Tale of the Tape
Good evening everyone. Fat rally on Wall Street today and there was action everywhere you looked so let’s get right into it.
Huge gap up at the open – futures were buff from the time we woke up into the open and stocks just kept going higher.
The Russell 2000 futures were limit up pre-market (+5%) and closed up 6.1%. 💪
The S&P closed near the high of the day up 3.15%, its best performance since April 8 and highest close in more than 2 months. Banks went bonkers up 8%. Energy was ecstatic up 7.5%. Airlines ascended up 14%. We’re dizzy just typing about it.
Money came out of some of the COVID plays that have been white hot. Zoom was down 6%. Peloton was down 10%. Shopify fell almost 4%. HealthCare took a break too – up only 0.9%, the worst performing sector.
Moderna was up 20% on positive Phase One biotech yada yada. More on that jumping bean below.
Expedia was up 20% heading into earnings later this week (05/20 AMC).
We get a full slate of retailers reporting this week. Speculators will be reading the tea leaves and all of it will be meaningless. See more below.
Here are your closing prices on the major indices:
| S&P 500 | 2,953 | +3.15% |
| Nasdaq | 9,234 | +2.44% |
| Russell 2000 | 1,333 | +6.10% |
| Dow Jones | 24,597 | +3.85% |
COVID Vaccine?
Moderna jumped today after the company announced positive Phase-1 data for its coronavirus vaccine. $MRNA gapped up 24% pre-market, traded off a bit, and closed +19.96%.
The company plans to launch a phase 3 trial in July.
After the close, Moderna announced a $1.3B stock offering. Investors can be as cynical as they want about the timing of the offering but look, if you are the executives at $MRNA, you are simply selling your currency while it is dear. No real trader can argue with that.
Are Banks Heating Up?
The KBW Bank Index closed up 7.9% today. It was its best day since April 6th. Even Wells Fargo performed, closing up 8.8%.
Wells was the only major bank to make a new low last week. Was that a false breakdown or a sign of further pain in the financials? Place your bets…
Here’s the YTD chart of the Bank Index. Nice 3 day move but still plenty of work to do there:
TikTok Welcomes Ex-Disney, Kevin Mayer
Former Disney executive, Kevin Mayer, will join TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance as COO. Mayer’s name was in the discussion for CEO at Disney previously but he didn’t make the cut.
Mayer will take over as chief operating officer and head of TikTok starting June 1st.
You’d suspect he is going to be hyper-motivated to show Disney what they missed out on.
Congrats, Kevin. We wish you the best of luck.
IPO Insanity
This chart from Strategas shows the IPO Index versus the S&P 500. As of late, IPOs have been leading the market by a long shot. Is this strength of new issues a positive sign for the market as a whole?
Speaking of hot IPOs…
$SDGR is up 107% since IPO.
$ZNTL is up 71% since IPO.
Incredible.
Sports Are Back People!!!
Yesterday, we got a little world class skins event in Juno Beach, Florida with Rory McIllroy and Dustin Johnson vs. Matthew Wolff and Rickie Fowler. Rory and DJ took it. Here’s some great highlights for you all.
And here’s Fowler sporting the dirty stache:
A $5M donation went to the American Nurses Foundation.
Goodness all around.
And, as if that wasn’t enough, this coming weekend, we’ll get Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady vs Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning.
Count us team 🐅
Retail Earnings Week
This week, we get lots of earnings from retailers like Walmart, Home Depot, Target, Kohls, Lowe’s BJ’s, Best Buy, TJX, Macy’s and Ross (Costco is next week).
Tomorrow morning alone, two of the biggest report. First, Home Depot goes. The company closed less than 1% from an all-time high today. The conference call is slated for 9AM ET and you can listen here.
Walmart is just 3+% from an all-time high. The conference call is slated for 8 AM ET and you can listen here.
Earnings Tomorrow
Be sure to know when your stocks report earnings. Here’s the full earnings calendar.
Links That Don’t Suck
Mark Cuban on Why the Government Should Directly Hire Millions of People
CEO of VF Corp (Owner of Vans and The North Face) says he is Hunting for Deals
Michael Phelps: ‘This is the most overwhelmed I’ve ever felt’
Michael Jordan’s Stock Soars After ‘The Last Dance’
When Contaminated Currency Needs to be Laundered
Fastest Growing and Declining Retail Brands
