Wall Street Breakfast: The Week Ahead

Outlook

Economic reports in the week ahead

Investors have a variety of events and developments to focus on next week. The impact of the pending FDA approval on Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use could reset some re-opening expectations. The oil market could be jumpy as OPEC+ holds a committee meeting, followed by the main decision-making gathering on March 4. OPEC is expected to make a decision on production quotas that would likely take effect in April. Also of note, bond traders will be looking to get a handle on the Treasury yields, while the Coinbase (COINB) direct listing will continue to get sized up as more information comes in. Retailers dominate the earnings calendar with Target (NYSE:TGT) and Costco (NASDAQ:COST) likely to post strong numbers and AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) hopes to create a stir in the tech sector with its new chip unveiling. Finally, the U.S. jobs report for February drops at the end of the week. Bank of America forecasts the employment report will show nonfarm payrolls growth of +225K from an increase of 49K in January.

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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

Investors have a variety of events and developments to focus on next week. The impact of the pending FDA approval on Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use could reset some re-opening expectations. The oil market could be jumpy as OPEC+ holds a committee meeting, followed by the main decision-making gathering on March 4. OPEC is expected to make a decision on production quotas that would likely take effect in April. Also of note, bond traders will be looking to get a handle on the Treasury yields, while the Coinbase (COINB) direct listing will continue to get sized up as more information comes in. Retailers dominate the earnings calendar with Target (NYSE:TGT) and Costco (NASDAQ:COST) likely to post strong numbers and AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) hopes to create a stir in the tech sector with its new chip unveiling. Finally, the U.S. jobs report for February drops at the end of the week. Bank of America forecasts the employment report will show nonfarm payrolls growth of +225K from an increase of 49K in January.

Earnings

Core-Mark (NASDAQ:CORE), Nio (NYSE:NIO), 3D (NYSE:DDD), Scientific Games (NASDAQ:SGMS) and Zoom Video (NASDAQ:ZM) on March 1; Target (TGT), Kohl's (NYSE:KSS), AutoZone (NYSE:AZO), Box (NYSE:BOX), Hewlett-Packard Enterprises (NYSE:HPE) and Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) on March 2; Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR), Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW), Vroom (NASDAQ:VRM) and Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK) on March 3; Kroger (NYSE:KR), Costco (COST) and Gap (NYSE:GPS) on March 4; GSX Techedu (NYSE:GSX) on March 5.

IPOs

IPOs expected to price during the week include Oscar Health (OSCR) on March 3 and InnovAge Holding (INNV) on March 4. Quiet periods expire in the week ahead for Atotech (NYSE:ATC), Sensei Bio (NASDAQ:SNSE), Sana Bio (NASDAQ:SANA), Landos Bio (NASDAQ:LABP), ON24 (NYSE:ONTF), CN Energy (NASDAQ:CNEY), Bolt Bio (NASDAQ:BOLT), Lucira (NASDAQ:LHDX), Immunocore (NASDAQ:IMCR), Pharvaris (NASDAQ:PHVS), Terns (NASDAQ:TERN), Evaxion (NASDAQ:EVAX) and Vor (NASDAQ:VOR). The IPO lockup period on blocks of shares for PainReform (NASDAQ:PRFX), Applied UV (NASDAQ:AUVI), Array Technologies (NASDAQ:ARRY), Dada NExus (NASDAQ:DADA), Burning Rock Biotech (NASDAQ:BNR) and Cambium Networks (NASDAQ:CMBM). The lockup period also expires on the 47M shares tied to the capital raise by Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) in December. Investors should also keep an eye on Coinbase (COINB), with the cryptocurrency direct listing on tap. Investors will have a challenge trying to nail down fair valuation on Coinbase. Some estimates based off Nasdaq secondary market trading place the value of Coinbase at $100B when it goes public, although the company wrote in an SEC filing that private shares that changed hands during 2020 at an implied a $5.4B value. The direct listing could arrive next week or further down the road.

Dividends

Projected dividend increases (quarterly): Some of the notable companies expected to raise their dividend payouts next week include Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) to $0.13 from $0.12, General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) to $1.18 from $1.10, American Tower (NYSE:AMT) to $1.29 from $1.21 and Hill-Rom (NYSE:HRC) to $0.23 from $0.22.

M&A

Acacia (NASDAQ:ACIA) shareholders vote on the buyout by Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) on March 1. Acacia trades just a few pennies below the deal price of $115. 

Automotive

TrueCar forecasts total new vehicle sales will fall 7.6% on an adjusted basis to 1,170,856 units. This month's seasonally adjusted annualized rate for total light vehicle sales is an estimated 15.5M units. Excluding fleet sales, TrueCar expects U.S. retail deliveries of new cars and light trucks to fall 0.4% to 967,545 units. Used vehicle sales for February are expected to fall 4% from a year ago. "New vehicle retail sales are expected to be flat for February, which is a good result given the expansive and prolonged nature of the winter storms throughout many parts of the country, including southern states, which do not typically experience snow storms of this caliber," notes TrueCar analyst Nick Woolard. Forecast by manufacturer (% change in daily selling rate) - (BMW (OTCPK:BMWYY) -6.0% to 23,839 units, Daimler (OTCPK:DDAIF) -27.7% to 17,416 units, Ford (NYSE:F) -9.2% to 158,869 units, General Motors (NYSE:GM) -2.7% to 214,265 units, Honda (NYSE:HMC) -8.9% to 100,884 units, Hyundai (OTCPK:HYMLF) -15.8% to 42,436 units, Kia (OTCPK:HYMLF) -7.5% to 44,569 units, Nissan (OTCPK:NSANY) -5.2% to 86,810 units, Stellantis (NYSE:STLA) -16.1% to 142,459 units, Subaru (OTCPK:FUJHY) -3.3% to 46,158 units, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) -16.4% to 21,981 units, Toyota (NYSE:TM) -1.6% to 177,461 units and Volkswagen (OTCPK:VWAGY) -4.7% to 44,351 units.

Events

The Microsoft Ignite conference runs from March 2-4. The event kicks off with a keynote address by CEO Satya Nadalla and Alex Kipman, who is the Technical Fellow for AI and Mixed Reality in the Cloud and AI Group at Microsoft. Chips are a hot topic leading into an AMD (AMD) event on March 3 to introduce the newest addition to the Radeon RX family of high-performance graphic cards. The new model is expected to be the Radeon RX 6700 XT, aimed to compete with Nvidia's (NASDAQ:NVDA) mid-range Ampere-based graphics cards. Also next week, Vonage (NASDAQ:VG) hosts a virtual Investor Day event on March 5 with presentations from members of the executive leadership team on the company's vision, strategy, key business initiatives and financial goals.

A 2-for-1 stock split for Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) becomes effective on March 2. Ampehnol (NYSE:APH) has a 2-for-1 stock split scheduled to become effective on March 4.

Some of the data reports to watch for during the week include an update on Macau gaming revenue, China auto sales for February, discount broker DART numbers, firearm background checks and Class 8 truck orders. Nio (NIO) will also release its monthly deliveries report.

Conferences: The long list of conferences in the week ahead include the JP Morgan Global Emerging Markets Corporate Conference, JMP Securities Technology Conference, Morgan Stanley Energy & Power Conference, Morgan Stanley Virtual European MedTech & Services Conference, Credit Suisse Virtual Energy Summit, JP Morgan Global High Yield & Leveraged Finance Conference, Cowen & Co. Health Care Conference, Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Evercore ISI Industrial Conference, Bank of America Securities Power, Gas and Solar Leaders, Evercore Payments and Fintech Innovators Forum and the Jefferies Paper & Packaging Summit 2021.

Barron's mentions

The cover story this week delves into how investors should view green energy stocks with electric utilities at the center of a seismic shift away from coal and toward wind and solar power over the next 15 years. Utility company stocks and funds are called a cheap way to plug into the "critically important" transition as well as offer investors attractive yields and inexpensive valuations. Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT), American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP), CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS), Dominion Energy (NYSE:D), Entergy (NYSE:ETR), Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC), NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE), Pinnacle West Capital (NYSE:PNW) and Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) all make the list of attractive green stocks.

Sources: EDGAR, Bloomberg, CNBC, The Verge, Renaissance Capital

 


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