The rally continues this morning, with both Dow and S&P 500 futures up 0.8%, and the Nasdaq soaring 1%. That’s following a strong day of trading yesterday with Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard arguing that the central bank should ‘pivot’ to supporting economic growth. “It is very important to many households and businesses to have continued fiscal support — just as it was important to them in the early phase of this crisis” she stated.
Also boosting optimism was better-than-expected manufacturing data for August (at a 19-month high), with ADP Research Institute’s August jobs report released today, weekly jobless claims tomorrow, and the U.S. monthly employment report on Friday.
Shares in Macy’s are rising 5% this morning, after the department store operator posted a solid earnings beat (without issuing guidance). Digital sales surged 53% year-over-year while comparable sales dropped 34% (vs a -34.7% consensus) “We are encouraged by our second quarter performance; however, we continue to approach the back half of the year conservatively. Our immediate priority is successfully executing Holiday 2020,” commented CEO Jeff Gennette.
Meanwhile At Home Group reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter fueled by comparable-store sales up 42% year-over-year. But shares are now trading down 14% in Wednesday’s pre-market- with the stock up a whopping 325% year-to-date, a bit of profit taking isn’t so surprising.
H&R Block is down by over 2% in early morning trading, after it missed 1Q revenues. However earnings of $0.55 topped analysts’ expectations of $0.50. Post-print, BTIG analyst Mark Palmer maintained a Hold saying: “While the company’s shares appear relatively inexpensive and it showed signs of resuming a more normal footing during 1Q21, we believe its role in the post-pandemic U.S. tax prep ecosystem remains unclear.”
Aside from earnings, Nvidia (NVDA) is up 5% in the pre-market session after closing 3.4% higher at $552.84 on Tuesday. The chip company said it has worked with Micron to create the world’s fastest discrete graphics memory for the RTX 30 series, GDDR6X. It provides data speeds of close to 1TB/s system memory bandwidth for graphics card applications, maximizing game and app performance. Post-launch Merrill Lynch’s Vivek Arya boosted his Nvidia price target to a Street-high $650 up from $600 previously.
Also on a roll is AMC (AMC) which is currently surging 17%, after the cinema giant announced that 70% of its US theaters will be re-opening this Friday. “By September 4, moviegoers can enjoy Warner Bros.’ TENET and all of this summer’s newest releases at approximately 420 AMC locations nationwide, which is approximately 70% of AMC’s overall U.S. theater count” AMC cheered on September 1.
Thanks to bullish activity from the Street, online real estate stock Zillow is up 5% right now. As well as a Deutsche Bank upgrade, Needham’s Brad Erickson reiterated his Buy call and $110PT, telling investors: “We believe Z controls its own destiny fundamentally right now, giving the company extra profit optionality to invest in all areas that can drive growth and warrant further upside in the shares.” He added that his checks revealed virtually no signs of slowdown to transaction momentum or spending.
In healthcare news, Mesoblast (MESO) has announced that it has received ethics approval to include Australian hospitals in the Phase 3 randomized controlled trial of remestemcel-L in ventilator-dependent COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
And Bristol Myers Squibb has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Onureg (azacitidine 300 mg tablets) for the continued treatment of adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who achieved first complete remission (CR) or CR with incomplete blood count recovery (CRi). AML is one of the most common acute leukemias in adults.
