The Market or The Masters?

Tale of the Tape

Good evening, y’all. The market was weak today.

It seemed like traders watched The Masters > The Market. Can you blame them? Defending champ Tiger Woods tied his best opening round at Augusta. 🐅 👀

Every major index settled in the red. The S&P sank -1%. The small-caps stalled -1.6%.

The $SPY sits at former highs. We’ll see how we finish the week. Here’s the daily chart:

Energy sucked. $XLE dropped 3%. Consumer staples was the best performing sector. $XLP only lost 0.27%.

Bitcoin broke above $16,000. $BTC.X is only 17% off its all-time high. 👀

The Chinese EVs charged higher. $XPEV soared 33% after posting earnings early this morning. In sympathy, $NIO surged 12% and $LI lept 27%.

Disney dropped earnings after the close. More on this below.

Here are the closing prints:

S&P 500	3,537	-1.00%
Nasdaq	11,709	-0.65%
Russell 2000	1,708	-1.64%
Dow Jones	29,080	-1.08%

Earnings Round-Up

Pinduoduo reported Q3 results that blew out Wall Street estimates. The stock soared 20.4% into new all-time highs.

Here are the results:

EPS: $0.05 vs ($0.17) est.
Revenue: $2.1B vs $1.86B est.

Lei Chen, CEO of $PDD, said this:

This quarter we continued to invest in user engagement, which resulted in strong growth of monthly active users and active buyers. We continue to innovate in order to meet such needs, especially in the agricultural industry.

Xpeng Motors’ earnings came in mixed, but shares reacted well. The Chinese electric car IPO leapt 33%. China is strong 💪

Here are the numbers:

EPS: ($0.32) vs ($0.18) est.
Revenue: $293.1M vs $284.6M est.

$XPEV is up 111% since its August IPO.

Disney topped revenue expectations and saw fewer losses than anticipated. The company now has more than 73 million paid subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service.

Here are the stats:

EPS: ($0.20) vs ($0.71) est.
Revenue: $14.71B vs $14.20B est.

Parks, Experiences, and Products: $2.58B -61% YoY

$DIS CEO Bob Chapek said this:

Even with the disruption caused by COVID-19, we’ve been able to effectively manage our businesses while also taking bold, deliberate steps to position our company for greater long-term growth. The real bright spot has been our direct-to-consumer business, which is key to the future of our company, and on this anniversary of the launch of Disney+ we’re pleased to report that, as of the end of the fourth quarter, the service had more than 73 million paid subscribers – far surpassing our expectations in just its first year.

$DIS gained 5% after hours.

Palantir reported a 52% sales increase in its first earnings statement since going public in September. The company said that its “customer concentration is decreasing,” and it now receives a smaller % of revenue from top clients.

Here are the numbers:

EPS: ($0.94) vs ($0.24) a year earlier.
Revenue: $289.4M vs $279.4M est.

$PLTR fell 3% after hours.

Moderna Has One Too

Moderna’s vaccine update is expected to come out in the next couple of days!!

The pharmaceutical company will report its vaccine’s effectiveness following Pzifer’s Monday report.

Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines use the same mRNA technology, so investors think Moderna has some good news.

UPenn immunologist Drew Weissman compared the companies’ vaccines:

Overall I would expect similar results. It is hard to imagine how it would be much different.

Moderna said it was “actively preparing” for global use of its new vaccine after trials with 30,000 participants.

Here’s Bloomberg with more.

More Lockdowns?

COVID continues to gain momentum in the U.S. as the daily death toll surpassed 2,000 yesterday.

With hospitalizations back to record levels, some cities consider more lockdowns.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced another stay-at-home order. New York State is closing restaurants, bars, and gyms. California just banned indoor dining and church services.

Chicago’s Dept. of Public Health Officer Allison Awardy said:

I am more worried about COVID right now than I have been at any point since March. We’re in uncharted territory … We’re not set up for this level of outbreak.

U.S. disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said:

[COVID] may be something that becomes endemic that we have to just be careful about. Certainly it’s not going to be a pandemic for a lot longer because I believe the vaccines are going to turn that around.

What’ll the new year bring for coronavirus? We’ll have to wait and see. 🕐💉

The Masters

Oh how we missed you, Augusta. The 84th Masters got off to a quick start as defending champ Tiger Woods tied his best opening round with a bogey free 68.

He sits three shots back of the leader, Paul Casey.

Fresh off his first major win in September, Bryson DeChambeau entered the 92-golfer field as the favorite. He debuted the DraftKings logo on his signature golf cap as well.

Here’s The Masters with more.