Markt snapshot Wall Street 10 juni

TOP NEWS
• U.S. weekly jobless claims seen falling; consumer prices expected to rise further
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits likely fell last week to the lowest level in nearly 15 months, while consumer prices increased further in May as the pandemic's easing grip on the economy continues to boost demand.

• Biden to donate 500 million Pfizer doses, urge others to join in
U.S. President Joe Biden plans to buy and donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to more than 90 countries, while calling on the world's democracies to do their part to help end the deadly pandemic, the White House said.

• Tesla to launch high-end Model S 'Plaid' to fend off Mercedes, Porsche
Tesla will deliver a high-performance version of its Model S, aiming to reignite interest in the nearly decade-old sedan and fend off rivals such as Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Lucid Motors in the luxury electric vehicle market.

• United to split major jet order between Boeing, Airbus -sources
United Airlines is in talks to place a multi-billion-dollar order for single-aisle jets potentially split between Boeing and Airbus, industry sources said.

• British watchdog plans investigation into Amazon's use of data – FT
Britain's competition watchdog is planning a formal competition investigation into e-commerce company Amazon.com, the Financial Times reported, citing three unidentified people familiar with the situation.


BEFORE THE BELL
U.S. stock index futures moved in a tight range as investors awaited data which is likely to show a rise in inflation and play into Federal Reserve's stance on tightening policy. European shares were little changed, while investors counted on the European Central Bank to maintain an accommodative policy stance at a meeting later in the day. Japan's Nikkei closed higher, as shipping firms rose on prospects of more economic reopenings and drugmakers were boosted by reports of government support. Gold prices fell, pressured by a firm dollar. Oil prices rose, a day after slipping on data indicating weak U.S. driving season fuel demand. Initial jobless claims data is also due on the economic calendar later in the day.


STOCKS TO WATCH

Moves
• GameStop Corp: The videogame retailer on Wednesday named the head of Amazon's Australian business as its CEO and said the struggling company may sell new shares, disappointing some of its ardent fan base of individual investors. In a quarterly report that was stronger than analysts forecast, GameStop said it may sell up to 5 million new shares, which would be worth $1.4 billion based on its latest share price. Matt Furlong, a nine-year Amazon veteran, will succeed George Sherman as chief executive officer. GameStop said Mike Recupero, who spent over 17 years at Amazon, will succeed Jim Bell as chief financial officer. GameStop said its net sales for the quarter ending May 1 jumped 25% to $1.28 billion, exceeding analysts' average estimate of $1.16 billion. Its adjusted loss per share was 45 cents, beating expectations of an 84 cent loss per share.

IPO
• LifeStance Health Group Inc: The U.S. outpatient mental health company backed by an affiliate of buyout firm TPG, said on Wednesday it sold shares in its initial public offering above a targeted range to raise $590.4 million. LifeStance sold 32.8 million shares at $18 apiece, above an earlier target range of $15 to $17 each, giving it a market capitalization of $6.73 billion. Of the shares sold, 32.8 million were by LifeStance and around 7.2 million by current investors. The company incurred a net loss of $8.7 million on revenue of $143.1 million for the three months ended March 31, its filing showed. Shares are due to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday under the symbol "LFST".

In Other News
• Alibaba Group Holding Ltd: The Chinese e-commerce leader plans to develop self-driving trucks with logistics subsidiary Cainiao, Chief Technology Officer Cheng Li said. Cheng also said Cainiao aims to introduce 1,000 autonomous delivery robots in China over the next year.

• Altice USA Inc: Telecoms billionaire Patrick Drahi has bought a 12.1% stake worth about 2.2 billion pounds in Britain's BT Group, becoming its largest shareholder. Next Alt, whose Altice France owns SFR, the second largest telecoms operator in France behind Orange, said it had no intention of making a takeover offer for BT. The British company said it noted Altice's statement of support for its management and strategy. "Altice holds the board and management team of BT in high regard and is supportive of their strategy," Altice UK, a company formed for the purpose of holding the BT stake, said. The stake puts Altice ahead of Deutsche Telekom, which owned 12.06% of BT based on recent filings, Refinitiv data shows.

• Amazon.com Inc: Britain's competition watchdog is planning a formal competition investigation into the e-commerce company, the Financial Times reported, citing three unidentified people familiar with the situation. The Competition and Markets Authority has been analysing Amazon's business for months, the newspaper said, adding regulator was focusing on how the online retailer uses the data it collects on its platform. The regulator has also scrutinised how Amazon decides which merchants appear in the crucial 'buy box' - the white panel to the right-hand side of a product where buyers click to add the item to their cart, the report added.

• Biogen Inc: Two members of a panel of outside advisors to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have resigned in protest at the agency's decision to approve Biogen's Aduhelm for treatment of Alzheimer's disease despite the committee’s recommendation against doing so. Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. David Knopman, a panel member who had been recused from the advisors’ November meeting to review the drug because he was an investigator in clinical trials of Biogen’s drug, said he resigned on Wednesday. "I was very disappointed at how the advisory committee input was treated by the FDA," Dr. Knopman told Reuters. "I don't wish to be put in a position like this again.”

• Booking Holdings Inc: Italy's tax police believe Booking.com evaded 153 million euros of value added tax (VAT) in connection with holiday rentals booked through its platform, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The Genoa police said in a statement they "uncovered a massive tax evasion of more than 150 million euros in unpaid VAT from 2013 to 2019 by a multinational online travel agency based in the Netherlands", without mentioning the company by name. The police said their tax audit was conducted as part of a criminal investigation led by prosecutors in the northwestern coastal town. Booking.com confirmed it has recently received the audit report "which we intend to discuss in full cooperation with the Italian tax authorities."

• Deutsche Bank AG: The company expects to take a 300 million euro hit from a recent court ruling that favours consumers over banking fees, the lender's finance chief said. The bank foresees a 100 million euro provision in the current quarter and temporary revenue declines of 100 million euros in both the second and third quarters, CFO James von Moltke said at an online conference. The case overturned about 45 years of accepted practice in the market, von Moltke said.

• Exxon Mobil Corp: The company plans to invest $240 million to expand the crude slate and improve pollution control at its 502,500 barrel-per-day refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said the state’s governor on Wednesday. “The investment increases the refinery’s flexibility to respond to market demand and positions the site to attract future investment,” said Exxon spokeswoman Julie King. “The suite includes new technology to enable better extraction of carbon solids from crude and opens up capability of downstream units to handle crudes from Canada and the Permian Basin.”

• Pfizer Inc & BioNTech SE: The companies said they have agreed to supply the U.S. government with 500 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to donate to poorer countries over the next two years. The two drugmakers will provide 200 million doses in 2021 and 300 million doses in the first half of 2022, which the United States will then distribute to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union, they said. The shots, which will be produced at Pfizer's U.S. production sites, will be provided at a not-for-profit price. Pfizer and Biontech said the doses are part of a previously announced pledge to provide two billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to low- and middle-income countries over the next 18 months.

• TC Energy Corp: A $9 billion oil pipeline that became a symbol of the rising political clout of climate change advocates and a flash point in U.S.-Canada relations was officially canceled on Wednesday. Keystone XL was halted by owner TC Energy after U.S. President Joe Biden this year revoked a key permit needed for a U.S. stretch of the 1,200-mile project. "This is a landmark moment in the fight against the climate crisis," said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "We're hopeful that the Biden administration will continue to shift this country in the right direction by opposing fossil fuel projects."

• Tesla Inc: The company will deliver a high-performance version of its Model S, aiming to reignite interest in the nearly decade-old sedan and fend off rivals such as Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Lucid Motors in the luxury electric vehicle market. The automaker plans to livestream the delivery of the first Model S Plaid at its U.S. factory in Fremont, California at 7 pm PT, according to its official Twitter account. CEO Elon Musk has not said whether he will take the stage, but he has been on Twitter promoting the new model, which is priced at $129,990 against $79,990 for a long-range Model S.

• Thomson Reuters Corp: A shareholder proposal for Thomson Reuters to review human rights issues emerging from its U.S. government contracts gained increased investor support but failed to win approval at the company's annual meeting on Wednesday. The shareholder proposal came from a British Columbia labor union and focused on Thomson Reuters work with government agencies including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The proposal won the support of 19% of the votes, Thomson Reuters Chairman David Thomson said at the meeting, which was webcast, more than double the 7.6% share that a similar resolution received last year.

• Toronto-Dominion Bank: The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has dismissed Stanford International Bank's (SIB) $4.5 billion damages claim against Toronto-Dominion Bank over its role in a massive Ponzi scheme, SIB said on Wednesday. Lawyers for the court-appointed liquidators of SIB, the collapsed Antigua bank of former Texas financier Robert Allen Stanford, had alleged negligence and "knowing assistance" by TD in providing a correspondent banking account that Stanford used to perpetuate fraud. Justice Barbara Conway of the Ontario Superior Court said in ruling dated June 8 that TD did not owe a duty of care to SIB to protect it from "insider abuse". Even if a duty had existed, TD did not fall below the standard of care of a reasonable banker, she added.

• Twitter Inc: The company on Wednesday appointed development finance executive Mimi Alemayehou to its board of directors to replace Elliott Management partner Jesse Cohn, after the activist hedge fund helped create a blueprint for changes that led to a doubling of the social media firm's share price. Alemayehou will join the board immediately and Cohn will step down, the company said in a release.

• United Airlines Holdings Inc & Boeing Co: United is in talks to place a multi-billion-dollar order for single-aisle jets potentially split between Boeing and Airbus, industry sources said. If confirmed, the deal could include over 100 of Boeing's 737 MAX 8 and several dozen larger Airbus A321neo jets, they said, asking not to be identified. The carrier is looking to upgrade its fleet at a time when travel is surging in the United States, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the Boeing negotiations. That portion of the order could include 150 Max, it said.


INSIGHT
Google, Facebook pledged millions for local news. Was it enough?
Facing regulatory and political pressure, Facebook and Alphabet’s Google in recent years committed a combined $600 million to support news outlets globally - many of them local or regional enterprises foundering in a digital age.


ANALYSTS' RECOMMENDATION
• Anthem Inc: RBC cuts rating to sector perform from outperform, as trading levels approach their target price of $399.

• Eastman Chemical Co: Jefferies raises target price to $150 from $138, reflecting on the announced sale of the company’s rubber additives business and saying debt reduction and an increase in share repurchases should offset the lost income.

• UPS Inc: JPMorgan raises target price to $243 from $224, after the company debuted a new pricing strategy that utilizes fully allocated costs and real-time capacity to set rates and enforce contract compliance.


ECONOMIC EVENTS (All timings in U.S. Eastern Time)
0830 (approx.) Core CPI mm, SA for May: Expected 0.4%; Prior 0.9%
0830 (approx.) Core CPI yy, NSA for May: Expected 3.4%; Prior 3.0%
0830 (approx.) CPI Index, NSA for May: Expected 268.473; Prior 267.054
0830 (approx.) Core CPI Index, SA for May: Prior 273.70
0830 (approx.) CPI mm, SA for May: Expected 0.4%; Prior 0.8%
0830 (approx.) CPI yy, NSA for May: Expected 4.7%; Prior 4.2%
0830 (approx.) Real weekly earnings mm for May: Prior 0.2%
0830 (approx.) CPI mm NSA for May: Prior 0.820%
0830 (approx.) CPI Index SA for May: Prior 266.830
0830 (approx.) CPI Wage Earner for May: Prior 261.237
0830 (approx.) Initial jobless claims: Expected 370,000; Prior 385,000
0830 (approx.) Jobless claims 4-week average: Prior 428,000
0830 (approx.) Continued jobless claims: Expected 3.602 mln; Prior 3.771 mln
1100 (approx.) Cleveland Fed CPI for May: Prior 0.2%
1400 Federal budget for May: Prior -$226.00 bln


COMPANIES REPORTING RESULTS
No major S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report for the day.


CORPORATE EVENTS (All timings in U.S. Eastern Time)
0800 Brighthouse Financial Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0800 Dollar Tree Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0830 Greif Inc: Q2 earnings conference call
0830 Party City Holdco Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0900 Amicus Therapeutics Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0900 GrubHub Inc: Shareholders Meeting
0900 Precigen Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0900 Reata Pharmaceuticals Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0900 SAGE Therapeutics Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0900 Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0930 American Equity Investment Life Holding Co: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0930 Ameris Bancorp: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0930 PRA Group Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
0930 Tellurian Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 Allogene Therapeutics Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 Chimera Investment Corp: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 Discovery Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 EMCOR Group Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 EverQuote Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 Evolent Health Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 Fleetcor Technologies Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 Fuelcell Energy Inc: Q2 earnings conference call
1000 Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 G-III Apparel Group Ltd: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 John Wiley & Sons Inc: Q4 earnings conference call
1000 Rapid7 Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 Shift4 Payments Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 Visteon Corp: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 Y-mAbs Therapeutics Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1100 Castle Biosciences Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1100 LHC Group Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1100 SI-BONE Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1200 DaVita Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1200 Fubotv Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1200 Impinj Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1200 Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1200 Live Nation Entertainment Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1200 nLIGHT Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1200 Roku Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1200 Velodyne Lidar Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1230 Immunitybio Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1300 Bionano Genomics Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1300 Broadmark Realty Capital Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1300 Energy Recovery Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1300 Monolithic Power Systems Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1300 RadNet Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1400 Datadog Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1400 Salesforce.Com Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1400 Semtech Corp: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1430 Health Catalyst Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1600 Blackbaud Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1600 Goodrx Holdings Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1600 WSFS Financial Corp: Shareholders Meeting
1700 Chewy Inc: Q1 earnings conference call
1700 Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc: Q1 earnings conference call
1700 Mission Produce Inc: Q2 earnings conference call
1700 Nektar Therapeutics: Annual Shareholders Meeting
1800 ALX Oncology Holdings Inc: Annual Shareholders Meeting


EX-DIVIDENDS
Dye & Durham Ltd: Amount C$0.01