>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 9th of November 201

>>> Up
* KBC Upgraded to Add at Bank Degroof Petercam; PT 79 Euros
* Nokia Upgraded to Neutral at Exane; Price Target 4.20 Euros

>>> Down
* AB Foods Downgraded to Hold at Investec; PT 32.80 Pounds
* AB Foods Downgraded to Neutral at Goldman; PT 34 Pounds
* Campari Downgraded to Hold at Investec; Price Target 7 Euros
* OHB Downgraded to Reduce at Commerzbank; Price Target 31 Euros
* Snam Downgraded to Neutral at MainFirst; PT 4.55 Euros

>>> Initiation


>>> Call

>>> What to look at today - 9th of November 2017

Dow +0.04% S&P -0.02% Nasdaq -0.27% Russel -1.26%
US MArket closed little change after heavy loss on financials (-1.3%), Consumer disc. struglle also losing 0.6%, PCLN -13.5% & TRIP -23.2%, after Priceline issued disappointing profit guidance for the fourth quarter and TripAdvisor missed Q3 revenue estimates. Retailers also weighed on the sector, evidenced by the 2.4% decline in XRT. consumer staples (+1.1%), utilities (+1.2%), and real estate (+0.9%) sectors finished Tuesday solidly higher. WTI crude futures dropped 0.3% to $57.20/bbl after hitting their highest level since July 2015 on Monday. A stronger U.S. dollar worked against the commodity; the U.S. Dollar Index climbed 0.2% to 94.79. US After Hours WTI crude futures dropped 0.3% to $57.20/bbl after hitting their highest level since July 2015 on Monday. A stronger U.S. dollar worked against the commodity; the U.S. Dollar Index climbed 0.2% to 94.79. Asian equity markets have opened generally lower, after various indices moved to multi-year highs during the prior session. Markets are, however, off of their worst levels as of the time of writing. Samsung Electronics and Hynix have moved higher by over 1%. On Tuesday’s, session chipmaker Micron gained over 1.4%. In Hong Kong, shares of China Literature (eBook unit of Tencent), have risen by over 95% in their debut. Incidentally, shares of Tencent have rebounded after opening the session lower and are currently gaining for the 9th straight session. Toyota Motor has traded higher by over 0.5%, following its most recent financial results and guidance. Mitsubishi Motors has declined by over 4% after reporting first half results. Nissan has declined by over 0.5% after reporting its results and revising its full year operating profit forecast

Nikkei -0.20% HAng Seng +0.29% CSI +0.57% Shanghai+0.38% Shwnzen+0.69%



Macro :
- China Oct. Retail Auto Sales Rise 2.7% on Year: PCA
- China Oct. Trade Surplus Against U.S. $26.6B: Calculation

Keep an eye on :
- STS IM : Ansaldo STS Says AB Storstockholms Lokaltrafik Ended Contract
- BMPS IM : Monte Paschi Third Quarter Revenue Beats Highest Estimate
- AM FP : Dassault Aviation Denies Having Any Setup to Evade French Taxes
- DIREN FP : Direct Energie 3Q Revenue Rises 13%; Co. Confirms FY Targets
- ELE FP : Euler Hermes Nine Month Net Income EU228.1 Mln
- ENE SM : Endesa Nine Month Loss EU94 Mln
- GSF NO : Grieg Seafood Third Quarter Ebit Beats Estimates
- DEC FP : JCDecaux 3Q Adj. Org. Rev. Up on Street Furniture; Sees FY Rise
- SDF GY : Agrium Full Year EPS Forecast Misses Estimates
- MKS LN : M&S Is Said to Have Launched Search for New CFO: Sky
- MS IM : Mediaset Third Quarter Revenue Misses Lowest Estimate
- MS IM : Mediaset Hasn’t Received Any Settlement Proposal From Vivendi
- MMT FP : M6 Third Quarter Ebita EU42.1 Mln Vs. EU31.1 Mln Y/Y
- KN FP : Natixis 3Q Net, Revenue Beat Ests.; 3Q Trading Revenue Falls 9%
- ORP FP : Orpea 3Q Revenue Climbs 10%; Co. Repeats FY Growth Target
- RNO FP : Nissan Cuts FY Oper. Profit Target by 40b Yen on Inspections (1)
- SSE LN : SSE Deal May Put Innogy Back in Play, Trap SSE Holders: Investec
- STERV FH : Stora Enso Raises Wood Products Strategic Target to 20% ROOC
- FP FP : Total Denies Setting Up Units in Bermuda to Lower Its Taxes
- UBI FP : Ubisoft 1H Sales Beat Estimates; Co. Confirms FY Targets
- UBI FP : Ubisoft Says Assassin’s Creed Origins Sales Pace Beats Syndicate

>>> US After Hours Summary: TCS +20%, COHR / TTWO / SYNA +8%, MTCH

After Hours Summary: TCS +20%, COHR / TTWO / SYNA +8%, MTCH / PLNT +6%, AAOI / DXC +5% higher and LC -18.5%, SNAP -17%, FOSL -12%, DVA -7% lower following earnings/guidance

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: HTGM +29%, IZEA +25.4%, TCS +20.1%, CVRS +16.6% (light volume), APPS +10.2%, ENPH +9.6%, PRMW +9.6% (light volume), COHR +8.3%, MITK +8.2%, NKTR +8%, TTWO +7.7%, SYNA +7.7%, DEPO +7% (DepoMed will acquire from Slán rights to market the specialty drug, cosyntropin (Synthetic ACTH Depot) in the US and divist its Lazanda nasal spray CII to Slán; terms not disclosed), MBI +6.8%, PLNT +6.3%, MTCH +5.9%, INGN +5.8%, GKOS +5.4%, HALO +5.4%, AAOI +4.6%, DXC +5.1%, SUN +4.2%, TWO +4.2%, PXLW +3.6%, OAS +3.3%, LSCC +2.8%, CRZO +1.8%, ACAD +1.4%, TWOU +1.2%,

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: AMRS +7.2% (thinly traded; Amyris pushes back Q3 financial results release date to Nov 14 to complete/assess the impact of in-process commercial agreement), EA +1.2% and ATVI+0.6% (following TTWO results), BBBY +0.7% (ticking higher following TCS results)

A few optical related names are trading higher following AAOI / COHR results: OCLR +1.3%, FNSR +1%, LITE +0.8%, CIEN +0.7%

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: LC -18.5%, SNAP -17.1%, FOSL -12.3%, VSLR -10.3%, CVNA -9.4%, PMTS -8.7%, OCUL -7.7%, DVA -7.3%, BEAT -5.7%, FOGO -5.4%, EXTR -5.2%, MXL -5.2%, AXAS -5%, MNKD -4.6%, ARNA -3.9%, TSRO -3.6%, BETR -3%, PE -2.5%, ETP -1.9%, ETE -1.6%, JAZZ -1.4%, AAXN -1.3%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: RDHL -19.3% (to offer its American Depositary Shares in public offering), AAC -5.1% (ticking lower - attributed to block trade pricing), ATI -4.4% (to offer 17 mln shares of common stock in public offering), SRPT -3.3% (announces proposed offering of $375 mln of convertible Senior notes), AXL -2% (announces 15 mln share secondary common stock offering by selling stockholders), OEC -1.9% (commences 10 mln common stock offering by selling stockholders Kinove Luxembourg), POT -0.5% (following AGU results/merger update)


>>> Asian Update

Asia Mid-Session Update: China Oct trade surplus lower than expected, equities weaker on profit taking from yesterday's records

***Asia Summary***
-Asian equity markets have opened generally lower, after various indices moved to multi-year highs during the prior session. Markets are, however, off of their worst levels as of the time of writing.
-Singapore Air’s shares have risen by over 2%, as the company reported an over 190% rise in Q2 profits.
-South Korea’s Kospi has moved off of the worst levels for the session amid the comments by US President Trump before the country’s national assembly.
-Samsung Electronics and Hynix have moved higher by over 1%. On Tuesday’s, session chipmaker Micron gained over 1.4%. In Hong Kong, shares of China Literature (eBook unit of Tencent), have risen by over 95% in their debut. Incidentally, shares of Tencent have rebounded after opening the session lower and are currently gaining for the 9th straight session.
-The Hang Seng Consumer Goods index is higher by more than 0.7%, amid gains in automakers, including Geely Automobile, Brilliance China Auto and BYD.
-Toyota Motor has traded higher by over 0.5%, following its most recent financial results and guidance. Mitsubishi Motors has declined by over 4% after reporting first half results. Nissan has declined by over 0.5% after reporting its results and revising its full year operating profit forecast.
-In Australia, the ASX 200 Consumer Discretionary Index has declined by over 0.3%, while Japan’s Fast Retailing is also trading lower. The S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary sector declined by 0.6% on Tuesday’s session.
-Commodity-related sectors have also moved lower following the gains seen in the prior session. The Hang Seng and ASX 200 Energy indices have moved somewhat lower, while the ASX 200 Resources index has declined by over 0.7%. On yesterday’s session, Comex Copper prices dropped by over 1.7%. Steelmakers in Japan are trading generally lower, with shares of Nippon Steel, JFE and Kobe Steel all lower by over 0.5%.
-Japanese mega bank are also declining on the session. Mitsubishi UFJ is lower by over 0.9%. The ASX 200 Financials (ex-REIT) index has gained over 0.6% in Australia. Shares of Commonwealth Bank have gained more than 1.5% on better than expected Q1 earnings.
-Some of the other interest rate sensitive sectors are also trading higher. The Australian REIT and Hang Seng Utilities indices have each gained over 0.5% on the session. The S&P 500 Utilities sector gained over 1% on yesterday’s session.
-The Aussie has traded little changed, while China’s 10-year bond yields has risen by over 2bps. China’s Oct Trade Surplus missed market expectations as exports were below expectations, while imports were slightly higher

***Key economic data***
- (AU) Australia Oct Foreign Reserves: A$78.1B v A$74.9B prior
- (CN) CHINA OCT TRADE BALANCE (CNY) 254.5B V 280.5BE
- (CN) CHINA OCT TRADE BALANCE: $38.2B V $39.1BE

***Speakers and Press***
Japan
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Member Funo: Vital to keep pushing strong monetary easing; CPI to rise to 2% target and help stabilize FX
- (JP) Japan LDP Tax Chief: Not considering high tax on cigarettes

Korea
- (KR) US President Trump calls on North Korea to "make a deal" on its nuclear weapons program - financial press
- (KR) US President Trump: North Korea must be denied support, supply and acceptance - speech to Korea National Assembly

Australia/New Zealand
- (AU) Australia debt management agency (AOFM) to resume RMBS auctions on Nov 23rd
- (AU) Australia PM Turnbull one-seat lower house majority in jeopardy now that Liberal MP John Alexander may be a dual citizen – press (late yesterday)

China/Hong Kong
- (CN) China National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) draft proposal aims to amend its overseas investment regulations to cover a widely used method of securing loans to buy assets abroad
- (CN) China Commerce Ministry: Sets 2018 non-state crude oil import quota at ~142.4M tons

***Asian Equity Indices/Futures (23:00ET)***
- Nikkei -0.1%, Hang Seng +0.4%; Shanghai Composite +0.5%; ASX200 +0.1%, Kospi +0.4%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.2%; Nasdaq100 -0.0%, Dax -0.2%; FTSE100 +0.0%

***FX ranges/Commodities/Fixed Income (23:00ET)***
- EUR 1.606-1.1586; JPY 114.02-113.64; AUD 0.7659-0.7640;NZD 0.6919-0.6897
- Dec Gold +0.2% at $1,278/oz; Dec Crude Oil -0.3% at $57.01/brl; Dec Copper +0.1% at $3.09/lb
- (AU) Australia sells A$1.5B v A$1.5B indicated in 2.25% Nov 2022 bonds; avg yield 2.1756%; bid-to-cover 4.51x
- (CN) PBoC OMO: injects CNY160B v CNY180B prior in 7-day, 14-day and 63-day reverse repos; Net drain CNY40B v drain CNY80B prior
- USD/CNY *(CN) PBOC SETS YUAN REFERENCE RATE AT 6.6277 V 6.6216 PRIOR
- JGB (JP) Japan MoF sells ¥1.874T in 6-month bills; avg yield -0.2376%; bid-to-cover 5.52x
- (TH) Thailand sells THB15.4B in 49.6-yr Gov bonds, avg yield 3.4394%

***Equities notable movers***
Australia/New Zealand
- AAD.AU Guides Trading broadly in line with expectations for FY18 Core EBITDA; CEO Simon Kelly resigns, CFO Geoff Richardson appointed interim CEO; -3.5%
- JHX.AU To acquire XI (DL) Holdings GmbH for €437M cash from Xella International; -2.4%
Japan
- 6448.JP Reports Q2 Net ¥22.7B v ¥26.9B y/y; Op ¥31.3B v ¥36.2B y/y; Rev ¥346B v ¥310B y/y; +10%
- 2531.JP Reports H1 Op ¥6.1B, +17.7% y/y, to cancel 7.35% of shares on Dec 29th; to sell Cho Un unit to Aspirant Group; to buyback 0.99% of shares for ¥2B; +9%
- 7201.JP Reports H1 Net ¥276.5B v ¥282.4B y/y; Op ¥281.8B v ¥339.7B y/y; Rev ¥5.65T v ¥5.32T y/y; -1.3%
Hong Kong
- 772.HK Tencent unit China Literature set to open at HK$90/shr v HK$55/shr IPO price; +15.4%

WSJ : Steven A. Cohen, Andreessen-Backed DIY Quant Fund Struggles

Steven A. Cohen, Andreessen-Backed DIY Quant Fund Struggles
Quantopian investors have lost about 3% since beginning of trading in June; investment chief Jonathan Larkin has left firm

A quant-trading firm backed by hedge-fund investor Steven A. Cohen and venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has run into early problems.

Quantopian gained attention by creating a network of 160,000 users who developed more than 600,000 trading algorithms, grabbing the early lead in an emerging area of do-it-yourself quant trading.

But in the four months since it began trading on June 1, Quantopian’s traders have lost about 3%, according to people close to the matter. The S&P 500 rose 6.6% in that period. Given that Quantopian has earned little revenue, it likely will need to raise more cash from investors, something executives hadn’t expected, the people say.

About two months ago, Quantopian’s chief investment officer, industry veteran Jonathan Larkin, left the firm, the people say.


“While we are disappointed with the initial performance we have conviction in our investment process and actively making refinements,” said John Fawcett, Quantopian’s chief executive officer. “It’s not unexpected…we’re investing in the internal infrastructure of the company."

Quantopian was launched in 2011 but gained attention over the past year amid a rush by firms into quantitative investing, or trading based on computer models and algorithms. Quantopian’s position was helped in part by an investment of as much as $250 million from the venture capital arm of Mr. Cohen’s firm, Point72 Asset Management LP, along with backing from Andreessen. The support lent credibility to Quantopian’s goal of enabling individuals from 190 countries to come up with market-beating mathematical models in their spare time.

Still, Quantopian manages about $50 million in a hedge fund, a tiny amount in that world and well below the $250 million executives anticipated at the end of this year, according to the people familiar. The firm manages some money in a separately managed account for Mr. Cohen’s firm.

Quantopian is a young firm and could yet turn its fortunes around. But the challenges so far suggest that recruiting and training mechanical engineers, nuclear scientists and other amateurs around the globe to be quantitative traders may be more difficult that some had expected. While some of Quantopian’s traders generated profits, many of these algorithms had limits to how much money could be invested with them, the people said.

Other firms are creating networks of individuals around the globe to develop crowd-sourced algorithms to trade stocks, such as San Francisco-based Numerai, which pays its employees with a digital currency it created. It’s too early to assess the track record of these firms.

Quantopian’s community of algorithm authors, which like many quants face a problem of dealing with too much data, will be given new tools to “clean” their data, or cleanse it for inaccuracies, the company said. Quantopian may be able to sell these data-cleaning capabilities to the growing number of investment firms adopting quantitative strategies, the company said.

Late on Tuesday, the Boston-based firm sent an email to its community of algorithm authors informing them of Mr. Larkin’s departure and saying “the fund is being managed on an interim basis by other members of the investment team…the journey to creating something great is never easy.”


A spokesman for Mr. Cohen wouldn’t comment.

>>> US Notable post-earnings movers

Notable post-earnings movers

  • Post-earnings gainers: HTGM +28.6%, IZEA +22.3%, TCS +21.4%, APPS +17.2%, AAOI +11.5%, ENPH +8.9%, GKOS +8.2%, MITK +8.2%, COHR +8.1%, TTWO +8%, SYNA +7.7%, PRMW +6.6%, (light volume), HALO +6.4%, PLNT +6.3%, KURA +6.1%, NKTR +5.4%, MBI +4.6%, RGLS +4.6%, INGN +4.3%, MTCH +4.1%, PXLW +3.6%, NVAX +3.6%, BLCM +3.6%, DXC +3.2%, TWOU +3%, LSCC +3%, ACAD +2.3%, SUN +2.1%
  • Post-earnings losers: LC -23.4%, SNAP -16.9%, FOSL -11.7%, BEAT -11.1%, CVNA -10.4%, OCUL -9.4%, BETR -8%, DVA -5.2%, VSLR -5.1%, MNKD -4.6%, EXTR -4.4%, MXL -4.3%, PMTS -3.8%, ETP -3.3%, AXAS -3.2%, JAZZ -2.9%, ANW -2.4%, AAXN -2.3%, CSRA -2.3%,

>>> US Close Dow +0.04% S&P -0.02% Nasdaq -0.27% Russel -1.26%

Closing Market Summary: Holding at Record Highs

Equities ended Tuesday little changed after heavy losses from financial shares roughly balanced gains in most other areas. The Dow eked out a slim victory--and its fourth consecutive record close--while the S&P 500 finished just a tick below its flat line. The Nasdaq (-0.3%) struggled to keep pace with its peers, but the small-cap Russell 2000 significantly underperformed, plunging 1.3%.

The financial sector tumbled 1.3% amid broad weakness, finishing at the very bottom of the sector standings. Heavyweights like JPMorgan Chase (JPM 98.75, -2.03), Bank of America (BAC 27.18, -0.57), and Wells Fargo (WFC 55.05, -1.13) showed particular weakness, settling with losses of around 2.0% apiece. Today's slide leaves the sector at a fresh two-week low.

Meanwhile, the consumer discretionary sector also struggled on Tuesday, declining by 0.6%. Travel sites Priceline (PCLN 1645.72, -257.28) and TripAdvisor (TRIP 30.35, -9.18) were the sector's worst-performing components, plunging 13.5% and 23.2%, respectively, after Priceline issued disappointing profit guidance for the fourth quarter and TripAdvisor missed Q3 revenue estimates.

Retailers also weighed on the sector, evidenced by the 2.4% decline in the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 39.00, -0.94)--which finished at a two-month low. There wasn't a single catalyst for the retail slide, but it did follow a Reuters report that some retailers are ordering less merchandise for the holiday season in fear of being stuck with unsold goods at the end.

On a positive note, the consumer staples (+1.1%), utilities (+1.2%), and real estate (+0.9%) sectors finished Tuesday solidly higher. Within the consumer staples space, pharmacy retailers CVS Health (CVS 68.95, +2.15) and Walgreens Boot Alliance (WBA 67.92, +1.98) bounced back from recent weakness, ending with respective gains of 3.2% and 3.0%.

In the bond market, U.S. Treasuries finished mostly higher, with the yield on the benchmark 10-yr Treasury note slipping one basis point to 2.31%.

Elsewhere, WTI crude futures dropped 0.3% to $57.20/bbl after hitting their highest level since July 2015 on Monday. A stronger U.S. dollar worked against the commodity; the U.S. Dollar Index climbed 0.2% to 94.79.

Reviewing Tuesday's economic data, which included the September Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and the September Consumer Credit Report:

  • The September Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that job openings stayed at 6.09 million.
  • The Consumer Credit report for September showed an increase of $20.8 billion (consensus +$18.3 billion).

On Wednesday, investors will receive just one economic report--the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index--which will be released at 7:00 ET.

  • Nasdaq Composite +25.7% YTD
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average +19.2% YTD
  • S&P 500 +15.7% YTD
  • Russell 2000 +9.0% YTD

WSJ : Snap Plunges Nearly 20% as Quarterly Loss More Than Triples

Snap Plunges Nearly 20% as Quarterly Loss More Than Triples
Snapchat parent records most revenue yet, but growth continues to slow

Snap Inc. SNAP 1.96% said its quarterly loss more than tripled, disappointing Wall Street again as it failed to significantly grow the number of people using its app daily or the amount of money advertisers are spending to reach those users.
For its third straight quarterly earnings report as a publicly traded company, it failed to live up to Wall Street’s forecasts for revenue. Snap, the parent company of the messaging app Snapchat, said revenue in the third quarter rose 62% to $207.9 million. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $236.9 million in revenue.
Shares were down 18% in after-hours trading.
The revenue haul was the most Snap, which is based in Venice, Calif., has logged yet in a quarter. But it also marked another three months of decelerating growth for a company not yet a year removed from its initial public offering. In the second quarter, Snap’s revenue more than doubled to $181.7 million.
Snap said it added 4.5 million daily users during the quarter, bumping its total user base to 178 million but representing the slowest growth since the company started reporting the figure. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected Snap would add 8 million new daily users during the quarter.
Nearly all of Snap’s revenue comes from advertising. The company is competing for ad dollars against not only Facebook , a behemoth social network that counts more than a billion daily users, but also its rival’s Instagram photo-sharing app. Instagram’s Stories feature, a package of ephemeral videos and photos that copies Snapchat’s own popular Stories feature, crossed 300 million users in the third quarter, Facebook said.
Snap’s quarterly loss came to $443.2 million, or 36 cents a share, significantly wider than the $124.2 million loss reported a year earlier. Expenses ballooned from a year earlier, to $669.8 million from $259.2 million. The company said it recorded $39.9 million in charges related primarily to excess inventory of Spectacles, its video-recording sunglasses.
During the quarter, Snap’s shares fell below their initial public offering price of $17 for the first time as the shine of being a newly public company dulled and investors began looking for evidence Snap can snag a bigger portion of marketing budgets.
In an effort to draw more users and marketers, Snap added new features in recent months, including letting people share their location and giving advertisers new ways to sponsor content and more data on ad performance.
Still, Snap faces bumps ahead. As the year comes to a close, advertisers typically are less willing to devote money to their test budgets that experiment with new technologies, said Lance Neuhauser, chief executive of 4C Insights, a marketing-technology company that helps companies buy ads on social media, including Snap.

>>> Snap beats by $0.01, misses on revs --> -16.9% after hours

Snap beats by $0.01, misses on revs (15.12 +0.29)
  • Reports Q3 (Sep) loss of $0.14 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.15); revenues rose 62.2% year/year to $207.9 mln vs the $236.71 mln Capital IQ Consensus.
  • Daily active users (DAU) -- DAUs grew 4.5 mln (3%) Q/Q to 178 million vs. 183 mln estimates.
  • Average revenue per user (ARPU) -- ARPU was $1.17 in Q3 2017, an increase of 39% over Q3 2016 when ARPU was $0.84. ARPU increased 12% over Q2 2017 when ARPU was $1.05. Hosting costs per DAU -- Hosting costs per DAU were $0.68 in Q3 2017, as compared to $0.64 in Q3 2016 and $0.61 in Q2 2017.
  • "In Q3 2017, we recorded $39.9 million of charges related to Spectacles inventory, primarily related to excess inventory reserves and inventory purchase commitment cancellation charges