>>> What to look at today - 20th of January 2021

U.S. equity futures rose Wednesday, buoyed by earnings and hopes for more stimulus, while Asian stocks were mixed. The dollar extended its retreat.
Chinese firms trading in Hong Kong saw the bulk of gains, and the Hang Seng Index approached the 30,000 level, but stocks were lower in Japan. Investors weighed comments suggesting a tough line from Joe Biden’s incoming administration toward China. Nasdaq 100 futures outperformed, with Netflix Inc. surging in after-hours trading as it added more customers than expected.
Treasuries were steady, with the yield on 10-year notes trading around 1.09%. Crude oil advanced and gold edged higher.
US After Hours NFLX +12.2% jumps on strong Q4 earnings with net adds being the headline; JBHT -3.7% lower on earnings

Nikkei -0.38% Hang Seng +0.80% CSI +0.74% Shanghai +0.45% Shenzen +1.37%

Eur$1.2154 CNH 6.4640 CNY 6.4652 JPY 103.74 GBP 1.3664 CHF 0.8875 RUB 73.54 TRY 7.4404 WTI$

S&P +0.20% Nasdaq +0.57% EuroStoxx +0.17% FTSE +0.32% DAX +0.09% SMI +0.21%

Macro :
- Global Fund With 41% Gain Makes Climate Top Investment Priority
- Trump Pardons Bannon, Lil Wayne, Broidy, But Not Himself
- ECB Is Capping Bond Yields But Don’t Call It Yield Curve Control

Keep an eye on :
- A2A IM : A2A Sees EU16b Investments in New Plan Through 2030 (Jan. 19)
- ABN NA : ABN Amro, Prosecutor Talks on Settlement in Final Phase: FD
- BABA US : Jack Ma Emerges for First Time Since Ant, Alibaba Crackdown (1)
- ASML NA : ASML 1Q Net Sales Forecast Beats Estimates
- ASML NA : ASML Sales Burst Past Estimates After Chip Boom Continues
- GBF GY : Bilfinger Says CEO Tom Blades Won’t Extend His Contract
- ALBS FP : Biophytis Files for U.S. IPO; Seeks Nasdaq Listing Under ‘BPTS’
- BOSS GY : Frasers Group Says Aggregate Exposure in Hugo Boss ~EU275M
- IAG LN : IAG Confirms Cut to Payment for Air Europa to EU500m From EU1b
- CEC GY : Ceconomy Prelim 1Q Adjusted Ebit About EU346M
- DAI GY : Mercedes Joins Tesla, VW in Compact Electric-Car Race
- EDP PL : EDP to Present Strategic Plan at End of February or Early March
- ENGI FP : SP Group Buys Engie Stake in Chongqing Sino-French Energy
- FNAC FP : Fnac Darty's Solid 4Q Improves 2021's Starting Position: React
- FRAS LN : Frasers Group Says Aggregate Exposure in Hugo Boss ~EU275M
- KPN NA : Royal KPN Files Six Lawsuits Over Telecom Patents
- LOGN SW : Logitech Shares Slip From Record After Results, Call
- PHIA NA : Philips Bid to Block Imports of 3G, 4G IoT Devices to Be Probed
- PST IM : Poste Italiane to Buy Controlling Stake in China’s Sengi Express
- PRS NO : Prosafe 4Q Vessel Utilization 25% vs 23% Year Ago
- CFR SW : Richemont 3Q Sales Beat Estimates
- RLF SW : Relief to Buy All Advita Shares for EU25m in Relief Shares
- STLA US : Stellantis CEO Sees Fiat-PSA Merger Shielding Brands and Jobs
- TIT IM : Telecom Italia Plans to Start Discussions on Board Renewal
- TELIA SS : Telia, Telenor/Tele2 and 3 Buy Spectrum in Swedish 5G Auction
- HO FP : Thales, Ocado Join U.K.-Backed Alliance to Speed Drone Use
- JDW LN : Wetherspoon to Sell 8.37m Shares, Price Seen GBP11-11.20/Shr
- NOCN SW : Regeneron Turned Away in Challenge to Novartis Syringe Patent
- FPF FP : Total CEO, Mozambique President Agree to Draft Security Plan
- UCG IM : UniCredit Narrows CEO Search as Some Investors Push for Orcel
- VIRB FP : Virbac 2021 Guidance in Line With Investments Growing: Jefferies
- VOW GY : VW Loses Tens of Thousands of Cars in China on Chip Shortage

FT : Jack Ma makes first public appearance since Ant’s cancelled IPO

Jack Ma makes first public appearance since Ant’s cancelled IPO
Chinese billionaire’s re-emergence after 4-month absence sends Alibaba shares sharply higher

Jack Ma has resurfaced in a short online video praising China’s teachers, marking the first time the billionaire has been seen in public since the dramatic suspension of Ant Group’s planned $37bn initial public offering.

The Chinese tech entrepreneur and founder of ecommerce group Alibaba dropped out of public view after criticising the country’s regulators and state-owned banks in late October, prompting speculation over his whereabouts. In the wake of the speech, Mr Ma was dressed down by officials in Beijing and regulators halted the IPO of Ant, the payments firm he controls, which was set to be the largest ever.

Mr Ma also skipped the filming of a TV talent show he created for African entrepreneurs in November, which he had been set to judge.

“My colleagues and I have been studying and thinking, and we have become more determined to devote ourselves to education and public welfare,” said Mr Ma, according to local media. The video was posted online on Wednesday.

Mr Ma’s video came as Alibaba faces an antitrust investigation that has hit its share price and the tech group tries to raise billions of dollars in a bond offering.

Alibaba’s Hong Kong-traded shares rose as much as 6.3 per cent after the video emerged.

Mr Ma said it was the “duty and responsibility of our generation of business operators” to support China’s rural teachers and education.

A spokesperson for the Jack Ma Foundation said Mr Ma had “participated in the online ceremony of the annual Rural Teacher initiative event on January 20”.

His charitable foundation has focused over the past year on Covid-19 relief efforts both in China and globally. Mr Ma has been hailed as a hero in Africa for donating medical supplies to the continent.

WSJ : NASA Mulls A New Deep-Space Rocket Test Despite Technical Concerns

NASA is wrestling with the decision whether to redo ground checks of a mammoth deep-space rocket’s main engines, which prematurely shut off during an aborted test Saturday.

NASA officials on Tuesday said preliminary findings indicated that sensors flagged problems with two out of four main engines of the Space Launch System booster built by Boeing Co. But in a briefing for reporters, they clarified earlier updates by revealing that the testing setback resulted from the combination of a malfunctioning sensor and how Saturday’s test was set up rather than design or production defects with the engines themselves.

Outgoing National Aeronautics and Space Administration chief Jim Bridenstine and some top aides emphasized that on top of probable schedule delays, extra testing could stress parts of the 212-foot rocket to the point that performing its mission could be problematic.

The agency didn’t give a timeline for a decision, though some of its internal safety guidelines suggest that typically a new test would be necessary to demonstrate reliability of the booster’s primary propulsion system.

The looming trade-offs over testing present engineering and political challenges for NASA as well as Boeing, even as new appointees in a Biden administration are expected to reassess the status of the troubled multibillion-dollar SLS program.

Responding to questions about the automated shutdowns that occurred about a minute into what was supposed to be an eight-minute test on Saturday, Mr. Bridenstine and other agency leaders placed the blame on test parameters that were intentionally conservative to protect the booster section. When a sensor recorded excessive stress on the hydraulic system that adjusts the engines, a cascade of protective computer messages followed, almost instantly shutting them all down.

John Shannon, Boeing’s SLS program manager, told reporters “there is a judgment call” in seeking to extract maximum data under such test situations while also “making sure that the hardware stays in good shape” for its ultimate flight.

There was an unrelated problem much earlier in the test. A different sensor monitoring another engine indicated a major component failure. NASA said Tuesday that based on preliminary data, there was no such failure and the sensor provided incorrect information to onboard computers. During an actual blastoff count, according to the agency, the malfunctioning sensor likely would have caused an abort of the launch.

Retesting the engines could further delay a program that is already years behind schedule and, by some measures, about 30% over budget. Last weekend’s test in Mississippi was earlier delayed for technical reasons and then by the pandemic. Now, NASA officials must decide whether to ship the booster to the launch site in Florida without getting all the test data they initially indicated would be necessary to determine the reliability of its propulsion system. NASA officials have said preparing for a retest would take at least a month. Industry officials watching the program have said they anticipate a longer delay.

NASA’s latest statements, however, provide some relatively good news for backers of the SLS booster, which agency and congressional investigators have said experienced persistent management problems and significant technical setbacks. NASA said the engines weren’t damaged during the test, while other details indicate the shutdown didn’t point to a fundamental design problem with the engines, fuel system or supporting structures.

SLS is more powerful than the Saturn V that blasted Apollo astronauts toward the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was slated for its first uncrewed launch late this year, but that schedule is now in flux.

“The fact that we learned and are learning” from the data collected on Saturday “means this was a great test,” according to Kathy Lueders, head of NASA’s human exploration programs. “We have a shot at flying this year,” she said, though none of the NASA or industry experts at the press conference vouched for that schedule.

Political and budget pressures on the program—projected to cost a total of between $19 billion and $23 billion—were already increasing. The system has been under development for more than a decade without yet getting airborne. Each launch is projected to cost in excess of $1 billion, according to agency officials and NASA’s inspector general’s office.

SLS boosters are intended to carry astronauts inside the Orion capsule, built by a team headed by Lockheed Martin Corp. , to the moon and eventually to Mars. But the program is expected to face stepped-up congressional scrutiny and escalating competition from rival space-transportation companies.

Companies headed by billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are separately working on smaller rockets that potentially could be tapped by NASA to participate in early lunar missions.

FT : Trump pardons divisive ex-campaign strategist Steve Bannon

Trump pardons divisive ex-campaign strategist Steve Bannon
Former adviser among group granted clemency hours ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration as president

Donald Trump has granted clemency to Steve Bannon, his former White House strategist, as part of a sweeping set of pardons in one of his final acts ahead of Wednesday’s inauguration of Joe Biden as president.

Mr Bannon was charged last year with defrauding hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters who donated to a crowdfunding campaign to build a wall on the US-Mexico border touted by the president during his 2016 election campaign. Mr Bannon had pleaded not guilty and was released on bail pending his trial.

Mr Trump did not issue pre-emptive pardons for himself or any of his family members. The president had floated the idea in conversations with White House staff after losing the election. Most constitutional scholars had argued that he could not pardon himself but the theory has never been tested in court.

The move to pardon Mr Bannon, one of the most divisive individuals in Mr Trump’s circle who managed the final leg of the president’s 2016 campaign, will spark fierce criticism.

Mr Bannon’s Twitter account was suspended in November after he said Christopher Wray, the FBI director, and Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, should be beheaded. Mr Bannon said the heads of the men, who had contradicted Mr Trump, should be placed on pikes outside the White House to warn other members of the Trump administration not to cross the president.

Mr Trump also pardoned the rapper Lil Wayne.

Lil Wayne last month pleaded guilty to possessing a loaded, gold-plated handgun and faced up to 10 years in prison. The musician appeared to endorse Mr Trump during the 2020 election campaign when he tweeted a photograph of himself and the president, and said he backed his criminal justice reform efforts and economic programme for African-Americans.

The pardons came eight hours before Mr Trump was scheduled to depart the White House and fly to Florida, where he will take up his post-presidency residence at his Mar-a-Lago resort. They also came as the Senate prepares to try Mr Trump following his conviction by the House for inciting the storming of the US Capitol building on January 6. 

The decisions came one month after he granted dozens of controversial pardons and commutations, including to Paul Manafort, his first campaign manager, and Roger Stone, the self-described political dirty trickster and a confidante of the president.

Other presidents have issued divisive pardons, including Bill Clinton, who gave clemency to Marc Rich, the founder of commodities trader Glencore who was a fugitive from charges including racketeering.

But Mr Trump stands out in terms of the number of controversial decisions. Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor, analysed his pardons last year and concluded that the overwhelming majority were granted to people with whom he had a personal or political connection.

Mr Trump also pardoned four men last month who were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians in Baghdad when they worked for Blackwater, a private security company once owned by Erik Prince. Betsy DeVos, who served as Mr Trump’s education secretary, is Mr Prince’s sister.

Mr Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, who is married to his daughter Ivanka, last month. He also granted clemency to three former Republican US representatives who had been convicted of crimes.

A year ago, Mr Trump commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich, a former Democratic Illinois governor who was sentenced to 14 years after being convicted of bribery and other charges. He also pardoned Michael Milken, the former “junk-bond king”, who in 1990 was convicted of securities fraud.

>>> After Hours Summary: NFLX +12.2% jumps on strong Q4 earning

After Hours Summary: NFLX +12.2% jumps on strong Q4 earnings with net adds being the headline; JBHT -3.7% lower on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: NFLX +12.2% (also global streaming paid net adds +8.51 mln vs prior guidance of +6.00 mln), PNFP +1.9%, ZION +1.3%, AZEK +1.2% (guides DecQ revs above consensus; also announces stock offering), OGS +0.2% (raises FY20 EPS guidance above consensus; also increases dividend)

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: SRNE +7.5% (to present data from ongoing SARS-CoV-2 mutation surveillance program), PCAR +5.4% (forms strategic partnership with Aurora for development of autonomous trucks), EXPI +2.9% (2-for-1 stock split), DIS +1.9% (in sympathy with NFLX earnings), ROKU +1.8% (in sympathy with NFLX earnings), CMRX +1.1% (stock offering), ACRS +0.9% (stock offering), USFD +0.9% (awarded $390 mln Defense Logistics Agency contract), SSRM +0.8% (achieves 2020 production guidance and provides full year 2021 outlook), DFS +0.7% (approves new $1.1 bln share repurchase program), FAST +0.6% (increases dividend), IDEX +0.6% (files for mln mixed securities shelf offering), SAND +0.2% (provides asset update), ABCL +0.2% (awarded patent)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: PERI -9% (guides Q4 EPS in-line, guides revs above consensus; also announces stock offering), JBHT -3.7%, UCBI -2.1%, FULT -1.7%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: ACRX -13.2% (stock offering), BNGO -10.3% (stock offering), LAC -8.4% (stock offering), SYRS -7.7% (stock offering), CTMX -6.8% (stock offering), GEVO -6.2% (files for mln mixed securities shelf offering), MRUS -6.1% (stock offering), CYRX -5% (stock offering), CRSR -3.5% (stock offering), EDIT -2% (stock offering), PASG -1% (stock offering), CDNA -0.4% (stock offering), EBAY -0.3% (exploring strategic alternatives for its Korea business)

>>> US Closed Dow +0.38% S&P +0.81% Nasdaq +1.53% Russell +1.32%

Closing Stock Market Summary

The S&P 500 gained 0.8% on Tuesday, reclaiming its decline from last Friday, in an advance led by shares of mega-cap, semiconductor, and energy companies. The Nasdaq Composite (+1.5%) and Russell 2000 (+1.3%) outperformed the benchmark index, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.4%) posted a smaller gain. 

The market was pleased to hear Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen asserting that it's time to "act big" on fiscal stimulus, which outweighed reports suggesting that President-elect Biden's $1.9 trillion package could run into some objections in Congress. She also said during her confirmation hearing that President-elect Biden will not repeal the 2017 tax law while the economy battles the coronavirus.

The S&P 500 energy sector (+2.1%) and Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (+3.4%), which contain economically-sensitive businesses, were among the biggest gainers today. The influential information technology sector advanced 1.3%. 

In addition, positive-minded analyst recommendations in stocks like Alphabet (GOOG 1790.86, +54.67, +3.2%), Facebook (FB 261.10, +9.74, +3.9%), and American Express (AXP 126.75, +4.61, +3.8%) supported the cause. The communication services sector, which is home to GOOG and FB, increased 1.9%.

While the AXP boost was nice, the financials sector (+0.4%) was restrained by negative reactions to earnings reports from Bank of America (BAC 32.77, -0.24, -0.7%) and Goldman Sachs (GS 294.20, -6.81, -2.3%). The real estate (-0.5%), consumer staples (-0.4%), and utilities (-0.4%) sectors were the only sectors that closed lower. 

U.S. Treasuries recouped overnight losses and finished little changed in front of President-elect Biden's inauguration tomorrow. The 2-yr yield was flat at 0.13%, and the 10-yr yield was flat at 1.09%. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.3% to 90.50. WTI crude futures settled higher by 1.3%, or $0.66, to $52.96/bbl. 

Investors did not receive any economic data during Tuesday's session. Looking ahead, investors will receive the MBA Mortgage Applications Index and the NAHB Housing Market Index for January on Wednesday.

  • Russell 2000 +8.9% YTD
  • Nasdaq Composite +2.4% YTD
  • S&P 500 +1.1% YTD
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.1% YTD