Yiwen Lu8/14/24

US stocks gain, erase entire drop since jobs report

The S&P 500 was up 0.4%, while the Nasdaq 100 eked out a small gain of 0.1% in the final minutes of trading, after the closely-watched CPI report showed inflation came in below expectations.

The benchmark US stock index has now made back all the losses it suffered in the wake of the surprisingly soft July jobs report.

The annual rate of CPI inflation last month was down to 2.9%, lowest since March 2021. Excluding food and energy, rose 3.2% compared to one year ago.

Financials were the best-performing S&P sector ETF, led by soaring shares of Progressive Corp, which hit an all-time high after the company posted strong results for the month of July, as well as big gains for Allstate and Charles Schwab. Communications Services was the worst performing sector, while consumer discretionary was the only other sector to go negative on Wednesday.

An index that tracks the so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks, which had gained 7.5% in the last four trading days, gave back 0.5% on the session.

Kellanova was the top S&P gainer, up 7.8% at Wednesday’s closing. The stock surged after Mars, the owner of M&Ms and Dove, agreed to buy the owner of Cheez-Its and Pringles for nearly $36 billion, the year’s biggest deal to date.

Conversely, Albemarle Corp. lost the most among all S&P stocks, down 5.7%. The company is the world’s biggest producer of lithium, a critical metal used in batteries. But as global EV demand dropped over the past year, lithium prices have tumbled.

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Traders pay a premium for defense ETF that US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s broker reportedly attempted to buy before the war

The iShares Defense Industrials Active ETF is spiking this morning after the Financial Times reported that US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s broker attempted to make a multimillion-dollar purchase of the ETF ahead of US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

Per the FT, this purchase attempt did not go through after being flagged internally by BlackRock. (The chief Pentagon spokesperson has called this report false and fabricated.)

The actively managed ETF has actually performed poorly since the start of the war, down more than 12% since the end of February versus a less than 8% decline for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF.

But as of about 8:30 a.m. ET, it was up almost 4% in premarket trading. Even more curiously, as of 8:39 a.m. ET, only one of this actively managed ETF’s constituents (Rocket Lab) was up more than the ETF itself.

In other words, in what appears to be an amazing twist, traders are now seemingly willing to pay a premium for IDEF because it got a pseudo seal of approval from Pete Hegseth...

...except it didn’t, because the FT reports that the broker’s purchase order never went through after being flagged internally by BlackRock.

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J. Edward Moreno14m

Trump reportedly willing to end Iran war without reopening the Strait of Hormuz

President Trump told aides he’s willing to pull out of the war in Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly a fifth of global oil supply previously flowed — remains closed, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday morning.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rose after the report. Over the past month, the closure of the strait to all but a minuscule amount of tanker traffic has sent oil prices skyrocketing and pushed major indexes down.

Analysts at Signum Global, an advisory firm, told clients in a note immediately following the news that they find it “extremely unlikely” that Trump would in fact end the war without at least trying to reopen the strait. Failing to reopen the strait, Signum noted, would negatively affect the US, as well as America’s Gulf allies, and would effectively cede the strait to US rivals such as China.

Rising energy prices may soon become a domestic political and economic liability as well, with US gasoline climbing to an average of $4 per gallon for the first time since August 2022.

Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening Hormuz

Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening Hormuz

Analysts at Signum Global, an advisory firm, told clients in a note immediately following the news that they find it “extremely unlikely” that Trump would in fact end the war without at least trying to reopen the strait. Failing to reopen the strait, Signum noted, would negatively affect the US, as well as America’s Gulf allies, and would effectively cede the strait to US rivals such as China.

Rising energy prices may soon become a domestic political and economic liability as well, with US gasoline climbing to an average of $4 per gallon for the first time since August 2022.

Marvell spikes after Nvidia invests $2 billion in the custom chip maker

And YOU get $2 billion and YOU get $2 billion

Jensen Huang of Nvidia

Virgin Galactic soars after boosting space tourism ticket prices to $750,000

Virgin had paused its space tourism program after a June 2024 flight in order to focus on building a better spacecraft.

US-SPACE-TOURISM-BEZOS-BRANSON

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Claire Yubin Oh2h

Vertiv falls after Jefferies downgrade, company announces $50 million to expand Ohio manufacturing capacity

Vertiv Holdings is sliding 2% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the data center digital infrastructure provider was downgraded to “hold” from “buy” by analysts at Jefferies.

Citing risks in slowing hyperscaler capex growth in 2027 and beyond, as well as the view that out-year margin expectations are elevated, Jefferies cut its price target for Vertiv to $260 from $280. Estimates from Jefferies analysts assume that the firm successfully expands its capacity to meet its “outsized” current order book.

Separately, the company announced an investment worth up to $50 million to expand its manufacturing facilities in Ironton, Ohio, and headquarters in Westerville, Ohio.

The Ironton expansion will “increase Vertiv liquid cooling and chilled water systems used in advanced thermal management applications,” often used in high-performance AI workloads, by ~45%, per the company’s press release, and is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2027.

The company also recently announced its acquisition of heat-exchange technology provider ThermoKey, as Vertiv continues to focus on investing in advanced cooling solutions used in AI data centers.

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