Earnings Season Highlights

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A collection of noteworthy post-earnings reactions
Published on Apr 17, 2023 at 10:48 AM
  • Intraday Option Activity
  • Buzz Stocks
 
Published on Apr 17, 2023 at 10:14 AM
  • Analyst Update
  • Earnings Preview
  • Buzz Stocks
 
Published on Apr 17, 2023 at 8:54 AM
Updated on Apr 17, 2023 at 9:26 AM
  • Monday Morning Outlook
 
Published on Apr 17, 2023 at 9:18 AM
  • Opening View

Stocks futures are higher Monday, as investors look ahead to a week jam-packed with quarterly reports -- most notably from the banking sector. Fresh off its fourth-straight winning week, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) futures are up 45 points, while futures on the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are also above breakeven.

Continue reading for more on today's market, including:

  • Inflation data highlighted a wild week on Wall Street.
  • What lies ahead for March's Cinderella ETF?
  • Plus, banking giant reports earnings; why MSFT is higher; and bull notes for biotech stock.

futures Chart April 172023

5 Things You Need to Know Today

  1. The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.2 million call contracts and 835,645 put contracts exchanged on Friday. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.65 and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.78.
  2. Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW) is down 0.9% before the bell, despite the financial institution announcing better-than-expected first-quarter earnings. Revenue, however, missed analysts' estimates. Charles Schwab stock sports a 39% year-to-date deficit.
  3. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) was last seen up 1.5% ahead on the open on news that Samsung is considering using the company's Bing as its default search engine. Plus, Barclays hiked its price target to $310 from $280. MSFT sports a 19.3% year-to-date lead.
  4. Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB) is up 1.5% premarket after two pre-earnings bull notes. Specifically, Piper Sandler upgraded the biotech stock to "overweight' and hiked its price target to $346, while Wedbush raised its price objective to $263.  Year-over-year, BIIB is up 35.6%.   
  5. The Empire State manufacturing index and the home builder confidence index are due out today.

Buzz 0417

Asian Markets Higher Ahead of China GDP Data

Asian markets kicked off the week with gains, led by a 1.7% pop from Hong Kong’s Hang Seng. China’s Shanghai Composite tacked on 1.4% ahead of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) data due out tomorrow. Reuters’ poll of economists predicts 4% growth for the fourth quarter. South Korea’s Kospi pared losses to finish 0.2% higher, while Japan’s Nikkei added 0.07%.

Over in Europe, bourses are more mixed. Mining and commodity stocks have London’s FTSE 100 0.2% higher at last check, with International Distributions Service also a notable gainer. The German DAX and French CAC 40 are both off by 0.1%.

Published on Apr 14, 2023 at 4:30 PM
  • Market Recap

The Big Tech surge for stocks was short-lived, with all major indexes logging either a modest or steep daily loss. Traders brushed off several upbeat earnings, including from J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C). The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) not only tacked on another loss, but also marked its lowest close since January 2022. For the week, the VIX logged a fourth consecutive drop, but the benchmarks all managed healthy wins, with the Dow making it a fourth-straight. 

Continue reading for more on today's market, including:

  • The driving forces behind this tumultuous trading week.
  • This retail stock was eyeing its highest close in 3 weeks.
  • Plus, Tax Day and options; what to expect out of QQQ; and options bull swarm bank stock.

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 Things to Know Today 

  1. Walmart (WMT) Chief Merchandising Officer Charles Redfield is leaving his post in May, as the retailer continues to struggle with a rough sales environment. (CNBC)
  2. Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is looking to move in on artificial intelligence (AI) with a research team set to build a rival for Microsoft's (MSFT) Chat GPT-4. (MarketWatch)
  3. How Tax Day challenges options trading.
  4. What to expect out of March's Cinderella, QQQ?
  5. Options bulls blasted this bank stock after earnings.

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Oil Nabs 4-Straight Weekly Wins

Crude scored a fourth-straight weekly gain, after inflation data and Fed buzz highlighted the past five days. For the session, May-dated crude rose 36 cents, or 0.4%, to close at $82.52 per barrel. On the week, the commodity added 2.3%.

Despite yesterday marking its second-highest close, gold fell for Friday's session. June-dated gold slipped $39.50 or 1.9%, to settle at $2,015.80 an ounce for the day and 0.5% for the week.

Published on Apr 14, 2023 at 2:17 PM
Updated on Apr 14, 2023 at 2:27 PM
  • 5-Minute Market Rundown

Despite starting off on a quiet note, this past week heated up after investors got to unpack highly anticipated inflation indicators. Stocks moved on both sides of the aisle, after a lighter-than-expected March inflation report, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) snapped its four-day win streak after the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) meeting minutes suggested the recent banking crisis is likely to push the U.S. into a recession later this year.

A better-than-expected producer price index (PPI) reading for March and a Big Tech rally brought tailwinds to Wall Street, however. Both the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite Index (IXIC) scored their highest closes since February, while the DJI saw a triple-digit win. Stocks cooled after the unofficial start of the earnings season, but the DJI and SPX were still eyeing weekly gains at the time of this writing.

Bank Stocks Back in the Spotlight

Investors kept a close eye on the banking sector. Options traders are seemingly buying the dip on PacWest (PACW), while put traders cashed in on Charles Schwab (SCHW). Blue chip JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) were in focus as well, ahead of their first-quarter earnings reports. Citigroup (C), meanwhile, announced a quarterly earnings and revenue beat.

This Week in Tech

Over in the fintech space, Block (SQ) attracted a downgrade to "market perform," and a bearish trendline threatened PayPal (PYPL) stock. Stifel upgradedNetApp (NTAP) drew an upgrade to "buy," and Baird initiated bullish coverage on online dating app Bumble (BMBL). In addition, Morgan Stanley said MongoDB (MDB) could  "pivot to profitability,"  and chipmaker Micron Technology (MU) popped after Samsung Electronics lowered semiconductor production

Brace for Manufacturing, Services Data

Next week brings the S&P flash U.S. services and manufacturing purchasing managers' indexes (PMI), as well as the Federal Reserve's Beige Book. The earnings season will pick up with quarterly reports to come from AT&T (T), Bank of America (BAC) Goldman Sachs Sachs (GS), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Netflix (NFLX), Procter & Gamble (PG), and United Airlines (UAL). Keep tabs on these support and resistance levels for the SPX moving forward, and understand why the yield curve inversion is a bad sign for stocks.

Published on Apr 14, 2023 at 11:43 AM
  • Midday Market Check
 
Published on Apr 14, 2023 at 10:53 AM
  • Intraday Option Activity
  • Buzz Stocks
 
Published on Apr 14, 2023 at 10:31 AM
  • Analyst Update
  • Buzz Stocks
 
Published on Apr 14, 2023 at 10:21 AM
  • Quantitative Analysis
  • Editor's Pick

Subscribers to Chart of the Week received this commentary on Sunday, April 9.

If you watched March Madness at all this year, you came away with two takeaways. First, the UConn Huskies are the best program in college basketball. Second, the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ) is spending a whole lot of money on ads. As ‘the official ETF of the NCAA,’ viewers were inundated with commercials about ‘becoming an agent of innovation,’ and a ‘fund that gives you access to Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) innovations.’ It’s great that QQQ is getting eyeballs from March Madness, and the partnership with the NCAA is albeit corny, still a win for financial literacy. But given that a whole host of people are now looking into QQQ, what does its technical backdrop look like?

The tech ETF is up 18% in 2023, last seen at $315.92. That’s a far cry from the 12-month high of $356.78 achieved approximately one year ago of this writing, on April 6, 2022. While QQQ remains down 12.5% year-over-year, considering the Oct. 13 lows of $254.26, many are speculating if the rotation out of Big Tech has begun to wind down, especially considering the Fed’s public intentions of easing off its hawkish policies entering the summer months.

QQQ 40-Month COTW

Back in July, when we last covered the tech ETF, QQQ’s 40-month moving average stepped up as support, as it did in 2015-2016, 2019, and 2020. The trendline was finally breached – along with that all important, round-number $300 level – in September. Last week that trendline was reclaimed, thanks to a 9.3% pop in the month of March. But as Schaeffer’s V.P. of Research Todd Salamone noted earlier this week, most of QQQ’s big March gains occurred after March 15. In his provided hourly chart below, you can see QQQ retesting its February close – the horizontal line – in the days prior to the Ides of March. Once this resistance was toppled, the tech ETF was off to the races.

QQQ Hourly COTW

You would think the inherent investor optimism drawn from the Fed meeting on March 21-22 aided and abetted the breakout, but QQQ actually turned in a 0.2% loss in that two-day period. And since the calendar turned to April, QQQ is off by 1.8%, stalling at the +20% year-to-date level. All of this is to say that don’t be surprised if the tech ETF pulls off an Adama Sanogo-esque pump fake in the coming months.

Put traders remain active and involved. QQQ's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.46 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) sits in the 86th percentile of its annual range, implying a healthier-than usual appetite for long puts of late. Earlier in the week, that ratio sat above 1.50, so it will be interesting to monitor how distant the ratio gets from that peak.

Per Schaeffer’s Senior Market Strategist Chris Prybal, QQQ put open interest of 7.92 million contracts heavily outweighs the call open interest buildup of 4.58 million, both of which are near Covid high-levels from March 2020. With all these options bears lining up and macro conditions churning, the technical areas identified above will be important markers to monitor in the spring and summer.

Published on Apr 14, 2023 at 9:19 AM
  • Opening View

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) futures are muted on Friday, despite heavyweight UnitedHealth (UNH) jumpstarting the earnings season with a better-than-expected first-quarter report and raised guidance. Traders are also unpacking retail sales data, which fell 1% in March, compared to the 0.5% dip analysts anticipated. While futures on the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are in the red this morning, all three major benchmarks are on track for weekly wins.

Continue reading for more on today's market, including:

futures Chart April 142023

5 Things You Need to Know Today

  1. The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.2 million call contracts and 748,652 put contracts exchanged on Thursday. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.62 and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.78.
  2. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) is up 6% premarket, after the banking giant announced record first-quarter revenue of $39.34 billion. Thanks to higher rates, net interest income posted a 50% year-over-year rise, while earnings per also beat estimates at $4.32. Today's early lead could put JPM back above its year-to-date breakeven mark. 
  3. Higher rates also helped Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) turn in a better-than-expected first-quarter report. The bank also increased net income to nearly $5 billion. Last seen 2.9% higher in electronic trading, WFC still carries a 3.9% year-to-date deficit.
  4. BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) is 5.3% lower in 2023, but sports a fractional lead ahead of the bell today after reporting first-quarter results. The investment firm's earnings of $7.93 per share were higher than anticipated, while revenue matched estimates.   
  5. Today brings industrial production data, the import and export price indexes, business inventories, and consumer sentiment data. 

Buzz 0414

Encouraging U.S. Inflation Reading Boosts Asian Stocks

Asian bourses once more took their cues from encouraging inflation data stateside. Japan’s Nikkei paced the region with a 1.2% gain, while South Korea’s Kospi shrugged off the latest North Korea missile test to finish 0.4% higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5%, and China’s Shanghai Composite tacked on 0.6%.

Over in Europe, stocks are looking to finish out the week strong. At last check, London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.7%, the French CAC 40 is 0.6% higher, and the German DAX has added 0.5%.

Published on Apr 13, 2023 at 4:26 PM
  • Market Recap

Big Tech brought a welcome surge to the broader market today, with all three major indexes logging healthy gains. Both the Dow and tech-heavy Nasdaq locked in triple-digit wins, the latter snapping a three-day losing streak and the former hitting its highest settlement since Feb. 15. The S&P 500 also nabbed its highest close since February, and the market's "fear gauge," or Cboe Volatility Index (VIX), fell to a multi-month low. Driving investors today was better-than-expected March producer price index (PPI) data, which came in at a 0.5% month-on-month decline.

Continue reading for more on today's market, including:

  • 3 stocks that made outsized moves today.
  • How Tax Day impacts options trading.
  • Plus, retailer nears historically bearish trendline; HOG's c-suite news; and a supply company slipping.

Closing Indexes Summary April 13

NYSE and Nasdaq Stats April 13

 Things to Know Today 

  1. Officials working the case on the leaked Pentagon documents arrested 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman that allegedly committed the largest U.S. intelligence leak since Edward Snowden.  (NBC)
  2. Rent in Manhattan, N.Y. has hit its highest mark to date, with the median cost reaching $4,175 for March. (Bloomberg)
  3. Wayfair stock bucked by bearish trendline.
  4. CFO exit sent Harley-Davidson stock sinking.
  5. Fastenal stock stalls out on new pressures.

Corporate Earnings April 13

Unusual Options Activity April 13

Gold Snags 2nd-Highest Close on Record

Crude shifted lower, though investor sentiment remained stagnant. For the session, May-dated crude shed $1.10, or 1.3%, to close at $82.16 per barrel.

Gold futures enjoyed a healthy surge Thursday, as the U.S. dollar weakened and Fed rate concerns lingered. June-dated gold gained $30.40 or 1.5%, to settle at $2,055.30 an ounce -- its highest close since August 2020, or second-highest on record.

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