>>> US After Hours

After Hours Summary: SYM +23.8% soaring on earnings; SMCI +26% spiking after engaging independent auditor; GOOG -0.5% creeping lower after DOJ pushes firm to sell Chrome, according to Bloomberg

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: SYM +23.8%, TCOM +3.7%, DOC +0.2%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: SMCI +26% (engages BDO USA, P.C. as its independent auditor), ECX +5.6% (components procurement and R&D services agreement with Geely Automobile Holdings), ERII +5.4% ($50 mln repurchase plan), MCHP +2.7% (CEO to retire; appoints interim CEO), SQ +1.8% Bitkey launches inheritance feature for Bitcoin), VIR +1.7% (receives positive opinion on orphan drug designation for Tobevibart and Elebsiran), COHR +0.7% (launches high-speed photodiodes for 1.6T transceivers), ARRY +0.5% ($3.0 mln investment in Swap Robotics), ADM +0.4% (files restated finacial statements), IRM +0.3% (acquiring two data center development sites in VA), FREY +0.2% (appoints new CEO), AHH +0.1% (names new CEO)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: ACM -0.7% (also increases repurchase plan and dividend)

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: INCY -10.4% (update on MRGPRX2 and MRGPRX4 programs), PTGX -3.4% (topline results from Phase 3 ICONIC studies), DJT -2.3% (in talks to buy Bakkt (BKKT), according to FT.com), IIIN -2% (closing facility in OH), OMCL -1.5% (offering $150 mln convertible senior notes), SEI -1.3% files $500 mln mixed shelf), MSTR -1.2% (offering $1.75 bln convertible senior notes), WEN -1.1% (names new CFO), TECK -0.9% (to repurchase up to 40 mln shares), SYRE -0.7% ($200 mln stock offering and pre-funded warrants), GOOG -0.5% (DOJ pushing company to sell Chrome, according to Bloomberg), AMD -0.2% (Chief Accounting Officer resigns), KWR -0.1% (appoints new CEO), WY -0.1% (to invest $500 mln to build new TimberStrand facility)

>>> US Close Dow -0.13% S&P +0.39% Nasdaq +0.60% Russell +0.11%

Closing Stock Market Summary
The S&P 500 (+0.4%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.6%), and Russell 2000 (+0.1%) closed with gains. The day started out slow, but buying picked up steam after Treasury yields moved lower. The 10-yr yield approached 4.50% overnight, but settled one basis point lower than Friday at 4.41%.

The upside bias was also fueled by buy-the-dip interest following last week's consolidation, which saw the major indices give back some of their post-election gains. Strength in mega-cap stocks and semiconductor-related names contributed to overall index gains. However, NVIDIA (NVDA 140.15, -1.83, -1.3%) was among the outliers, trading lower after reports from The Information suggested customers are concerned about overheating issues with its AI chips. The company is set to report earnings after Wednesday's close.

Meanwhile, Tesla (TSLA 338.74, +18.02, +5.6%) was up sharply, extending its post-election rally on news from Bloomberg that the Trump administration may ease regulations on self-driving cars. The stock has surged 37.8% since November 5, helping lift the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector by 0.9%.

The energy sector (+1.0%) was the best performer, driven by rising commodity prices. WTI crude oil futures settled 3.2% higher at $69.18/bbl, while natural gas futures settled 5.3% higher at $2.97 per mmbtu.
Nine out of the 11 sectors closed higher than Friday's close, indicating broad-based buying interest. The health care sector settled little changed from Friday, weighed down by Eli Lilly (LLY 727.20, -19.00, -2.6%) after reports that some Republican Senators are reportedly open to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Today's economic data included the November NAHB Housing Market Index, which rose to 46 in November (consensus 43) from 43 in October.

Looking ahead to Tuesday, the October Housing Starts and Building Permits report will be released at 8:30 ET.
  • Nasdaq Composite: +25.2%
  • S&P 500: +23.6%
  • S&P Midcap 400: +15.5%
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average: +15.1%
  • Russell 2000: +13.8%

FT : US warns Turkey on hosting Hamas leadership

US warns Turkey on hosting Hamas leadership
Qatar no longer willing to host Palestinian militant group as Gaza ceasefire talks with Israel remain deadlocked

The US has said it would warn the Turkish government that there could be “no more business as usual” with Hamas after members of the Palestinian militant group’s political leadership reportedly moved to Turkey.

State department spokesman Matt Miller on Monday told reporters: “We don’t believe that the leaders of a vicious terrorist organisation should be living comfortably anywhere, and that certainly includes in a major city of one of our key allies and partners.”

Miller added he could neither confirm nor deny reports that officials from the Palestinian militant group’s political leadership had relocated from Qatar to the Nato ally. But he said: “There can be no more business as usual with Hamas.”

The US warning comes as Biden administration officials have sought to blame Hamas for the failure of ceasefire talks with Israel, which have been stalled for months.

American officials are hoping that progress with Lebanon on ending the conflict between Hizbollah and Israel might also give impetus to the Hamas-Israel negotiations. Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, is due to arrive in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday to try to push the talks forward.

An Arab diplomat told the Financial Times that some of Hamas’s officials had relocated from Qatar to Turkey after Doha suspended its role as mediator in the talks to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of the remaining hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

Qatar warned the group last month that if it was not willing to engage seriously in the negotiations it would not be able to retain its political office the Gulf state. A second person familiar with the matter said some Hamas officials were in Turkey.

The Arab diplomat said it was not clear if the Hamas officials’ move to Turkey, which has long been sympathetic to the group, was permanent or temporary.

A Turkish foreign ministry official said members of the Hamas political bureau “occasionally visit Turkey”.

“The claims that the Hamas political bureau has moved to Turkey do not reflect reality,” the official added.

Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political office since 2012 and has been one of the main meditators, along with the US and Egypt, seeking to broker a deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages and a permanent ceasefire to end the more than year-long war in Gaza.

But the gas-rich Gulf state, which is an important US ally, has drawn criticism from some Washington lawmakers for its role in hosting the militant group’s political leadership.

Doha has also been angered by hostility from Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Qatar has been frustrated by the failure of both Netanyahu’s far-right government and Hamas’s leadership to reach a compromise and get a deal over the line.

The talks to end the conflict, which erupted after Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, have been deadlocked for months.

Hamas has insisted it would only accept a version of a multi-phased deal that would lead to a permanent ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal from the strip in return for the release of hostages, which it endorsed at the beginning of July.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, has repeatedly rejected a permanent end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the devastated Gaza strip, where Israel’s offensive has killed more than 43,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials.

>>> MicroStrategy to offer $1.75 bln aggregate principal amount of its 0% conver

MicroStrategy to offer $1.75 bln aggregate principal amount of its 0% convertible senior notes due 2029 in a private offering (384.79 +44.14)
  • Co also expects to grant to the initial purchasers of the notes an option to purchase, within a 3-day period beginning on, and including, the date on which the notes are first issued, up to an additional $250 million aggregate principal amount of the notes.
  • Co intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to acquire additional bitcoin and for general corporate purposes.

>>> Events and conferences of interest for tomorrow

Events and conferences of interest for tomorrow
Events and conferences of interest for tomorrow, November 19, include:
  • Metals Corporation New Orleans Investment Conference (November 19-22)
  • Deutsche Bank Global Space Summit (November 19-20)
    • Scheduled to appear: ASTS, BKSY, CMI, GILT, GSAT, IRDM, LUNR...
  • Morgan Stanley European Technology Media & Telecoms Conference (November 19-21)
    • Scheduled to appear: ALE, ASML, EDR, NEXI, STGW...

FT : Donald Trump’s social media group in talks to buy crypto trading venue

Donald Trump’s social media group in talks to buy crypto trading venue
Truth Social owner is close to an all-share takeover of Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt

Donald Trump’s social media company is in advanced talks to buy Bakkt, a cryptocurrency trading venue owned by Intercontinental Exchange, as it pushes to expand beyond online conversation.

The US president-elect’s Trump Media and Technology Group, in which he has pledged to retain his 53 per cent stake, is closing in on an all-share purchase of Bakkt, said two people with knowledge of the talks. The valuation under discussion was not immediately clear but Bakkt’s market capitalisation stood at just over $150mn on Monday.

TMTG, which operates Truth Social, has become one of the most actively traded US stocks since Trump’s election victory as retail investors try to profit on its often-volatile trading moves. Although it has reported just $2.6mn in revenues this year, TMTG has a $6bn equity valuation, giving its management a valuable currency with which to buy other companies.

A successful deal would deepen Trump’s move into the cryptocurrency market after he began promoting a new crypto venture set up by longtime business partners, World Liberty Financial, from which he stands to earn significant fees. Crypto markets have also soared following his election victory, with bitcoin up more than 30 per cent on speculation that his administration would enact favourable legislation for the industry.

Bakkt, which has struggled for profitability since its launch, was created by ICE, and the owner of the New York Stock Exchange still holds a 55 per cent economic interest in it.

Bakkt’s first chief executive was Kelly Loeffler, a former head of marketing at ICE and a Republican ex-senator for Georgia during Trump’s first presidency. She is co-chair of the committee organising his inauguration in January. She is also married to Jeff Sprecher, ICE’s founder, chair and chief executive.

ICE and Bakkt declined to comment. TMTG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bakkt has previously said its crypto custody business, which has a regulatory licence from New York authorities, is likely to be wound down. People familiar with the TMTG talks said it will not be included in the deal.

The crypto business had been set up to hold digital assets such as bitcoin and ether on behalf of customers but failed to gain traction and made operating losses of $27,000 from revenues of $328,000 in the three months to September 30. Bakkt is planning to build a trading platform for institutional investors.

Bakkt faced a delisting from NYSE owing to its lowly share price, until it effected a 1 for 25 reverse stock-split in April. Last week its share price rose 15 per cent. Its shares were up 1 per cent in afternoon trading in New York on Monday. TMTG was down 2.5 per cent.

Truth Social remains tiny in terms of its reach, averaging 646,000 daily visits to its website this month, according to Similarweb, compared with 155mn a day for Elon Musk’s X platform. Even so, the president-elect’s stake now accounts for more than half of his $5.7bn wealth, as calculated by Bloomberg.

FT : Germany and Finland ‘deeply concerned’ about severed undersea cable

Germany and Finland ‘deeply concerned’ about severed undersea cable
Foreign ministers do not rule out sabotage as part of Russia’s ‘hybrid warfare’

Germany and Finland have said they are “deeply concerned” about a severed undersea communications cable between the two countries, saying that it raised suspicions of possible Russian sabotage.

Cinia, the Finnish state operator of the 1,200km C-Lion1 fibre optic cable between Helsinki in Finland and Rostock in Germany, said it had been cut early on Monday morning in the Baltic Sea close to Sweden and was almost certainly the result of an “external force”.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the two countries said: “We are deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea. The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times.”

Nato countries around the Baltic Sea have been on alert for potential sabotage of undersea infrastructure ever since the still-unexplained explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022.

Last year, a gas pipeline and two data cables were cut in the Gulf of Finland by the anchor of a Chinese ship, although authorities have not said whether they believe it was an accident or done on purpose.


Separately, Swedish telecoms operator Telia said that a communications cable between Sweden and Lithuania was damaged on Sunday morning, almost 24 hours before the Finnish-German severing.

Nato and its member countries have stepped up surveillance and monitoring of tens of thousands of kilometres of cables and pipelines, especially in the North and Baltic Seas.

Elina Valtonen, Finland’s foreign minister, and her German counterpart Annalena Baerbock said: “Our European security is not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors. Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies.”

They added that an investigation was under way. Cinia declined to say if it believed it was sabotage or an intentional act, adding that a ship’s anchor or fishing trawler were also possible causes.

European countries have recently suffered several sabotage incidents, including fires and parcel bombs, with authorities in many cases pointing the finger at Russia. Valtonen said Finland would not hesitate to attribute blame for a “hybrid act” if it established that Russia or another country was behind it.

Cinia said it should take about five to 15 days to repair the cable that linked data centres. It added that there appeared to be no sign of increased seismic activity, which could have also severed the connection.