>>> What to look at today - 9th of October 2024

Chinese equities were standout underperformers in Asia Wednesday as traders weighed weak economic data and Beijing’s reluctance to commit to more stimulus. The benchmark CSI 300 Index tumbled as much as 7.4%, but regained some of its losses on a report China will hold a briefing on Saturday about fiscal policy. Chinese markets had surged Tuesday when they returned from the Golden Week holiday.  US equity futures also slipped following a report that the US Justice Department was weighing a breakup of Google. Ten-year Treasury yields hovered around the key 4% mark and oil steadied after tumbling the most in more than a year. Concerns in China have mounted that the latest burst of stimulus may be insufficient to convince investors of a sustainable rally in the equity market. Chinese tourists shelled out less money during their long holiday while a news report indicated the nation needs to introduce policies to stabilize growth and expectations. That’s a further sign Beijing is attempting to build confidence among investors. The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s economic planning agency, announced that a meager 200 billion yuan ($28 billion) in spending would be advanced from next year, after analysts estimated a fiscal package worth as much as 3 trillion yuan in the pipeline. Confidence in the bull run in China is fading “just as rapidly as it had momentum not long ago,” said Hebe Chen, an analyst at IG Markets Ltd. A growing number of strategists and fund mangers have in recent days expressed skepticism about the rally, saying Beijing needs to back up its spending pledges with real money. Some are also concerned that many stocks have already reached overvalued levels. In corporate news, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. sent Seven & i Holdings Co. a new potential acquisition price of ¥7 trillion ($47.2 billion), showing that the Canadian company is still seeking to enter takeover talks after its initial bid was rejected. The Japanese company’s shares surged as much as 12%. Elsewhere in Asia, New Zealand’s dollar and bond yields fell after the nation’s central bank delivered a 50 basis-point cut on its benchmark rate, while the Reserve Bank of India left rates unchanged. The RBI changed its monetary policy to neutral, sending shares higher. South Korea will join FTSE Russell’s benchmark bond index, capping months of official campaigning and a overhaul of financial market infrastructure.  Fed Bank of Boston President Susan Collins noted that rate cuts should be careful and data-based. Her Atlanta counterpart Raphael Bostic said while risks to inflation have come down, threats to the labor market have risen, though the economy is still strong. Governor Adriana Kugler said officials should keep the focus on bringing inflation to target, with a “balanced approach” that avoids a slowdown in jobs.  US After Hours After Hours Summary: BA +0.7% ticks higher despite S&P placing it on CreditWatch Negative; ALAB +5% higher after announcing new portfolio of fabric switches for AI workloads

Nikkei +1.06% Hang Seng +0.70% CSI -3.43% Shanghai -3.62% Shenzen -4.18%

Eur$ 1.0975 CNH 7.0611 CNY 7.0611 JPY 148.53 GBP 1.3092 CHF 0.8581 RUB 96.8266 TRY 34.2713 WTI$ 74.19 +0.83% Gold 2,620 BTC 62,408 ETH 2,443

S&P -0.20% Nasdaq -0.31% EuroStoxx +0.04% FTSE +0.27% Dax +0.06% SMI -0.17%

Macro :
- Hurricane Milton Tracks Toward Florida as Category 5 Storm
- Point72 to Move Tokyo Office as Its Japan Footprint Expands

Keep an eye on :
- ALTM US : Rio Tinto to Buy Arcadium Lithium for $5.85/Share Cash
- SPR GY : Axel Springer-Backed Dyn to Start Fundraise as Investors Circle
- CTY1S FH : Citycon’s CEO Henrica Ginström Steps Down
- CMBT BB :
- CON GY : Continental Sees Improved Auto Unit Profits Despite Output Slump
- CON GY : Continental AG to Invest $400M More in Thailand Tire Plant
- ATD CN : Couche-Tard New Bid for Seven & I Is Hard to Rationalize: React
- CTT PL : CTT Sees ‘Positive’ Impact from Savings Certificates (1)
- FCH LN : Funding Circle Is Top UK Stock With 230% Rally From IPO Flop
- GOOGL US : US Says It’s Weighing Google Breakup as Monopoly Case Remedy (3)
- LLY US : Obesity Drugs Seen Costing Medicare $35 Billion Through 2034
- KER FP : Kering Names Stefano Cantino as CEO of Gucci
- ML FP : Michelin to Pause Some French Plants: AFP (Oct. 8)
- NOVOB DC : Obesity Drugs Seen Costing Medicare $35 Billion Through 2034
- PGHN SW : Partners Group-Backed KinderCare Raises $576 Million in IPO
- RIO LN : Rio Tinto to Buy Arcadium Lithium for $5.85/Share Cash
- SALM NO : Salmar Prelim 3Q Harvest Misses Estimates
- SAN FP : Sanofi Says New Beyfortus Data Reinforces RSV Effectiveness
- 3382 JP : Couche-Tard Is Said to Increase Seven & I Offer to $47 Billion
- TAP PL : Portugal’s Premier Says Many Firms Are Interested in Airline TAP
- TSCO LN : Amazon Growth Plans Face Entrenched Rivalry in Grocery, Apparel
- HO FP : Thales to Pay Interim Dividend of 85c a Share
- 2330 TT : TSMC Sales Beat Estimates in Sign of Solid AI Chip Demand
- WW US : WeightWatchers Soars on New Compounded GLP-1 Offering (1)
- UNO GY : Germany Said to Tap Citi, Deutsche Bank, UBS for Uniper Deal (1)
- ZEAL DC : Zealand Pharma Gets CRL From FDA for Dasiglucagon in CHI

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 9th of October 2024

>>> Up
* Bakkafrost Raised to Buy at Nordea; PT 800 kroner
* Neste Raised to Buy at SEB Equities; PT 20 euros
* QT Group Raised to Buy at SEB Equities; PT 101 euros

>>> Down
* DocMorris AG Cut to Hold at Berenberg; PT 36 Swiss francs
* Outokumpu Cut to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley; PT 4.30 euros
* Pennon Cut to Sector Perform at RBC
* Randstad Cut to Add at AlphaValue/Baader
* Revenio Cut to Hold at SEB Equities; PT 36 euros

>>> Initiation
* Borregaard Rated New Buy at SpareBank; PT 230 kroner
* Delivery Hero Rated New Buy at Stifel; PT 60 euros
* Just Eat Takeaway Rated New Hold at Stifel; PT 14.80 euros
* Lhyfe SAS Rated New Outperform at RBC; PT 8 euros
* Sulzer Rated New Outperform at Oddo BHF; PT 160 Swiss francs

>>> Call
* DocMorris to Continue Losing Market Share, Berenberg Downgrades
* Outokumpu Cut at Morgan Stanley, Prefers Carbon Steel Exposure
* United Utilities Now Preferred to Pennon as RBC Switches Ratings
* WPP Placed on Positive Watch at Citi, Now on ‘Firmer Footing’

FT : Activist Elliott says its long-term view on Anglo American is ‘very much in

Activist Elliott says its long-term view on Anglo American is ‘very much intact’
Hedge fund’s partner Nabeel Bhanji says BHP approach during its stake building was ‘genuinely annoying’

Activist hedge fund Elliott said its long-term thesis on British mining conglomerate Anglo American was “very interesting and very much intact”, after the fund built a stake of $1bn during a takeover offer by Anglo rival BHP.

In Elliott’s first comments on the deal since it disclosed its stake in April, equity partner Nabeel Bhanji said the US hedge fund was in a “very good [and] constructive]” dialogue with Anglo’s management.

“The BHP approach was third-party validation that clearly this is an asset that has a very interesting portfolio that is just trading at the wrong price,” said Bhanji at the Financial Times Due Diligence conference on Tuesday. “We’ve got billions of dollars riding on that bet.”

Bhanji added that BHP’s approach in April, which sent the London-listed miner’s share price up 13 per cent, was “genuinely annoying” as the firm was only “part way through our stake build”. Official filings in May showed that Elliott held 3.5 per cent of the FTSE 100 miner.

After intense negotiations and several improved offers by BHP, the talks collapsed at the end of May.

Elliott manages about $70bn for investors and invests in a mix of private and public companies. It has a reputation for taking on company management if it strongly disagrees with a company’s strategic direction.

Anglo is under pressure to make good on its radical plan to reshape the business following BHP’s failed takeover of the group — a restructuring that includes selling off parts of the business to leave it with a core three divisions of copper, iron ore and fertiliser.

Chief executive Duncan Wanblad said in September that plans to offload businesses including its DeBeers diamond arm would mean “we will get a re-rating” and Anglo would become “a very high-quality business”. Shares in Anglo have jumped 12 per cent in the past month, supported by the recent Chinese stimulus measures that have bolstered mining stocks.


Wanblad also said that he expected to finalise the sale of Anglo’s coal business this year, though a disposal of the diamonds business could extend beyond the planned restructuring timeline.

Investors have been speculating about whether BHP would return to bid again for Anglo, which it could do from the end of November under London takeover rules. Analysts at BNP Paribas said this month that it was “unlikely” for BHP to bid again for Anglo until the company was “more progressed through its restructuring process.”

Anglo said it was making progress in delivering its accelerated plan set out in May. 

FT : Abu Dhabi writes off 9.9% stake in Thames Water

Abu Dhabi writes off 9.9% stake in Thames Water
Writedown comes as UK government is hoping to attract institutional investors

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund has written off its investment in Thames Water in a blow to the Labour government as it gears up to host a summit designed to attract big institutional investors to the UK.

Accounts filed in June by a Luxembourg-registered subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia), which holds a 9.9 per cent stake in Thames Water’s parent company, said that it had written down the entire value of its investment “due to the challenging regulatory environment and operational performance”.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, wants to convince global investors that Britain is open for business despite a Budget at the end of the month that is expected to increase taxes on wealth.

Next week’s summit, which Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to open, is designed to promote investment in the UK, including in large infrastructure projects.

But the troubles faced by Thames Water, the UK’s largest water utility, are weighing on investors, who are concerned over what they perceive as an increasingly tough regulatory regime. Ofwat, the sector regulator, made a draft determination for water companies in June that prevented them from hiking customer bills for the next five years by as much as they had demanded.

Jon Phillips, chief executive of the Global Infrastructure Investor Association, said: “Some 30 international investors in UK water are also potential investors in energy, transport and digital infrastructure. But perceptions continue to be coloured by their experience in water, where the regulatory environment remains a red flag.

“In reaching its final determinations for the next five years, Ofwat must give greater priority to its duty to make the industry investible.”

Adia, which bought its stake from Macquarie in 2011, declined to comment on the writedown.

A government spokesperson said it was closely monitoring Thames Water, which remained “stable”.

The spokesperson added: “Our Water (Special Measures) Bill will create a level playing field through stronger regulation and secure £88bn of private-sector investment to upgrade our crumbling infrastructure, boost economic growth and create thousands of good, well-paid jobs right across the country.”

Guy Lambert, Adia’s head of utilities, was invited to a private meeting last month with Steve Reed, the environment secretary, according to a guest list seen by the Financial Times. During the meeting, investors complained about the regulation of the water industry, according to people familiar with the situation.

Crisis-struck Thames, which provides water and sewerage services to about 16mn households in England, is struggling under a £19bn debt load and risks running out of cash by Christmas.

The utility is racing to raise at least £3bn of equity to stave off being renationalised under the government’s special administration regime and make infrastructure improvements between 2025 and 2030. Its existing investors — which as well as Adia include a Chinese sovereign wealth fund and a Canadian pension fund — have refused to put more equity into the business and are willing to take up to £5bn losses.

Adia wrote down the value of its stake from £263mn to £1 at the end of last year, according to the accounts filed in June.

The writedown comes after a Singapore-registered subsidiary of Thames’s biggest shareholder, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, said in accounts published in May that it would make “a full writedown” of its 31 per cent stake, as well as writing down loans given to the utility. The Universities Superannuation Scheme, the UK pension fund, has also said its stake in Thames Water was now worth “minimal” value.

Adia, which is one of Thames’s largest shareholders, has also taken a full writedown on a £31mn loan awarded to one of the holding companies that owns Thames.

Adia also owns a 16.7 per cent stake worth more than £580mn in Anglian Water, another of the UK’s largest suppliers of water and sewerage services, which serves 7mn customers.

Ofwat said: “We have received responses on our 2024 Price Review draft decisions from many organisations, including water companies, customers, environmental and consumer organisations, and investors. Inevitably these reflect a diverse range of views on the proposals we have made. We will consider all of these responses carefully and set out our final decisions on December 19.”

Thames Water declined to comment.

FT : Seven & i shares jump after Couche-Tard says it is ready to pay $47bn

Seven & i shares jump after Couche-Tard says it is ready to pay $47bn
Canadian company’s non-binding offer to owner of 7-Eleven chain is 20% higher than initial rejected approach

Alimentation Couche-Tard has told Japan’s Seven & i Holdings it is willing to pay close to $47bn to take over the convenience store giant, 20 per cent more than its previously rejected bid.

The non-binding offer by the Canadian company was sent to the Tokyo-based owner of the 7-Eleven chain last month and no material negotiations have taken place since, according to people familiar with the matter.

Seven & i shares initially surged more than 10 per cent on the news, which was first reported by Bloomberg, on Wednesday before paring gains to trade up 4 per cent by mid-morning in Tokyo.

Seven & i and Couche-Tard declined to comment.

The Japanese group received and rejected an almost $39bn opening offer from Couche-Tard in September, saying it “grossly undervalues” the business and does not account for the difficulty of getting a deal past competition regulators in the US.


Last month the US Federal Trade Commission told lawyers for the two companies to retain documents linked with the potential merger of their petrol station and convenience store chains.

The combination of Couche-Tard, operator of the Circle K brand, and Seven & i would create one of the largest retail chains in the US.

One person familiar with Seven & i’s thinking said the group was focused on second-quarter results, due to be announced on Thursday, and proving to shareholders it could deliver sufficient value as a standalone entity.

The group has been exploring selling non-core assets to private equity and other investors, while accelerating plans to focus on its convenience store business.

Alongside other plans, the company is considering accelerating the sale of its stake in its financial services arm, Seven Bank, as well as selling its supermarket business.

If accepted, Couche-Tard’s takeover bid would be the largest in Japan by a foreign company and follows years of stop-start progress on corporate governance reform in the country, which has put boards under greater pressure to prioritise shareholders’ interests.

One investor, whose fund holds a substantial stake in Seven & i, said if the company continued to resist Couche-Tard the pressure would now be on the Japanese company.

“It will need to explain why it is rejecting an offer given that the overall valuation has not risen that much since the summer, and the board’s special committee will need to be clearer on what level of price or what conditions would be required for serious negotiations to begin,” said the person who did not wish to be named.

FT : Wealthy investors turn to hotels as dynamic assets

Wealthy investors turn to hotels as dynamic assets
Family offices are buying them across the world, especially in Asia Pacific

Many wealthy viewers of The White Lotus, the hit comedy-drama series set in luxury resorts around the world, will have been inspired to book a stay in a five-star hotel. But some have gone one better — by buying entire establishments.

A bidding war for Venice’s Hotel Bauer broke out earlier this year, with global investment company Mohari Hospitality beating offers from billionaire Bernard Arnault, among others, according to Bloomberg reports. And, last year, entrepreneur and PR guru Matthew Freud opened the Bull hotel in Burford, in the Cotswolds region of central England, followed more recently by a second hotel in the town, The Highway Inn.

Family offices have been snapping up hotel assets, too — particularly in Asia Pacific, according to global property consultancy JLL. It reports that, in the first half of this year, there was a 19 per cent year-on-year increase in hotel transactions in the region, taking their total value to $5.7bn.

Hotels have long been an attractive option for sophisticated investors. But the asset class is even more popular with the wealthy and their family offices at the moment, because of the post-pandemic recovery in the travel sector and hotels’ ability to ride higher inflation by updating their prices daily.

Christine Curtiss, global family office head at BNY Wealth, says “there’s definitely interest” in hotel investment among her company’s family office clients. “Property values tend to appreciate over the long term and the room rates rise with inflation, so they really act as an inflationary hedge,” she explains. “[Hotels] act as a store of value and as an income source — both key priorities for wealth preservation.”

A recent survey of 189 family offices by BNY Wealth found that property was the third-biggest asset allocation class after private equity and public equity, with hospitality assets, including hotels, a key area of interest, notes Curtiss.

Property assets that are also operational businesses, such as hotels and resorts, have been popular in an environment of higher inflation and interest rates since the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, agrees Will Turner, director of fund services at JTC Group. “Hotels are making revenue on a day-to-day basis, so they can set their price dynamically to reflect the cost base,” he points out.

Hotels have “significant value-add opportunities”, Turner adds. “It’s not just room rates. There’s a lot of cross-sale opportunities, like food and drink, healthcare, spa and shopping.”

The most sought-after hotel investments are those in cities that attract both tourist and business travel. Those that can also benefit from demand spikes caused by music, sport or cultural events (such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé’s world tours) are even more attractive.

Fund managers that Turner speaks to are highlighting western Europe as the region with the most attractive investment opportunities, particularly the UK and Switzerland. Nihat Ercan, chief executive of Asia Pacific hotels and hospitality at JLL, says family offices looking to invest in hotels tend to be “buying in key gateway cities, like Singapore, London, Tokyo and Paris”.

However, it is important that those interested in investing in hotels and resorts accept that the asset class is “highly cyclical”, warns Ben Yearsley, a director and co-founder of Fairview Investing. That means hotel investments ebb and flow with the economic cycles of growth and recession.

“The second the economy turns, the hit is immediate,” adds Kevin Brown, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, who specialises in hotels and residential real estate investment trusts (Reits). “Once you hit a recession, the first thing everyone does is cut out unnecessary travel from their purchases . . . so, every single recession, you see a massive crash of revenue and profitability in hotels.”

The hotel business model also faces the challenge of short-term rental providers, most notably Airbnb.

Finding investment opportunities can be difficult, too. Hotels are a relatively difficult asset class to gain direct exposure to, both because of the expense of buying individual properties, and because of their illiquidity — the difficulty in buying or selling them quickly.

They are, therefore, typically only suitable for sophisticated investors, who have various options: ranging from investing alongside private equity firms to buying a hotel directly or investing in publicly listed Reits.

Brown says that “unless you are a big institution with hundreds of millions to invest”, publicly listed Reits are the best route into the asset class.

“What we see [is] that funds are a good way for family offices to gain exposure to this segment if they don’t have specific expertise,” adds Curtiss at BNY Wealth.

FT : A Commerzbank takeover? Some Mittelstand executives say why not

A Commerzbank takeover? Some Mittelstand executives say why not
In contrast to Berlin’s stiff opposition, many family-owned businesses are pragmatic about a bid by UniCredit

Two years ago Jessica Beitzel could only find one bank to fund her acquisition of a funeral parlour in the north-western German town of Dormagen.

While most lenders she approached “jumped at the first hurdle”, she said “the Commerzbank advisers were very co-operative right from the start, always thinking in terms of solutions”.

Her views on a potential takeover of Commerzbank by Italian rival UniCredit, which has built a 21 per cent stake in the German lender, are pragmatic, however. “For me, it’s not important whether the head office is in Milan or Frankfurt — what matters is that they remain customer-orientated and easily accessible,” the 36-year-old told the Financial Times.

As she was “very satisfied” with Commerzbank’s service, her key concern was whether potential new owners would “keep it that way or set other priorities”.

Beitzel is not the only representative of the Mittelstand — the hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises that form the backbone of Germany’s economy — who is ready to give UniCredit the benefit of the doubt if the Italian lender purchases Commerzbank.

In multiple interviews, executives at such companies and their advisers have expressed measured scepticism at the prospect, contrasting with the stiff opposition UniCredit has faced in government, political circles and SME lobby groups.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has labelled the Italian bank’s stakebuilding an “unfriendly attack” while Friedrich Merz, leader of the German opposition Christian Democratic Union, said a tie-up of the two banks would be a “disaster for Germany’s banking market.”

Berlin and trade lobby groups have seized on Commerzbank’s prominent role in funding the Mittelstand. The Frankfurt-based lender has also made it a cornerstone of its defence, warning that lending decisions and risk management could be moved to Italy. SME lobby groups have also said that a sale to UniCredit would leave the economy with only one German-based lender operating nationwide: Deutsche Bank.

But away from Berlin in the country’s industrial strongholds, those deemed most at risk from such a deal keep an open mind.

The Italian bank would probably expand rather than shrink its lending activities given one of its key motivations for a deal was to increase its footprint among German corporate clients, said Matthias Wittenburg, a former Commerzbank banker who advises SMEs on mergers and acquisitions.


“UniCredit is intelligent enough to know how it needs to serve medium-sized customers so that they remain loyal to the bank after a merger,” he said.

Commerzbank’s book of loans to corporate clients in Germany stood at €99bn at the end of June, a 19 per cent increase since 2021. Over the same period, overall bank lending to companies in Germany rose 12 per cent, according to Bundesbank data, while the corporate loan book of UniCredit’s German subsidiary HypoVereinsbank remained unchanged at €90bn.

A merger could improve the balance sheets and profitability of both banks, while an enlarged lender might be a more reliable partner for corporate clients, said Hans-Jürgen Völz, chief economist at SME association BVMW. Since 2020, German companies have on average had to pay higher interest rates on bank loans than their peers in Italy, ECB data shows.

“Strong and solid financial partners are extremely important for SMEs,” Völz said.

Veit Ulbricht, an executive at agricultural machinery dealership Heinrich Moerschen in Tönisvorst, near Düsseldorf, said he was pleased with HypoVereinsbank’s services.

The UniCredit-owned bank, which is one of its lenders, along with municipality-owned savings institutions and co-operative banks, was a “highly rated” banking partner that was more willing to participate in riskier transactions than others, he said.

Italy and Germany shared similarities, he added, among them a good industrial base, a strong middle class and many export-oriented family businesses.

“The Italians are more federal and regional, just like us Germans,” Ulbricht said. “They have a great deal of respect for Germany, and they have a great interest in Germany.”

Therefore moving decision making to Milan would not make much sense for UniCredit, Ulbricht said. He could not “imagine UniCredit tripping itself up and slowing down decisions out of sheer centralism”.

Many still remain wary about losing an independent lender delivering a critical lifeline to German exporters. Commerzbank handles about 30 per cent of German foreign trade finance, noted Gitta Connemann, a politician who chairs an SME advocacy group within the centre-right CDU.

“The financial market needs a second large private bank as an independent player,” said Marie-Christine Ostermann, president of the German Family Business Association, adding that “further concentration” among banks was “not attractive” for German SMEs.

“Many SMEs value strong regional roots of their banking partners, fixed contacts, discussions at eye level,” Marc Tenbieg, managing director of German SME Association DMB, also cautioned. Foreign bank owners may have “less understanding of German market conditions”, he said.

People close to Commerzbank’s top management have also said that companies that are customers of both Commerzbank and HVB might look for other lenders to diversify their access to loans should a takeover proceed.

Rivals to the two banks see the potential upside. Lutz Diederichs, head of BNP Paribas’s German operations, said he knew “from experience that when a merger is coming, a loan book will not be one plus one equals two”.

“This is clearly an opportunity for us, without any doubt,” he said.

But Kay Theuer, managing director of Priwatt, a Leipzig-based provider of domestic solar power systems that banks with both Commerzbank and HVB, is unfazed and expects no negative repercussions for his business.

“We’ve been talking about changes in the European banking landscape for 15 years,” Theuer said. “It is understandable that mergers are now taking place, especially within the Eurozone.”

>>> US After Hours Summary: BA +0.7% ticks higher despite S&P placing it on Cred

After Hours Summary: BA +0.7% ticks higher despite S&P placing it on CreditWatch Negative; ALAB +5% higher after announcing new portfolio of fabric switches for AI workloads

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: SAR +8.9%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: ALAB +5% (announces new portfolio of fabric switches for AI workloads), ZETA +2.7% (to acquire LiveIntent for $250 mln; also reaffirms Q3 guidance), INSM +2% (provides analyses from Phase 3 ASPEN study of Brensocatib; expects US launch in mid-2025), LEU +1% (wins award from US DoE), BA +0.7% (S&P places Boeing on CreditWatch Negative on strike-related financial risk), STZ +0.5% (names new Chief Growth & Strategy Officer), PFE +0.3% (CEO to meet activist investor Starboard Value, according to FT.com), SQ +0.1% (Square launches Orders platform)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: None

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: DKL -7.2% ($150 mln common unit offering), IMNM -3.1% (stock offering by selling shareholder), CRNX -0.7% ($400 mln stock offering), OR -0.7% (provides Q3 production), SVM -0.4% (SGX Mine permit has been renewed for another 11 years), DAL -0.2% (waives fare-differences; caps fares for new bookings ahead of Hurricane Milton), DIS -0.2% (to begin closing parks in Florida in phases on Oct 9)

>>> US Gapping down

Gapping down
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
  • PEP -0.9%
Other news:
  • SAGE -10.7% (topline results from the phase 2 lightwave study of dalzanemdor)
  • BIDU -7.8% (announces management rotation; Junjie He appointed Interim CFO)
  • EXK -3.4% (reports Q3 2024 production results)
  • CALM -2.9% (approves $40 mln in new capital projects)
  • BDTX -2.7% (restructuring; CFO departing)
  • GLSI -2.3% (files mixed shelf)
  • CNNE -1.9% (to acquire majority stake in The Watkins Company)
  • RRGB -1.9% (CTO to resign)
  • SDST -1.7% (entered into a Common Stock Purchase Agreement)
  • PANL -1.6% (purchase remaining 50% equity of its consolidated subsidiary)
  • HSHP -1.6% (provides commercial update and key information relating to the cash distribution for September 2024)
  • VOYA -1.6% (disclosed alternative investment income and prepayment fees above (below) long-term expectations)
  • AL -1.5% (provides activity update for the third quarter of 2024)
  • BHE -1.4% (names new CFO)