Liveblog Archief donderdag 24 september 2020

TOP NEWS
• Apple critics form coalition to challenge App Store fees
A group of Apple's critics - including Spotify Technoloy, Match Group and "Fortnite" creator Epic Games - have joined a nonprofit group that plans to advocate for legal and regulatory action to challenge the iPhone maker's App Store practices.
• ByteDance applies for tech export licence in China amid TikTok deal talks
ByteDance has applied for a tech export licence in China as it races to seal a deal with Oracle and Walmart that it hopes will end U.S. government plans to ban its TikTok video-streaming app on security grounds.
• AstraZeneca still waiting for FDA go-ahead to resume U.S. trial
AstraZeneca is still waiting for the U.S. drug regulator to approve the restart of the clinical trial of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in the United States almost three weeks after it was paused due to safety concerns.
• Facebook's Oversight Board plans to launch just before U.S. election
Facebook's long-delayed independent Oversight Board plans to launch in mid-late October, just before the November U.S. presidential election, although a board member said he did not know whether it would hear cases related to the contest.
• Electric vehicle charging network ChargePoint to go public at $2.4 billion valuation
ChargePoint, one of the world's oldest and largest electric vehicle charging networks, said it will go public by merging with Switchback Energy Acquisition in a deal that values the company at $2.4 billion.​


BEFORE THE BELL
U.S. stock index futures were little changed as investors braced for weekly jobless claims data. Concern about another economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic weighed on major European indexes and Asian bourses. The dollar was up, boosted its safe-haven appeal. Gold dropped as analysts said the lack of additional stimulus measures reduced the metal's appeal. Oil pricesrebounded after falling earlier on frail demand outlook. With central bankers also in focus, the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will be closely watched when he and a number of colleagues speak later in the day.​


STOCKS TO WATCH
Moves
• New York Times Co (NYT). Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. will retire as chairman and a member of the company's board by the end of December, the newspaper publisher said on Wednesday. Sulzberger Jr., 69, who joined the newspaper in 1978 as a correspondent, will be replaced as chairman by his son, A.G. Sulzberger, The Times publisher since 2018. In his four-decade long tenure, Sulzberger Jr., who has been chairman of the board since 1997, spearheaded the transformation of the newspaper, known as "The Gray Lady", into a digital media company. He took the newspaper online in 1996.

In Other News
•Alphabet Inc (GOOGL). The company’s YouTube would start showing text and links from third-party fact-checkers under videos that discuss mail-in ballots, as part of efforts to curb misinformation on the site ahead of the U.S. election in November. An information panel, a feature first launched in Brazil and India last year, will also highlight third-party, fact-checked articles for search queries related to voter registration, YouTube said.
•Apple Inc (AAPL). A group of the company's critics - including Spotify Technoloy, Match Group and "Fortnite" creator Epic Games - have joined a nonprofit group that plans to advocate for legal and regulatory action to challenge the iPhone maker's App Store practices. The Coalition for App Fairness, structured as a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. and Brussels, said it plans to advocate legal changes that would force Apple to change. Beyond Epic, Match and Spotify, other members include smaller firms such as Basecamp, Blix, Blockchain.com, Deezer, and Tile, along with developers from Europe including the European Publishers Council, News Media Europe and Protonmail.​
• AstraZeneca Plc (AZN). The company is still waiting for the U.S. drug regulator to approve the restart of the clinical trial of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in the United States almost three weeks after it was paused due to safety concerns. The U.S. trial of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, initially developed by the University of Oxford, remains on hold while regulators investigate an illness in one of the participants, even after a British study and other programmes outside of the United States have resumed.
• Facebook Inc (FB). The company’s long-delayed independent Oversight Board plans to launch in mid-late October, just before the November U.S. presidential election, although a board member said he did not know whether it would hear cases related to the contest. The board, created by Facebook in response to criticism of its handling of problematic content, will initially have the power to review decisions to take down posts from Facebook and Instagram, and recommend policy changes. Oversight Board member Alan Rusbridger told Reuters in an interview that the board was now aiming for an October launch. A spokesman confirmed that timetable, saying the launch, originally planned for last year, had also been slowed by the coronavirus pandemic.​
• Harley-Davidson Inc (HOG). The U.S. motorcycle maker said it expects to report $75 million in additional restructuring costs for 2020 related to actions including discontinuing its sales and manufacturing operations in India. The company said it now expects total restructuring costs of about $169 million in 2020, and this will also include a workforce reduction of about 70 employees in India, a market where its annual sales volumes account for less than 5% of the company's total.​
• Ryanair Holdings Plc (RYAAY). Britain risks losing hundreds of thousands of travel and tourism jobs in the coming months unless the government offers proper supports to workers and relaxes travel restrictions, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said. O'Leary, group chief executive of Europe's largest low-cost carrier, was speaking hours ahead of the announcement of new UK COVID-19 support measures and weeks ahead of the launch of a European Union plan to coordinate travel restrictions in Europe. Failure join the EU plan and provide a proper furlough scheme to pay those whose work has dried up due to COVID-19 "will mean literally hundreds of thousands of job losses this winter," O'Leary told Sky News in an interview.
• Sinovac Biotech Ltd (SVA). The company hopes to supply its experimental coronavirus vaccine to more South American countries by outsourcing some manufacturing procedures to a partner in Brazil, its chief executive said. Sinovac plans to provide semi-finished products to its partner Instituto Butantan, which will perform filling and packaging and supply finished items to other South American countries, Chairman Yin Weidong told a news conference.​
• Switchback Energy Acquisition Corp (SBE). ChargePoint, one of the world's oldest and largest electric vehicle charging networks, said it will go public by merging with Switchback Energy Acquisition in a deal that values the company at $2.4 billion. The deal is expected to close near the end of the year and the company will be named ChargePoint Holdings Inc. A trading symbol on the New York Stock Exchange has not been identified. The deal will raise about $493 million in proceeds that ChargePoint will use to expand in North America and Europe. It includes $225 million from Baillie Gifford, Neuberger Berman Alternatives Advisors and other institutional investors. Baillie Gifford is one of the largest shareholders in EV segment leader Tesla.
• Tesla Inc (TSLA). The company’s plan to produce lithium for electric vehicle batteries close to its Nevada Gigafactory faces stark challenges from the outset, including an onerous permitting process, uncertain access to water and questions about unproven methodologies. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk told shareholders on Tuesday Tesla has secured rights to 10,000 acres in Nevada where it aims to produce lithium from clay deposits using a process developed internally. The plan drew backlash almost immediately, with critics describing Musk's plan as too simplistic and light on details. Returning rock to the earth after minerals are extracted, for instance, is already common industry practice through the use of tailings dams.
• Tyler Technologies Inc (TYL). The company, whose products are used by U.S. states and counties to share election data, said on Wednesday that an unknown party had hacked its internal systems. Tyler, whose platforms are used by elections officials to display voting results, among other tasks, confirmed the breach in an email to Reuters after warning clients in an email earlier in the day. Tyler Technologies said in both emails it did not believe clients' software had been breached. The company told Reuters in its email that it was working to restore its systems and had notified law enforcement. The company did not say whether there had been a ransomware demand or how it had learned of the breach, and it did not respond to questions.
• Uber Technologies Inc (UBER). The company-owned Middle East business Careem is seeing its ride service recover more quickly than expected from the coronavirus crisis, while its delivery business is larger than before the pandemic. Careem, which mainly operates in the Middle East, had originally forecast that its ride service would recover at the end of 2021, but now expects it to rebound earlier in the year with some markets already close to pre-COVID levels.
• UBS Group AG (UBS). The Swiss National Bank is not aware of a possible merger between giant banks UBS and Credit Suisse, SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan said. Jordan declined to comment on reports of a potential tie-up or the impact on the stability of the Swiss financial system if such a mega-merger were to materialise. "We do not have any..knowledge about that so I cannot also answer," Jordan told reporters in response to a question. "These are rumours and we do not hear or react to any of these rumours," Jordan said after the central bank kept its expansive monetary policy in place.
•Wells Fargo & Co (WFC). The bank and data aggregator Envestnet Yodlee said they had signed a data exchange agreement, the latest move in an ongoing tug of war between fintechs and large banks over information sharing. The deal will enable the bank's customers to share their account information with fintech apps connected to Envestnet Yodlee.


INSIGHT
A roller coaster six months leaves U.S. recovery still uncertain
As businesses shuttered and millions hit the unemployment line last spring, the most dour predictions saw the United States heading for another Great Depression of spiraling collapse and years of massive joblessness. The worst has been avoided. But new academic research and commentary this week from Federal Reserve officials suggest the path of the U.S. recovery remains much in doubt, and the programs approved last spring to buffer the economy from the pandemic may still be in for their stiffest test.​


ANALYSTS' RECOMMENDATION
• Broadcom Inc (AVGO). Piper Sandler raises target price to $400 from $380, stating the company’s networking business should continue to benefit from cloud and hyperscale spending.
• General Mills Inc (GIS). Piper Sandler raises target price to $73 from $71, factoring the company’s capacity of M&A and share buybacks, following its dividend hike.


ECONOMIC EVENTS (All timings in U.S. Eastern Time)
0800 (approx.) Building permits R number for Aug: Prior 1.470 mln
0800 (approx.) Building permits R change mm for Aug: Prior -0.9%
0830 Initial jobless claims: Expected 840,000; Prior 860,000
0830 Jobless claims 4-week average: Prior 912,000
0830 Continued jobless claims: Expected 12.3 mln; Prior 12.628 mln
1000 New home sales units for Aug: Expected 0.895 mln; Prior 0.901 mln
1000 New home sales change mm for Aug: Expected -0.1%; Prior 13.9%
1100 (approx.) KC Fed Manufacturing for Sep: Prior 23
1100 (approx.) KC Fed Composite Index for Sep: Prior 14


COMPANIES REPORTING RESULTS
Costco Wholesale (COST). Expected Q4 earnings of $2.84 per share


CORPORATE EVENTS (All timings in U.S. Eastern Time)
0800 John Wiley & Sons Inc (JWa). Annual Shareholders Meeting
0830 Darden Restaurants Inc (DRI). Q1 earnings conference call
0830 Jabil Inc (JBL). Q4 earnings conference call
0900 Carmax Inc (KMX). Q2 earnings conference call
1000 Freshpet Inc (FRPT). Annual Shareholders Meeting
1000 Lamb Weston Holdings Inc (LW). Annual Shareholders Meeting
1030 HB Fuller Co (FUL). Q3 earnings conference call
1100 Factset Research Systems Inc (FDS). Q4 earnings conference call
1200 Houlihan Lokey Inc (HLI). Annual Shareholders Meeting
1700 Costco Wholesale Corp (COST). Q4 earnings conference call
1700 Vail Resorts Inc (MTN). Q4 earnings conference call


EXDIVIDENDS
Agree Realty Corp (ADC). Amount $0.60
Cerner Corp (CERN). Amount $0.18
CyrusOne Inc (CONE). Amount $0.51
DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc (XRAY). Amount $0.10
Equity LifeStyle Properties Inc (ELS). Amount $0.34
Equity Residential (EQR). Amount $0.60
First Midwest Bancorp Inc (FMBI). Amount $0.14
Korn Ferry (KFY). Amount $0.10
Portland General Electric Co (POR). Amount $0.40
Regal Beloit Corp (RBC). Amount $0.30
Retail Properties of America Inc (RPAI). Amount $0.05
Sempra Energy (SRE). Amount $1.04
Valmont Industries Inc (VMI). Amount $0.45
World Fuel Services Corp (INT). Amount $0.10

Goedemorgen
Wall Street sluit woensdag met een behoorlijk verlies want de markt snakt naar nieuw geld dat er maar niet voldoende komt om de crisis te lijf te gaan, heeft de FED zich al overspeelt tijdens de vorige ronde stimuleringsmaatregelen? De daling begon meteen na de opening vooral via de hoogvliegers die we kennen en bepalend blijven voor de markt, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Nvidia, Microsoft en Tesla, de zogenaamde hotspots uit de techsector die ik de TOP-8 noem. De rest volgde vanzelf waardoor ook de Dow Jones 2% verloor, de Nasdaq zelf verloor 3% terwijl de SP 500 zo'n 2,5% terug moest.

Europa deed rond het slot nog niet mee, eerst stond alles nog behoorlijk wat hoger maar er werd winst genomen richting het slot. Zo sluit de AEX 5 punten hoger maar stond tussendoor wel even op +10, de DAX sluit 50 punten hoger terwijl dat intraday nog even +220 punten was. De futures staan vanmorgen in ieder geval lager, zo zou de DAX rond de 12.500 punten uitkomen, de AEX rond de 539 punten. Wall Street ziet het ook nog niet zitten, er is geen herstel te zien na de daling van gisteren. De SP future staat 10 punten lager, de Nasdaq future staat zo'n 50 punten lager.

Wat ook opvalt is dat de euro terugvalt tot rond de 1,165 dollar, tegenover 1,1672 dollar vanmorgen, de dollar herpakt zich dus behoorlijk na dat we even bijna 1,20 dollar hebben gezien. Het goud kwam ook in een verkoopgolf terecht de afgelopen dagen, voor een troy-ounce betaal je nu 1855 dollar hetgeen een nieuw laagtepunt is bekeken over de laatste weken.

Dan nog even technisch, de indices op Wall Street testen duidelijk hun 50-daags gemiddelde gisteren hetgeen als een zware weerstand wordt gezien nu. Vooral bij de Nasdaq viel dat op. Ook de Dow deed hetzelfde en stond even ruim 200 punten hoger, door de selloff later sluit de Dow de sessie 525 punten lager af met als gevolg dat de index op slotbasis weer ruim onder dat 200-MA staat. Bij de Nasdaq zien we hetzelfde, eerst hoger tot dat 50-MA en dan vooral via de futures voorbeurs (+90) om dan met een verlies van 350 punten te sluiten. Een duidelijke draai dus vanaf dat 50-MA. Dat is een zeer belangrijk signaal voor het vervolg, de bodems van begin deze week kunnen worden opgezocht met als doel nieuwe bodems neer te zetten later deze week. In ieder geval lijkt het erop dat we het herstel hebben afgerond nu.

Azië kreeg ook te maken met een daling vanmorgen op slotbasis. De indices daar verloren tussen de 1 en 2%.

Wat kunnen we doen wat betreft nieuwe posities:
We zitten in de markt met wat short posities die ik met deze daling nog even wil aanhouden. De maand verloopt tot nu toe goed en we staan overal op winst. Er komen zeker meer kansen aan de komende periode, daar ben ik van overtuigd gezien het verloop van de markt momenteel. U kunt als lid meteen meedoen met de posities die ik uitstuur, lid worden kan via de aanbieding die loopt tot 1 DECEMBER voor €39 ...

Om u in te schrijven ga meteen naar de link https://www.usmarkets.nl/tradershop en dan staat u vandaag nog op de lijst ...

Guy Boscart

GLOBAL TOP NEWS
Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday doubled down on efforts to convince investors they will keep monetary policy easy for years to allow unemployment to fall, emphasizing that interest rates will stay near zero until inflation gets to 2% and stays there.

ByteDance has applied for a tech export licence in China as it races to seal a deal with Oracle and Walmart that it hopes will end U.S. government plans to ban its TikTok video-streaming app on security grounds.

U.S. President Donald Trump declined on Wednesday to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Nov. 3 election to Democratic rival Joe Biden and said he expected the election battle to end up before the Supreme Court. ​


EUROPEAN COMPANY NEWS
Italy's Atlantia made clear to the Rome government back in July that any deal over its motorway assets would need to meet market conditions and protect the rights of minority shareholders, a document seen by Reuters showed on Wednesday.

Volkswagen's U.S. subsidiary on Wednesday revealed its ID.4 electric sport utility vehicle and a pricing strategy aimed at opening a new front in competition with Tesla and other automakers.

Some 324 Norwegian offshore oil workers plan to go on strike from Sept. 30 if annual pay negotiations with employers fail, trade unions Safe, Industri Energi and Lederne said on Wednesday. ​


TODAY'S COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Accenture PLC Q4 2020 Earnings Call
Allgeier SE Annual Shareholders Meeting
Aquamondi AG Annual Shareholders Meeting
Aures Technologies SA Annual Shareholders Meeting
Axovant Gene Therapies Ltd Annual Shareholders Meeting
Bernard Loiseau SA Annual Shareholders Meeting
British and American Investment Trust PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting
Cegedim SA HY 2020 Earnings Call
Cineworld Group PLC HY 2020 Earnings Call
Cesar SA Annual Shareholders Meeting
DFS Furniture PLC FY 2020 Earnings Call
Fleury Michon SA Annual Shareholders Meeting
Foresight Solar & Technology VCT PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting
Genoway SA Annual Shareholders Meeting
Go-Ahead Group PLC FY 2020 Earnings Call
Going Public Media AG Annual Shareholders Meeting
HELLA GmbH & Co KgaA Q1 2021 Earnings Call
Kainos Group PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting
Laurent Perrier SA Annual Shareholders Meeting
Mercia Asset Management PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting
Miton Global Opportunities PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting
NWF Group PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting
Nyrstar NV Annual Shareholders Meeting
Pineapple Corporation PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting
Schuler AG Annual Shareholders Meeting
Shearwater Group PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting
SIG PLC HY 2020 Earnings Release
Sure Ventures PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting
Telekom Austria AG Annual Shareholders Meeting
Triad Group PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting
Versarien PLC Annual Shareholders Meeting​


ECONOMIC EVENTS (All times GMT)
0645 France Business Climate Manufacturing for Sep: Expected 95; Prior 93
0645 France Business Climate Overall for Sep: Prior 91
0730 Switzerland SNB Policy Rate for Q3: Expected -0.75%; Prior -0.75%
0800 (approx.) Germany Ifo Business Climate New for Sep: Expected 93.8; Prior 92.6
0800 (approx.) Germany Ifo Curr Conditions New for Sep: Expected 89.5; Prior 87.9
0800 (approx.) Germany Ifo Expectations New for Sep: Expected 98.0; Prior 97.5
1000 United Kingdom CBI Distributive Trades for Sep: Expected -10; Prior -6
1200 (approx.) United Kingdom Steel Production for Aug: Prior 515,000
1300 Belgium Leading Indicator for Sep: Expected -11.0; Prior -12.0
2301 (approx.) United Kingdom GfK Consumer Confidence for Sep: Expected -27; Prior -27​