The Daily Briefing For June 15th:

Overnight Summary: The S&P 500 closed Wednesday at 4372.59 higher by 0.08% from Tuesday at 4369.01 higher by 0.69. Overnight ranges saw the high hit at 4427 at 4:55 p.m. EDT while the low was high at 4404.50 at 6:15 a.m. EDT. The range overnight was 23 points. The 10-day average of the overnight range is at 16.50 from 16.40. The average for May was 21.63. Currently, the S&P 500 is lower by -15 and is down by -0.35 % at 7:25 a.m. EDT.

Chart of the Day:

• Alydera Therapeutics (ALDX) had good news in our Rags & Mags Section and the shorts are heavy. This has been an Erlanger Type 1 Short Squeeze situation. Shares are up 16% in the pre-market.

Earnings Out After The Close:

• Beats: LEN +0.62 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:
  • Cava Group (CAVA) 14.44M share IPO priced at $22.00, above the revised expected range of $19.00-20.00.
• New SPACs launched/News:
  • Battery Future Acquisition Corp. (BFAC) Announces Additional Contribution to Trust Account to Extend Deadline to Consummate Business Combination.
• Secondaries Priced:
  • BBLG: Prices $5.0 Million Underwritten Public Offering. Priced @$1.97.
  • EDIT: Pricing of Offering of Common Stock @$10. (JPM, Cowen and Evercore bookmanager)
  • GAMB: Pricing of Secondary Offering of Ordinary Shares by Selling Shareholders @$9.25. (Jefferies and Stifel bookmanager)
  • TNON: Pricing of its public offering of 10,000,000 units at $0.56 per unit, expecting gross proceeds of $5.6 million.
  • ZNTL: Announces price offering of 11,032,656 shares of its common stock at $22.66 per share for total gross proceeds of approximately $250.0 million.
• Notes Priced of note: None of note.
• Common Stock filings/Notes:
  • ACHV: Filed Form S-3.. 1,986,611 Shares of Common Stock.
  • ASPN: Announces Termination of “At-The-Market” Equity Offering Program.
  • EDIT: Offering of Common Stock.. $125 million of shares. (JPM, Cowen and Evercore bookmanager)
  • FRZA: Closing of Public Offering.
  • MVIS: Announces Withdrawal of Public Offering of Common Stock.
  • VCNX: Filed Form S-3.. 3,815,642 Shares of Common Stock.
• Direct Offering:
  • BIOR: Closing of $8 Million Registered Direct Offering of Common Stock and Warrants Priced At-the-Market Under Nasdaq Rules.
• Selling Shareholders of note:
  • GAMB: Secondary Offering of Ordinary Shares by Selling Shareholders.. 4,250,000 of its ordinary shares. (Jefferies and Stifel bookmanager)
• Private Placement of Public Entity (PIPE): None of note.
• Mixed Shelf Offerings:
  • IRT: Filed Form S-3ASR.. Mixed Shelf.
• Debt/Credit Filing and Notes:
  • BN: Announces Redemption of $550 Million Principal Amount of 4.000% Notes due April 1, 2024.
  • CSWC: Closes Public Offering of 7.75% Notes due 2028.
  • SBT: To Redeem $65.0 Million Subordinated Notes
• Tender Offer:
  • BFH: Announces Results of Tender Offer for Any and All of Its Outstanding 4.750% Senior Notes Due 2024..
• 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: POWW +12%, TRUE +9%, WRB +4%, VTNR +4% of note.
  • Trading Down: GAMB -10%, EDIT -5% of note.
• News After The Close:
  • Lennar (LEN) stock rises after results top Street view, outlook hiked. (MarketWatch)
  • TrueCar (TRUE) stock jumps 8% after layoffs, new CEO news. (MarketWatch)
  • Safran nears $1.8 billion deal to acquire Raytheon’s (RTX) flight controls unit. (Reuters)
  • Redfin (RDFN) Reports There Are Nearly 40% Fewer Homes For Sale Now Than Pre-Pandemic.
  • Citigroup (C) Job Cuts Set To Hit 5,000 In First Half Of 2023. (FT)
  • Post FOMC Thoughts:
    • GOLDMAN: “.The combination of the hawkish surprise in the dots and the hint at an every-other-meeting pace strengthens our confidence that the #FOMC will hike in July and makes a possible second hike more likely in November than September ..” — CARL Q CNBC
    • Doubline’s Jeffrey Gundlach Doesn’t Think The Fed Will Resume Rate Hikes Soon – BBG
    • Deutsche Bank (DB) CFO: Recession Is Likely.
    • BofA Global Research Sees Two More 25bps Fed Rate Hikes In July And September, Pushing Terminal Rate Up To 5.5%-5.75%.
    • JPMorgan (JPM) Now Expects Fed To Deliver One More 25Bps Rate Hike At The July Meeting.

• Exchange/Listing/Company Reorg and Personnel News:
  • Aveanna (AVAH) Announces Resignation of Chief Financial Officer.
  • Black Hills Corp. (BKH) Announces Key Executive Leadership Appointments.
  • CENTOGENE (CNTG) Receives Nasdaq Notification Regarding Minimum Market Value of Publicly Held Shares Deficiency.
  • Airspan Networks Holdings (MIMO) Receives Letter of Non-Compliance From NYSE American.
  • Merus (MRUS) appointed Gregory D. Perry to serve as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer.
  • Truecar (TRUE) Announces Strategic Restructuring And Leadership Transition.  Including workforce reduction of 24%
• Buyback Announcements or News:
  • Armada Hoffler (AHH) Announces $50 Million Share Repurchase Program.
  • Autozone (AZO) To Buy Back Up To Additional $2.0 billion Of Stock.
  • Chimera Investment Corporation (CIM) Announces Increase in Share Repurchase Program. (see Dividend)
  • Network-1 (NTIP) Extends its Share Repurchase Program.
  • Philips (PHG) to repurchase up to 7.1 million shares to cover long-term incentive plans.
  • W. R. Berkley Corporation (WRB) Increases Dividend 10%  to $0.11 per share and Increases Share Repurchase Authorization to 15 million shares of common stock. (MarketWatch)
• Stock Splits or News: None of note.
• Dividends Announcements or News:
  • BMY declares $0.57 dividend.
  • Chimera Investment Corporation (CIM) Announces 2nd Quarter 2023 Common Stock Dividend.
  • Host Hotels (HST) increases its quarterly dividend by 25% to $0.15 per share.
  • JCI Goes ex div tomorrow for $0.37.
  • Target Corporation (TGT) Increases Quarterly Dividend by 1.9% to $1.10 per share.
  • WRB: (See Buyback)

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

S&P 500 -16, Dow Jones -61,  NASDAQ -101, and Russell 2000 -4. (as of 7:59 a.m. EDT).  Asia lower ex the ASX 200 and Europe are lower ex the FTSE. VIX Futures are at 16.55 from 17 yesterday.  Gold, Silver and Copper lower from yesterday. WTI Crude Oil and Brent Crude Oil higher with Natural Gas higher. US 10-year Treasury sees yields at 3.823% from 3.827% yesterday. The U.S. Dollar is lower versus the Euro, higher versus the Pound and lower against the Yen. Bitcoin is at $24,869 from $26,001 from yesterday, lower by -3.95%.

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

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

The major indexes then pared their losses as Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a press conference that central bankers believe inflation is in the process of moderating but he also added to would be years before rates would drop. The S&P rose by less than a tenth of a percentage point and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 232.79 points, or 0.7%, to 33979.33, though it was dragged down by a decline in UnitedHealth UNH -6.40% decrease on guidance at a Goldman Sachs Industry Conference;  (WSJ – edited by QPI with changes in italics)

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: JBL +0.12 of note.
• Flat: None of note.
• Misses: CGNT (0.01) of note.
• Still to Report: KR of note.

Guidance:

• Positive Guidance: LEA, CGNT of note.
• Negative Guidance: SCHW of note.

Erlanger Research Advance/Decline Chart:

Gap Ups & Down In Early Pre-Market:

• Gap Up: TRUE +9%, POWW +5%, ASPN +5% of note.
• Gap Down: GAMB -18%, EDIT -6%, MARA -5%, BITO -4%, COIN -4% of note.

Insider Action: SCWX 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.

• Stocks making the biggest moves before the bell: AXP, DPZ, COIN, ALDX, CGNT, TGT (CNBC)
• Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day. (Bloomberg)
• Five Things To Know Before the Stock Market Opens Thursday. (CNBC)
• Bloomberg Lead Story: Powell Indicates at Least Two More Rate Hikes Ahead After Pause. (Bloomberg)
• Bloomberg  Most Shared Story: Biggest Losers of AI Boom Are Knowledge Workers, McKinsey Says. (Bloomberg)
• Stocks slip after hawkish Fed with ECB on the way: Market Wrap. (Bloomberg)
• European Central Bank (ECB) decision due out this morning before U.S. market opens. (CNBC)
• Two Crypto Firms, South Korean firms Delio and Haru Invest, halt withdrawals in echo of 2022 issues. (Bloomberg)
• Bond traders step up bets the Fed will steer the economy into a recession. Yield curve inversion moves to 90 from peak at 109. (Bloomberg)
• Microsoft Founder Bill Gates to meet with Chinese Premier Xi this week. (CNBC)
• Alydera Therapaeutics (ALDX) met its goal of reducing itching for inflammatory eye disease, stock 16% higher. Short sellers heavy, see chart above. (Reuters)

Moving Average Update:

• Small crack….score drops to 94 % after three days at 100%.

Geopolitical: 

• President’s Public Schedule:
  • The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing, 9:30 a.m. EDT
  • The President delivers remarks on protecting consumers from hidden junk fees and putting more money back in the pockets of everyday Americans, 1:45 p.m. EDT
  • The President and The First Lady host a screening of the film “Flamin’ Hot”, 7:45 p.m. EDT

Economic:

• Initial Jobless Claims 8:30 a.m. EDT
• May Retail Sales is due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT and is expected to come in at 0.0% from 0.4% in April.
• June Philadelphia Fed Index is out at 8:30 a.m. EDT and is expected to come in at -13 from -10.4.
• June Empire Manufacturing Index is out at 8:30 a.m. EDT and is expected to come in at -16 from -31.80.
• May Industrial Production is due out at 9:15 a.m. EDT and is expected to come in at 0.1% from 0.5%.
• Import and Export Prices 8:30 a.m. EDT
• Business Inventories 10:00 a.m. EDT
• EIA natural Gas Report 10:30 a.m. EDT

Federal Reserve / Treasury Speakers: None of note.

FDA Scheduled For Today:

• ALBO: PDUFA Date on Bylvay
• IPHA: Interim Update Lacutamab
• ALDX: Data Presentation Reproxalap
• CRVS: Data Presentation CPI-818
• CLLS: Oral Presentation ALLO-501/501A
• AFMD: Poster Presentation AFM13

M&A Activity: 

• Patterson-UTI (PTEN) and NexTier Oilfield Solutions (NEX) to combine in merger of equals.

Meeting & Conferences of Note:

• Sellside Conferences:
  • BAC Asia Confernce
  • Cantor Technology Conference
  • CNBC Financial Advisor Summit
  • Evercore ISI 2nd Annual Global Clean Energy & Transition Technologies Summit 2023 (06/15/23-06/16/23)
  • RBC Global Mining & Materials Conference (06/15/23-06/16/23)
    • Previously posted and ongoing conferences:
      • Cantor Fitzgerald Mobility & Industrial Tech Conference 2023 (06/14/23-06/15/23)
      • Morgan Stanley European Real Estate Capital Markets Conference (London) (06/14/23-06/15/23)
      • Sidoti June Small-Cap Virtual Conference 2023 (06/14/23-06/15/23)
      • Roth MKM Internet Virtual Summit 2023 (06/11/23-06/15/23)
      • Goldman Sachs Global Healthcare Conference (06/12/23-06/15/23)
      • Deutsche Bank Global Auto Industry Conf (06/13/23-06/15/23)
      • Evercore Consumer and Retail Conference (06/13/23-06/15/23)
      • Goldman Sachs Annual European Financial Services Conference 2023 (06/13/23-06/15/23)
      • Wells Fargo Industrials Conference (06/13/23-06/15/23)

• Top Shareholder Meetings: DAL, GME, IAC, IR, LYFT, TEVA
• Fireside Chat: RVMD,  WTI
• Investor/Analyst Day/Calls: AJG, ALDX, BBW, BRKR, ENS, GPRE, PSTG, RGA, TYL, UIS, VLD
• Update: None of note.
• R&D Day: None of note.
• Company Event:
  • Tarsus Pharmaceuticals (TAR) Creating the Next Potential Blockbuster Category in Eye Care
• Industry Meetings:
  • American Headache Society (AHS) 65th Annual Scientific Meeting 2023 (06/15/23-06/18/23)
  • 60th European Renal Association (ERA) Congress 2023 (06/15/23-06/18/23)
  • Endocrine Society (ENDO) Annual Meeting 2023 (06/15/23-06/18/23)
    • Previously posted and ongoing conferences:
      • InfoComm 2023 (06/14/23-06/16/23)
      • Clinical Trial Supply and Logistics Conference 2023 (06/14/23-06/15/23)
      • Delivery World Conference 2023 (06/14/23-06/15/23)
      • International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Annual Meeting 2023 (06/14/23-06/17/23)
      • International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2023 (06/11/23-06/16/23)
      • European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) 2023 Congress (06/12/23-06/15/23)
      • American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 17th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma 2023 (06/13/23-06/17/23)
      • Automotive Testing Expo (ATE) Europe 2023 (06/13/23-06/15/23)

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: