The Daily Briefing For March 2nd: Futures Mixed

Covid-19 Statistics: 

Total Cases 28,399,281 from 28,350,657

Deaths 504,488 from 503,235

New Tests 1,224,297 from 1,346,785

New Cases 48,092 from 54,288 with positivity rate of 3.9% (down 0.1)

Daily Deaths 1,241

Current Hospitalizations 46,738 from 47,352

Earnings Out After The Close Of Note:

Beats: AMBC +0.80, ZM +0.43, HLIO +0.19, NVAX +0.17, INO +0.08, RPAY +0.06, LMND +0.03, IPAR +0.03, OOMA +0.02

Flat:   SWCH +0.00

Misses: CYRX (1.25), MELI (1.16), RGNX (1.13), NIO (0.55), SGMS (0.52), FGEN (0.45), SRPT (0.38), MBI (0.24), SILK (0.22), INSG (0.07), OSUR (0.03), DDD (0.01)

Capital Raises:

IPOs Priced or News: 

New SPACs launched: 

Secondaries Priced: WSC SITC KRTX JELD  of note.

Notes Priced of note: MNKD SHAK of note.

Common Stock filings: CDLX SITC FRC HSKA COHU MORF JELD WSC HLNE ASLN    of note.

Selling Shareholders of note: WSC SLQT HLNE KNL GMDA MS   of note.

Mixed Shelf Offerings: PACW EDIT BCRX CDLX HSKA  NTAP ATRA QURE  of note.

Convertible Offering Files: HAE BYND FSLY of note.

Summary From The Trade Exchange bringing traders and investors real time news and Squawk Box.

News After The Close:

Inovio Pharma (INO) reports positive results from Phase 3 Reveal trial for associated cervical high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions.

Merck (MRK) pulls KEYTRUDA for treatment of metastatic small cell lung cancer with progression on or after platinum based chemotherapy.

Sherwin Williams (SHW) COO/President David Sewell to resign next Friday to become CEO of another company that  is not a competitor.

Parsons (PSN) wins Air Force contract with shared value of $2 billion.

Ormat Tech (ORA) comments on short seller report says report is inaccurate, false and misleading.

Square (SQ) begins operations of its Square Financial Services.

Dividend Raises: TCBK

Split Announcement:

Raises Guidance: HLIO OSUR OOMA

Lowers Guidance: SWCH

Stock Buyback New Or Increase: EQC 

Insider Buys:  (source The Trade Exchange)

What’s Happening This Morning: Futures value reflects the change with fair value. We will still indicate the fair value direction.

S&P 500 -6  Dow Jones Industrial Average -31    NASDAQ -23  Russell 2000 -11. Fair values are higher ex the Russell. Asia lower and Europe higher. VIX is at 24.50 from 25.21 this morning in futures. VIX closed at 23.35 from 27.95 and the three month futures at 26.78 from  29.60.

Gold higher, silver lower and copper higher. WTI Crude Oil and Brent Oil Futures higher. Natural Gas is higher. $ is higher vs Euro, lower vs Pound and higher vs Yen. US 10 year Treasury price is at $133.23 from $133.03 with the yield at from 1.46%.

Positive Sectors On Monday:  Technology, Financials and Consumer Cyclical.

Negative Sectors On Monday: None of note.

One Month Winners: Energy, Financials and Communication Services of note.

Three Month Winners: Materials, Industrials and Financials of note.

Six Month Winners: Energy, Financials and Materials of note.

Twelve Month Winners:  Consumer Cyclical, Technology and Materials of note.

Year to Date: Energy, Communication Services, Financials and Materials of note.

Upcoming Earnings Of: (sorted by market cap, highest to lowest with most visible names)

Today After the Close: VEEV, ROST, HPE, DAR, JWN, AMBA, GO, BOX, URBN, FUBO, BGS, AMC of note.

Wednesday Before the Open: STLA, DLTR, KC, NFE, WEN, EYE, PDCO, SINA, DY of note.

Earnings This Morning Of Note:

Beats: AZO +2.54, KSS +1.19, LL +0.56, KTB +0.27, TGT +0.13, TILE +0.02, BSY +0.01

Flat: none

Misses: IGT (1.14), AER (0.66), SE (0.12)

Still to Report: ANF, DIN

Erlanger Research Advance/Decline Chart/Table –Updated through 3/1. Breadth had its best day in quite a while yesterday.

  

Gap Ups & Down In Early Pre-Market:

Gap up:

INUV +19.1%, TMDX +11%, ZM +8.6%, AMRC +6.2%, GSX +5.3%, TTEC +4.9%, NLSN +4.5%, ACND +3.9%, HLIO +3.6%, AMBC +3.5%

Gap down:

FGEN -22.1%, INSG -13.5%, MORF -11.5%, MBI -11.3%, RDHL -11.2%, AI -9.5%, SWCH -8%, LMND -7.5%, RGNX -7.1%, SLQT -6.1%, ASLN -5.7%, PLUG -5.4%, SGMS -5.3%, SGMS -5.3%, JELD -5.2%, XPEV -5.2%, EAF -5.1%, NIO -5.1%, COHU -4.8%, DDD -4.7%, BCRX -4.4%, NVAX -4.3%, CLOV -4.3%, INO -4.1%, HAE -4%, APPF -3.7%,

Rags & Mags: Highlighted Stories may be clicked through to the original story. 

Stocks Making The Biggest Moves –HGV JNJ NRG PRGO BRKB TWTR WMT LHX LOGI TWLO  (CNBC)

Covid Update: U.S. government buy 100k of doses of Eli Lilly antibody treatment. (CNBC)

5 Things To Know Before The Market Opens (CNBC)

Senate will start working on the Stimulus Bill on Wednesday and take multiple days. (Politico)

Massachusetts to allow restaurants to open at 100%. (NBC News)

Air travel and bookings on the rise. (CBS News)

Ant tells employees it will go public. (Bloomberg)

Covid-19 variants are becoming a bigger risk says the head of the CDC. (CNN)

Merck (MRK) to help produce vaccine for Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

Chinese vaccines move around the world. (AP)

FBI Head Christopher Wray to testify on the Hill about January 6th. (AP)

Supreme Court hears a case today on the Voting Rights Act. (CNN)

Robinhood Morning Note focuses on Beyond Meat (BYND) and soon to be public Oatly.  Also looks at Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) and notes positions in AAPL and SNOW.

Index Results

Current through 3/1 close. Overall confidence moves from 37% to 90%.

Bold means a change from prior day.

3/1 results.

Geopolitical:

The President and The Vice President receive the President’s Daily Brief, Oval Office, 10:15 a.m. EST

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, 12:30 p.m. EST

The President participates in a meeting by phone with Senate Democrats, Oval Office, 1:10 p.m. EST

The President delivers remarks on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; The Vice President also attends, State Dining Room, 4:15 p.m. EST

Economic:

January Construction Spending is due out at 10:00 a.m. EST and expected to fall to 0.6% from 1.0%.

Investor, Sellside and Industry Meetings

  (Investor/Analyst Day)  (C Call) 

Sellside Confrerences: JMP Technology Conference (3/1-2),  JP Morgan High Leveraged Finance Conference (3/1-3), BM Metal & Mining Conference (3/1-5) Cowen & Co Healthcare Conference (3/1-4) Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference Call (3/1-3) Credit Suisse Energy Summit (3/1-3) Morgan Stanley TMT (3/1-4) Morgan Stanley Energy & Power Conference (3/1-3)

Industry Conferences:

M&A Activity:

Columbus McKinnon (CMCO) to buy Dorner Manufacturing for $485 million in cash.

Upgrades & Downgrades of Note This Morning: Note that downgrades remain prevalent in February. 

Monday’s Sellside Recommendations below.