,059.56.  (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)

• Friday After the Close: None of note.

• Monday Before the Open:

Earnings of Note This Morning:

• Beats: HCA +0.93, SAP +0.14, PG +0.05, ALV +0.02, SLB +0.02 of note.
• Flat: None of note.
• Misses: RF (0.02) of note.
• Still to Report: FCX of note.

Guidance:

• Positive Guidance: DHI, GPC, AXP, PPG. PG, HCA of note.
• Negative Guidance: PM, POOL, MAN, STX, KNX, HMN, CNXN of note.

Erlanger Research Advance/Decline Chart:

Gap Ups & Down In Early Pre-Market:

• Gap Up: WISH +23%, MDXH +8%, AMTD +8%, CANG +6%, ASB +4% of note.
• Gap Down: CNXN -4%, ALV -4% of note.

Insider Action: No stock sees Insider buying with dumb short selling.  No stock 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: Tesla Increases Price of Model S, X In US After Shares Slump. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg Most Read Story: TikTok’s Algorithm Keeps Pushing Vulnerable Kids To Suicide. (Bloomberg)
• US Futures Slip Amid Mixed Earnings, Economic Data: Markets Wrap. (Bloomberg)
• Billion Dollar Hedge Fund Launches back to pre Pandemic levels. (Bloomberg)
• Taiwan urges U.S, to be quieter on chip rhetoric as Biden Administration gone too far. (Bloomberg)
• Procter & Gamble (PG) beats earnings estimates, raises revenue forecast. (CNBC)
• HCA Healthcare (HCA) beat estimates and raised its outlook. (MarketWatch)
• Schlumberger (SLB) sees cash flow drop despite earnings and revenue beat. (MarketWatch)

Moving Average Update:

• Score pulls back to 60% from 85%.

Geopolitical: 

• President’s Public Schedule:
  • The President receives the President’s Daily Briefing, 9:30 a.m. EDT
  • Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, 1:00 p.m. EDT
  • The President delivers remarks about building healthy communities and announces new actions to advance environmental justice, 2:15 p.m. EDT
  • The President departs the White House en route to Camp David, 4:10 p.m. EDT

Economic:

• PMI Composite Flash 9:45 a.m. EDT
• Baker Hughes Rig Count 1:00 p.m. EDT

Federal Reserve / Treasury Speakers:

• Federal Reserve Board of Governors Lisa D. Cook 4:35 p.m. EDT

M&A Activity: None of note.

Meeting & Conferences of Note:

• Sellside Conferences: None of note.
  • •  Previously posted and ongoing conferences:
      • Credit Suisse Carbon Negative Conference (04/19/23-04/21/23)

• Company Meetings: CNP, HUN, LHX
• Fireside Chat: None of note.
• Investor/Analyst Day/Calls: PDSB, AKBA
• Update: None of note.
• R&D Day: None of note.
• Company Event: None of note.
• Industry Meetings:
  • The Texas Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Society(TAAIS) ANNUAL MEETING 2023 (04/21/23-04/23/23)
  • American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Annual Scientific Meeting 2023 (04/21/23-04/24/23)
  • Retinal Cell and Gene Therapy Innovation Summit 2023
  • American Academy of Neurology AAN 75th Annual Meeting 2023 (04/22/23-04/27/23)
  • American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) National Biotechnology Conference 2023 (04/23/23-04/26/23)
  • The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2023 (04/23/23-04/27/23)
    • Previously posted and ongoing conferences:
      • The Aesthetic Meeting 2023 (Healthcare) (04/19/23-04/23/23)
      • Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Annual Meeting 2023 (04/19/23-04/23/23)
      • International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) 43rd Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions  (04/19/23-04/22/23)
      • Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society HIMSS 2023 (04/17/23-04/21/23)
      • 19th European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) Congress 2023 (04/20/23-04/22/23)
      • American Alliance of Orthopaedic Executives (AAOE) Annual Conference 2023 (04/20/23-04/23/23)

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: