The Daily Briefing For July 6th: Stocks Lose Ground For a Second Morning In A Row. Yield on 10 Year Approaches 4.00%.

Overnight Summary: The S&P 500 closed Wednesday at 4446.82 lower by -0.20% from Monday at 4455.59 up 0.12%. Overnight ranges saw the high hit at 4484 at 4:55 p.m. EDT while the low was hit at 4461.25 at 5:10 a.m. EDT. The range overnight was 23 points. The 10-day average of the overnight range is at 19.90 from 19.10.  The average for May/June average was 19.94 from 21.63 in May. Currently, the S&P 500 is lower by -18.25 points and is lower by -0.41% at 7:15 a.m. EDT.

Chart of Note: $TNX, which is the yield of the 10-year, is approaching 4.00%. The price of TNX is 39.45 and to find the yield simply move the decimal one spot to the left.

Earnings Out After The Close: 

• Beats: None of note
• Flat: None of note.
• Misses: None 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:
  • INTS: Announces Closing of Upsized Initial Public Offering, Raising Approximately $19.5 Million in Gross Proceeds.
• New SPACs launched/News: None of note.
• Secondaries Priced:
  • ALLR: Pricing of $11 Million Public Offering.. 2,444,445 shares @$4.50.
  • CYTO: Announces Pricing of $5.0 Million Public Offering.
• Notes Priced of note: None of note.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • AENT: Announces Closing of Public Offering.
• Direct Offering:
  • CRIS: Announces $15.1 Million Registered Direct Offering.
  • VBIV: Proposed Concurrent Public Offering and Registered Direct Offering of Common Shares and Warrants (RJ Bookmanagers).
• Selling Shareholders of note:
  • LUNR: Files for 4,885,057 shares of its common stock by selling shareholder.
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE):
  • CRBU: Announces $25 Million Equity Investment from Pfizer.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings: None of note.
• Debt/Credit Filing and Notes:
  • FI: To Transfer Senior Notes Listings to New York Stock Exchange.
  • KGC: Completes US$500 million unsecured 10-year notes offering to refinance its outstanding notes due 2024.
  • SSKN: Secures additional $12 Million Financing with MidCap Financial.
• 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 and Over the Holiday:

• After Hours: 
  • Trading Up: ASLN +4% of note.
  • Trading Down: None of note.
• News Items After the Close:
  • Exxon (XOM) stock drops after energy giant says that natural gas prices likely to be a drag on Q2 profits. (MarketWatch)
  • JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU) said on Wednesday it will not appeal a U.S. judge’s decision in May requiring it to end an alliance with American Airlines Group. (CNBC)
  • META Launches Threads, Betting Instagram Mojo Can Take On Twitter With New App. (WSJ)
  • Granite Construction (GVA) awarded ~$48 million contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to mitigate flood risk and damage in Wharton, Texas.
• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • Axon (AXON) promoted Brittany Bagley to COO and CFO.
  • Banc of California (BANC) appoints Joseph Kauder as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
  • InnovAge (INNV) names Ben Adams its CFO.
  • MedMen (MMEN) appoints Ellen Deutsch as CEO. (MarketWatch)
  • Nikola Corporation (NKLA) awarded $41.9 million grant by the California Transportation Commission to build six heavy-duty hydrogen refueling stations across Southern California.
  • Nkarta (NKTX) appoints Alyssa Levin as Chief Financial and Business Officer
  • NuScale Power (SMR) announced that Carl Fisher will join the company as COO.
  • Nymox (NYMX) Delisting from NASDAQ.
  • Offerpad Solutions (OPAD) announced that Jawad Ahsan will become Chief Financial Officer.
  • Vimeo (VMEO) Announces Departure of Anjali Sud as CEO, Appointment of Adam Gross as Interim CEO. (MarketWatch)
• Buyback Announcements or News:
  • Aegon N.V. (AEG) begins share buyback program.
  • Faraday Future (FFIE) Announces Additional Proposal for the Recently Announced Special Meeting of Stockholders to Limit the Company’s Authorized Shares Available for Issuance.
  • Mullen Automotive (MULN) Announces $25 Million Stock Buyback Program.
• Stock Splits or News: None of note.
• Dividends Announcements or News:
  • Bank of America (BAC) to Increase Quarterly Dividend 9% To $0.24 per share. (MarketWatch)
• Insider Sales Of Note:
  • MPWR CEO $5.89 million, XPOF CEO 17,703 shares.

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

S&P 500 -22, Dow Jones -177,  NASDAQ -70, and Russell 2000 -14. (as of 7:57 a.m. EDT).  Asia and Europe are lower this morning. VIX Futures are at 15.58 from 15.20 yesterday.  Gold, Silver and Copper lower this morning. WTI Crude Oil and Brent Crude Oil lower with Natural Gas lower as well. US 10-year Treasury sees yields at 3.981% from 3.862% yesterday. The U.S. Dollar is lower versus the Euro, lower versus the Pound and lower against the Yen. Bitcoin is at $31,109.50 from $30,478 yesterday, higher by 1.98%.

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

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

Major stock indexes edged lower in a quiet trading session Wednesday after the release of the Federal Reserve’s June meeting minutes and weak economic data out of China. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both slipped 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.4%.  Derivatives traders are currently pricing in an 88.7% chance of a Fed rate increase at its meeting later this month, unchanged from the probability before the minutes were released, according to CME Group. (WSJ – edited by QPI)

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: None of note.

Earnings of Note This Morning:

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

Guidance:

• Positive Guidance: TTI, PERI of note.
• Negative Guidance: None of note.

Erlanger Research Advance/Decline Chart:

Gap Ups & Down In Early Pre-Market:

• Gap Up: PERI +8%, VSTM +4%, MITK +4%, HUT +4% of note.
• Gap Down: None of note.

Insider Action: WBA, SMPL 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 On Thursday. (CNBC)
• Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day. (Bloomberg)
• Stocks Making The Biggest Pre-Market Moves: JBLU META SG KDP BAC MSFT PLUG TXT. (CNBC)
• Bloomberg Lead Story: Instagram (META) Snags 10 Million Users Within Hours For Threads App, A Threat To Twitter. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg  Second Most Shared Story:  Can the New Wave of Restaurants Make NYC A Late Dining Town Again? (Bloomberg)
• Global stocks slide as traders bet on more rate hikes: Market Wrap. (Bloomberg)
• Wagner Group Head Prigozhin back in Russia, notes Belarus President Lukashenko and says in St. Petersburg or now Moscow. (Bloomberg)
• Iran claims it had a court order to seize Chevron tanker rescued by U.S. Navy. (Reuters)
• Mortgage demand drops to lowest level in a month as interest rates rise. (CNBC)
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrives in China for several days of meetings. (CNBC)
• Fidelity Information Systems (FIS) accelerates plan to split into two with sale of Worldpay to GTCR. (MarketWatch)

Moving Average Update:

• Score slips to 97% from 100%.

Geopolitical: 

• President’s Public Schedule:
  • The President departs the White House en route to Joint Base Andrews and West Columbia, South Carolina, 10:10 a.m. EDT
  • The President tours Flex LTD, 12:50 p.m. EDT
  • The President delivers remarks on how Bidenomics is spurring manufacturing investments and good-paying jobs across the country, including a new partnership between Enphase Energy and Flex, 1:15 p.m. EDT
  • The President departs West Columbia, South Carolina en route to Joint Base Andrews and White House, 2:20 p.m. EDT

Economic:

• MBA Mortgage Applications 7:00 a.m. EDT
  • MBA Mortgage Applications: Composite: -4.4%, Purchase: -4.6%, ReFi: -4.1%
  • U.S MBA Mortgage Applications (WOW) Actual: -4.4% VS 3.0% Previous
  • U.S MBA 30-YEAR Mortgage Rates Actual: 6.85% VS 6.75% Previous
• Challenger Job Cuts 7:30 a.m. EDT
  • U.S. Jun. Challenger Job Cuts: 40.709K vs 80.089K prev U.S. Jun. Challenger Job Cuts: +25.2% y/y, -49.17% m/m
• ADP Employment Report 8:15 a.m. EDT
• Int. Trade in Goods 8:30 a.m. EDT
• Initial Jobless Claims 8:30 a.m. EDT
• PMI Composite Final 9:45 a.m. EDT
• June ISM Non-Manufacturing Index is due out at 10:00 a.m. EDT and is expected to rise to 51.10 from 50.30.JOLTS 10:00am ET
• EIA Petroleum Report 11:00 a.m. EDT

Federal Reserve / Treasury Speakers:

• Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Lorie Logan 8:45 a.m. EDT

M&A Activity:

• CBIZ (CBZ) acquires American Pension Advisors of Indianapolis, IN.
• FIS: FIS Accelerates Path to Create Two Highly Focused Independent Companies; Announces Agreement for GTCR to Acquire Majority Stake in Worldpay at $18.5 Billion Valuation. FIS: FIS to retain 45% ownership in Worldpay. GTCR committed to invest up to $1.25 billion in additional growth capital to accelerate Worldpay growth strategy
  Upon closing of transaction, Charles Drucker to serve as CEO of Worldpay. Company to host webcast to discuss transaction at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Meeting & Conferences of Note:

• Sellside Conferences: None of note.
  • Previously posted and ongoing conferences: None of note.
• Top Shareholder Meetings: NKLA, PRTK
• Fireside Chat: BKKT
• Investor/Analyst Day/Calls: AFYA, ASLN, BOSSY, COST, COTY, MCO, NLSP
• Update: None of note.
• R&D Day: None of note.
• Company Event: None of note.
• Industry Meetings:
  • American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) Convention and Scientific Assembly 2023 (07/06/23-07/09/23)
  • Symposium 234: Mucosal Immunology : A Translational View into the Clinic 2023 (07/06/23-07/08/23)
  • PSYCH Symposium
  • Sirtuins and Longevity Symposium
    • Previously posted and ongoing conferences: None of note.
      • World Congress of Dermatology (07/03/23-07/08/23)
      • Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) 46th Annual Summer Convention 2023 (07/04/23-07/09/23)

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: