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U.S. equity futures extend yesterday’s rally amid apparent progress on the debt-ceiling impasse in Washington, while in Europe, natural gas prices and power fell after Russia offered to ease Europe’s energy crisis as U.S. stocks are looking at a stronger open. Yesterday, the S&P 500 erased a -1.3% loss in its biggest reversal since February to settle modestly higher as investors grew more optimistic that congressional Democrats and Republicans could reach a deal to avert a government debt default with October 18th, the date Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has estimated the government will run out of money and not be able to service its existing debts, if the ceiling remains in place. China markets and U.S. listed Chinese stocks (BABA, BIDU, JD) are rising as President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to hold a virtual summit by the end of the year. Late yesterday, top U.S. Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said his party would support an extension of the federal debt ceiling into December. The offer could provide an off-ramp to a months-long standoff between President Joe Biden’s Democrats and McConnell’s Republicans, who had been expected on Wednesday to block a third attempt by Senate Democrats to raise the $28.4 trillion debt ceiling. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index rose 149 points to 27,678, the Shanghai Index remained closed for its Golden Week holiday, and the Hang Seng Index surged 735 points, or over 3% to settle at 24,701. The picture remains bright in Europe as well with the German DAX up 175 points to 15,150 and the FTSE 100 rising 67 points or nearly 1% to 7,060. The monthly nonfarm payroll report also in focus tomorrow. Market Closing Prices Yesterday · The S&P 500 Index gained 6.51 points, or 0.15%, to 4,363.55 · The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 90.49 points, or 0.26%, to 34,416.99 · The Nasdaq Composite dropped -64.79 points, or 0.44%, to 14,501.91 · The Russell 2000 Index declined -26.67 points, or 1.19% to 2,214.96 Events Calendar for Today · 7:30 AM ET Challenger Layoffs for Sept · 8:30 AM ET Weekly Jobless Claims · 8:30 AM EST Continuing Claims · 10:30 AM ET Weekly EIA Natural Gas Inventory Data · 3:00 AM ET Consumer Credit for Aug Earnings Calendar: · Earnings Before the Open: CAG, HELE, LW · Earnings After the Close: ACCD Other Key Events: · China’s Caixin Services PMI for Sept · Piper Global Chemicals M&A Conference (virtual), 10/7 · International Conference on Molecular Targets & Cancer Therapeutics (virtual), 10/7-10/10 Consumer · Costco ($COST) reported net sales of $19.50 billion for the retail month of September, the five weeks ended October 3, 2021, an increase of 15.8% from $16.84 billion last year; Total Company Comparable Sales rose 14.3%, Sept E-Commerce Sales rose 10.6%, Sept total co. Comparable Sales ex-impacts of gas prices, foreign exchange rose 9.4% and Sept E-Commerce sales ex-impacts of gas prices, foreign exchange rose 9.6% · Levi Strauss ($LEVI) Q3 EPS $0.48 vs. est. $0.37; Q3 revs up 41% YoY to $1.5B vs. est. $1.48B; authorizes $200M share buyback; qtrly gross margin was 57.6% of net revenues, up from 54.3%; said qtrly DTC net revenues increased 34% due to increased revenues from our company-operated stores; sees 4q net rev growth 20-21% YoY · Resources Connection ($RGP) Q1 EPS $0.43 vs. est. $0.25; Q1 revs $183.1M vs. est. $175.7M; sees Q2 revs $186M-$190M vs. est. $176.9M · Carnival Cruise Line ($CCL) announced plans for more ship restarts for January and February, as it works towards the return of its full fleet sailing from U.S. homeports in the spring of 2022 · Life Time Group ($LTH) 39M share IPO priced at $18.00 Energy, Industrials and Materials · Crude futures extend Wednesday’s slump. WTI drops as much as 3.2% before recovering near $75.80. Brent follows similar price action, settling just shy of the $80 mark. · Emerson Electric Co ($EMR) is in talks to merge its software assets with industrial software company Aspen Technology Inc (AZPN), Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. https://bloom.bg/3AlySkj · U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. ($SLCA) said to explore strategic alternatives for industrial & specialty products (ISP) segment · Rocket Lab USA ($RKLB) announced that it has been selected to launch NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System on the Electron launch vehicle. Financials · Chubb ltd ($CB) files mixed securities shelf · Credit Acceptance ($CACC) increased the size of its revolving secured line of credit facility from $340M to $385M · Realogy ($RLGY) forms strategic joint venture with Centerbridge Partners to accelerate growth of title insurance underwriter; Centerbridge to purchase controlling interest of Realogy’s title insurance underwriter for $210M in cash · RLI Corp. ($RLI) announced an estimated range of pretax catastrophe losses of $30M-$35M, net of reinsurance, in Q3 Healthcare · Denali Therapeutic ($DNLI) announced positive Phase 1 clinical results and regulatory progress for two investigational small molecule therapeutics in development for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, at the 2021 Annual Northeast ALS · SeaSpine Holdings Corp. ($SPNE) announced the successful completion of the first cases in both the United States and Australia for the 7D Percutaneous Spine Module · Moderna ($MRNA) announced it will build a mRNA facility in Africa with the goal of producing up to 500M doses of vaccines each year at the 50-microgram dose level; the company anticipates investing up to $500M in this new facility · Osmotica Pharmaceuticals ($OSMT) 14M share Spot Secondary priced at $2.50 · Theseus Pharmaceuticals ($THRX) 10M share IPO priced at $16.00 Technology, Media & Telecom · IAC/InterActiveCorp. ($IAC) has reached a roughly $2.7 billion deal to buy magazine publisher Meredith Corp. (MDP), with holders to receive $42.18 per share in an all-cash deal. As a result of the deal, Meredith will become part of DotDash, IAC’s digital-publishing division. · Dutch antitrust authority finds Apple ($AAPL) in-app payment system anti-competitive – Reuters reports citing sources; Dutch authority has ordered apple to change app store practices; Apple has appealed to Dutch court to block publication of regulatory decision · Alibaba ($BABA), Baidu ($BIDU), NetEase ($NTES), Didi Global ($DIDI) among U.S.-listed Chinese stocks rising as concerns around U.S/China trade relations and Evergrande’s debt crisis appeared to ease. Fund giant Fidelity is putting money back into Chinese stocks and thinks the recent “indiscriminate” selling caused by the debt crisis at property giant Evergrande is presenting opportunities in the country’s beaten up bond markets. Reuters reported. “There are companies that have seen good haircuts on their debt that are not justified,” Fidelity’s global Chief Investment Officer Andrew McCaffery said during a roundtable, adding that some other parts of Asia had also been impacted. · Twitter, Inc. ($TWTR) to sell MoPub to AppLovin Corp. (APP), a leading marketing software company, for $1.05 billion in cash. The transaction will enable Twitter to accelerate the development of owned and operated revenue products and drive growth · Citrix Systems Inc ($CTXS) said David j. Henshall steps down as president, chief executive officer and member of board of directors and Bob Calderoni appointed interim president and chief executive officer; sees Q3 revenue at midpoint to high end of guidance range of $765M-$775M vs. est. $778M
