Wall Street Breakfast: The Week Ahead

Outlook

Economic reports in the week ahead

A four-day trading week will see investors tackle the question of how inflation and rising interest rates could come into play this year as stimulus legislation nears. In D.C., Citadel founder Ken Griffin, Robinhood (RBNHD) CEO Vladimir Tenev and execs from Melvin Capital are scheduled to testify in a House hearing on the wild market swings in shares of GameStop (NYSE:GME) and other heavily-shorted stocks. Walmart's (NYSE:WMT) annual investor day event and the CAGNY conference highlight the corporate calendar.

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Welcome to Wall Street Brunch, our preview of stock market events for investors to watch during the upcoming week. You can also catch this article a day early by subscribing to the Stocks to Watch account for Saturday morning delivery.
Outlook

Economic reports in the week ahead

A four-day trading week will see investors tackle the question of how inflation and rising interest rates could come into play this year as stimulus legislation nears. In D.C., Citadel founder Ken Griffin, Robinhood (RBNHD) CEO Vladimir Tenev and execs from Melvin Capital are scheduled to testify in a House hearing on the wild market swings in shares of GameStop (NYSE:GME) and other heavily-shorted stocks. Walmart's (NYSE:WMT) annual investor day event and the CAGNY conference highlight the corporate calendar.

Earnings

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS), US Foods (NYSE:USFD), AutoNation (NYSE:AN), AIG (NYSE:AIG) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) on February 16; Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI), Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) and Hilton Worldwide (NYSE:HLT) on February 17; Walmart (WMT), Southern Company (NYSE:SO), Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) and Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) on February 18; Magna International (NYSE:MGA) and Deere (NYSE:DE) on February 19.

Walmart is expected to stun with 80% digital growth in Q4 and a 10% same-store sales mark for the Sam's business. Walmart's annual investor event being held alongside earnings day is the event is seen providing a window into some of the future earnings streams for the retail giant via the Walmart Connect advertising platform, financial services, healthcare centers and insurance products. "Over the long haul, we think WMT's ability to execute its productivity loop while pushing innovation gives it a unique opportunity to win incremental share," previews Bank of America.

IPOs

No IPOs are scheduled to price during the short week. Quiet periods expire on Dream Finders Homes (NASDAQ:DFH), Mytheresa (NASDAQ:MYTE), Patria Investments (NASDAQ:PAX) and RLX Technology (NYSE:RLX). The IPO lockup period expires on Harmony Biosciences (NASDAQ:HRMY), Inhibrx (NASDAQ:INBX), Kymera Therapeutics (NASDAQ:KYMR) and Nano-X Imaging Ltd (NASDAQ:NNOX).

Dividends

Projected dividend increases (quarterly): Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) to $0.20 from $0.15, Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) to $1.66 from $1.34, Universal Display (NASDAQ:OLED) to $0.18 from $0.15, Retail Properties of America (NYSE:RPAI) to $0.07 from $0.06, Dick's Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) to $0.35 from $0.3215, Analog Devices (ADI) to $0.69 from $0.62, ManTech (NASDAQ:MANT) to $0.35 from $0.32, Prologis (NYSE:PLD) to $0.63 from $0.58 and EnPro Industries (NYSE:NPO) to $0.28 from $0.26.

Automotive

Ford (NYSE:F) is expected to make an announcement during the week on building electric vehicles at a Fiesta plant in Cologne, Germany. In the U.S., Ford is cutting some shifts for a few weeks due to a worldwide chip shortage situation that is also impacting other automakers. Long-time Ford investors are starting to see things rev back up a bit off the electrification push. Analysts have also become incrementally more positive. Shares of Ford are up 31% YTD.

Trending

13F filings are due in from hedge funds and institutional investors on holdings as of the end of Q4. The positions held in some of the short squeeze targets like GameStop (GME) into the volatile January-February period will be of interest. Other names to watch for as the filings pour in are W.R. Grace & Co (NYSE:GRA), Apartment Investment and Management Company (NYSE:AIV) and Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE:EHC) to see if more activist investors jumped in.

Wall Street is starting to take up the case for investing in green hydrogen. Goldman Sachs notes the most abundant element in the universe could supply energy needs, fuel cars, heat homes and help in the climate fight. Goldman has its eyes on ten companies in the so-called Green Energy Majors group due to the big surge in green infrastructure spending. That list includes Orsted, EDPR, EDP, Solaria, Enel, Iberdrola (OTCPK:IBDSF), RWE, SSE, Acciona (OTCPK:ACXIF) and Endesa (OTCPK:ELEZF). Meanwhile, Citi has U.K.-based electrolyzer producer ITM Power (OTCPK:ITMPF) and fuel cell player Ceres Power rated at Buy. Bank of America is also bullish on green hydrogen, calling it the only viable clean molecule to help countries make good on binding pledges of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. In the week ahead, an event in Europe covering hydrogen-fueled buses and infrastructure will feature talks by execs with Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ:BLDP), Cummins (NYSE:CMI) and Worthington Industries (NYSE:WOR) just as investors start to laser in on the sector. Of course, betting on hydrogen is nothing new for Nikola (NASDAQ:NKLA) and its shareholders.

Events

Investors in the banking sector will be watching for credit card chargeoff reports from American Express (NYSE:AXP), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Capital One (NYSE:COF), Discover Financial (NYSE:DFS), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF).

Conferences: The headliner conference of the week will be the Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference 2021. The CAGNY conference will feature presentations by a large number of consumer companies, including General Mills (NYSE:GIS), Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC), Kellogg (NYSE:K), PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP), Altria (NYSE:MO) and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO). A busy week of conferences also includes the Barclays Industrial Select Conference 2021, Citi Global Industrials Conference 2021, Citi Immuno-Oncology Conference 2021, Molecular Med Tricon Conference 2021 and the BTIG Medical Technology, Digital Health, Life Science and Diagnostic Tools Conference 2021.

Barron's mentions

The publication's list of the world's most sustainable companies is topped by Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A), Ecolab (NYSE:ECL), Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK), Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) and Tiffany (NYSE:TIF). Corning (NYSE:GLW) is profiled very favorably for serving a diverse set of markets, from smartphones to vaccine vials. Meanwhile, Hologic's (NASDAQ:HOLX) is said to trade cheap compared to other companies selling molecular diagnostic equipment for Covid-19 PCR tests. It is noted that the downturn in demand for COVID testing next year may not be as bad as forecast, with extensive testing likely needed before surgery and travel.

Sources: EDGAR, Bloomberg, CNBC, Renaissance Capital

 


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