| | Top News  Shutterstock Seeking Alpha wishes our subscribers a beautiful holiday weekend and a Happy Fourth of July! Wall Street Breakfast won't be published with markets closed on Monday, but tune back in Tuesday.
The stock market applauded a jobs report on Friday that showed strong payrolls - but with enough concerns to keep the Fed reticent to taper just yet - starting the Independence Day weekend on an upbeat note. The major averages had already drifted higher before the non-farm payrolls figure and the move sealed a second-straight week of gains for all of them. The Nasdaq led, posting a weekly gain of 1.9%, followed by the S&P up 1.6% and the Dow trailing, but still up 1%. "The big, deep Covid cycle continues to recover rapidly with the economy reopening, as evidenced by the continued strong gains in leisure and hospitality employment and another month of near 200K job increases for restaurant work," wrote Steven Blitz, chief U.S. economist at T.S. Lombard. "One of the bright spots in the June jobs report is the 33K increase in temp office workers. This group was lagging in the recovery, perhaps because office work was still remote, and this was an important area of job growth in the expansion ended by Covid." | | Healthcare Gene editing shares started the week with a big advance following a major breakthrough for the industry. Early trial data from Intellia Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NTLA) detailed a phase 1 trial of a CRISPR candidate showing the ability to genetically edit cells inside a liver. The specifics were presented today at the 2021 Peripheral Nerve Society Annual Meeting and in the New England Journal of Medicine.
What happened? CRISPR technology, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, was previously restricted to editing cells outside the body or in the eye. It also faced challenges like sticking molecular scissors into the body or slicing DNA in a select number of tissues. This time around, researchers injected a CRISPR drug into the blood of people born with transthyretin amyloidosis, a destructive disease that causes fatal nerve and heart disease. The results showed that the editing technology was able to nearly shut off production of the toxic protein generated by their livers by knocking the gene's activity. While it's too early to tell whether the CRISPR treatment will ease symptoms of the disease, or if other problems will surface over time, there's still a lot to be excited about. "The allure and the promise of CRISPR is this notion that you can change any gene, anyhow, anywhere in the genome, so long as you can get it there. And that last proviso is the key one," declared Intellia CEO John Leonard. "This is the first time CRISPR has ever been infused into a patient and the first time we've been able to target a gene successfully." Other stocks that got a boost: Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BEAM), Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT), CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) and Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN). ( 45 comments) | | Brought to you by Seeking Alpha  Looking for the best stocks RIGHT NOW? Near perfect Quant Ratings along with high rankings in Growth and Momentum put these 3 stocks at the top of the Strong Buy list. It's no wonder Seeking Alpha Authors and Wall Street Analysts agree, these are "must haves" for your portfolio.
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Tap here to get started | | Economy A national moratorium on the eviction of tenants had been set to expire on Wednesday, before a 5-4 decision at the nation's highest court saw the order extended for another month. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined with the court's three liberal justices to leave the moratorium in place, with Kavanaugh issuing a one-paragraph concurrence detailing his views. "Because the CDC plans to end the moratorium in only a few weeks, on July 31, and because those few weeks will allow for an additional and more orderly distribution of the congressionally appropriated rental assistance funds, I vote at this time to deny the application" that had been filed by real estate firms and trade associations. Backdrop: The CDC eviction moratorium was put in place under the Trump administration, aiming to shield tenants who missed monthly rent payments from being forced out of their homes during the coronavirus pandemic (they still owe back rent). It was originally set to expire on Dec. 31, 2020, but Congress stretched the order until late January, and it was then extended several more times under the Biden administration. While the CDC last week announced a final, one-month extension through July, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled the moratorium was legally unsupportable, though she stayed her ruling (pending appeal) citing public-health concerns. While the moratorium has protected millions of tenants, it has also resulted in financial hardships for landlords. Property owners, which say they are losing $13B a month in unpaid rent, are still liable for taxes, insurance and maintenance costs tied to their real estate. They also said the ban on evictions is less justifiable now due to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and a high number of vaccinated Americans. Reactions: "Allowing evictions to proceed when there are tens of billions in resources to prevent them would be wasteful and cruel," said Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Landlords feel differently. "With the pandemic waning and the economy improving, it is time to restore the housing sector to its healthy, former function," replied Charlie Oppler, President of the National Association of Realtors. Statistics: By the end of March, 6.4M American households were behind on their rent, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. On June 7, a Household Pulse Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau also showed that roughly 3.2M people in the U.S. feared an eviction in the next two months. The numbers came before the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which rose at a blazing 14.6% Y/Y in April to notch the fastest pace on record. Related REITs: Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR), AvalonBay (NYSE: AVB), American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH), UDR (NYSE: UDR), Apartment Investment and Management (NYSE: AIV), Essex Property Trust (NYSE: ESS), Camden Property Trust (NYSE: CPT), Mid-America Apartment (NYSE: MAA), Invitation Homes (NYSE: INVH), Bluerock Residential Growth (NYSE: BRG), NexPoint Residential Trust (NYSE: NXRT), Preferred Apartment Communities (NYSE: APTS), Sun Communities (NYSE: SUI), Clipper Realty (NYSE: CLPR), Centerspace (NYSE: CSR), Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE: ELS). ( 194 comments) | | Tech Instagram has a TikTok problem. The Facebook-owned (NASDAQ: FB) app this week said it would begin testing drastic changes to its platform like showing users full-screen videos in their feeds, as well as content from accounts they don't already follow. In August 2020, Instagram even tried launching Reels, which was a short-form video feature that enabled users to create content with overlaid audio and effects. "Let's be honest, there's some really serious competition right now. TikTok ( BDNCE) is huge, YouTube ( GOOG, GOOGL) is even bigger, and there's lots of other upstarts as well," said Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram. "We're no longer a photo-sharing app or a square photo-sharing app. You'll see us do a number of things, or experiment with a number of things in this space over the coming months." Flashback: In early 2010, social media was all about Facebook and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), before Instagram came on the scene with its dazzling photo filters. Within two years, Facebook had scooped up the company for $1B, and by 2018, it had more than 1B users. Later that year, Instagram's founders left Facebook - due to a disagreement about the future of the app - and Facebook hasn't reported Instagram figures for the last three years as things apparently went downhill. Go deeper: There's a big generational change happening on social media given the focus on individual expression. Compared to Instagram's picture-perfect and airbrushed environment, TikTok offers a space to show flaws, vulnerabilities and imperfections - and even have fun doing it. According to recent data from Cowen, TikTok's daily engagement per user has climbed from 37 minutes to 41 minutes this year, compared to Instagram's 33 minutes of usage per day on average. Earlier this week, a federal judge took Facebook's side in an antitrust suit, marking a big blow to the state and federal movement against Big Tech. ( 55 comments) | | IPOs Hot investing app Robinhood Markets ( HOOD) filed Thursday for an eagerly anticipated IPO at what many on Wall Street expect will be about a $40B valuation. The filing included few other details about the initial public offering, such as how many shares Robinhood will offer or at what price range, but 35% of them are expected to be allocated to retail investors. The company is set to be the buzziest name to tap the U.S. IPO market this summer and follows a record number of listings in the first half that's on pace to break annual records. Backdrop: Since 2015, Robinhood has offered a popular, mobile-friendly investing app for Millennials, Gen-Zers and others new to stocks, ETFs and crypto. The company offers such non-traditional features as zero-commission stock purchases and the ability to buy fractional shares, making it possible for small investors to buy into popular but expensive tech stocks. "By untethering investing from the desktop computer, we've seen new categories of people, including gig economy workers, first responders, construction workers and many more, discovering Robinhood and becoming investors," co-founders Baiju Bhatt and Vladimir Tenev wrote in an accompanying S-1 filing. By the numbers: Robinhood had 18M funded accounts as of March 31, as well as 17.7M monthly active users and $81B in assets under custody (more than 50% of its clients are first-time investors). Revenues grew 245% in 2020 to hit $959M, allowing Robinhood to earn $7M of net income vs. a $107M 2019 net loss. As for Q1 2021, HOOD said revenues grew 309% year over year, although the bottom line showed a $1.4B net loss due in part to a $1.5B fair-value adjustment to convertible notes and warrant liability. Not without critics: Robinhood has faced heat over receiving what is called "payment for order flow," where brokerages route customers' stock orders to specific market makers in exchange for commissions, even though the market maker might not give the customer the best available execution price. Robinhood also angered customers and regulators when its system went down during some big market days in March 2020, preventing clients from trading when stocks were volatile, as well as restricting trading during the meme frenzy back in January. On Wednesday, FINRA announced that Robinhood would pay a record $70M in fines and restitution over the outages, as well as improperly approving some customers for options trading. ( 69 comments) | | Space Shares of Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) soared on Friday after the company said it was looking to launch founder Sir Richard Branson into space on July 11. That's big news as it would come ahead of plans for Jeff Bezos and his company Blue Origin ( BORGN) to launch on July 20. The two have been vying for dominance in space, as well as SpaceX's ( SPACE) Elon Musk, it what has been coined the "billionaire space race." UBS sees an incremental positive for Galactic if the company flies Branson on its next test flight, saying it could be a catalyst for a faster opening of the company's sales campaigns. "I think part of how they're shaping the competition is by putting themselves on the line as part of the face of the competition," said Victoria Samson of the Secure World Foundation. So far, the space tourism pioneer has about 600 customer reservations on its books, most of which were sold at a price of $200K to $250K per ticket several years ago. Another 400 have expressed an interest in booking tickets to the edge of space when sales fully reopen. Galactic and Blue Origin will get people to suborbital space in different ways. The former uses a carrier aircraft to fly its space plane high above Earth, while the latter uses a rocket-launched capsule (it's also looking to diversify its business by sending payloads into orbit via New Glenn). "In general, every mission that goes up, every rocket that's launched, every bit of progress we make does drive down costs, makes space more affordable [and] accessible to everybody," added Shift4 Payments' Jared Isaacman, who is partnering with SpaceX ( SPACE) to lead the first all-civilian mission into orbit later this year. Go deeper: Taking ownership of the heavens is not only limited to space travel and tourism, but also the infrastructure that could change how we operate on Earth. Elon Musk this week took the virtual podium at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to discuss progress on Starlink's ( STRLK) global connectivity plan. The SpaceX subsidiary is hoping to avoid the fate of similar satellite ventures that preceded it (i.e. bankruptcy) after launching its "Better Than Nothing Beta program" in the U.S. last October. While data speeds have been advertised at 150 megabits per second, some users have complained of connectivity and reliability issues that have long plagued satellite internet. ( 68 comments) | | U.S. Indices
Dow +1.0% to 34,786. S&P 500 +1.6% to 4,352. Nasdaq +1.9% to 14,639. Russell 2000 -1.1% to 2,309. CBOE Volatility Index -3.5% to 15.07.
S&P 500 Sectors
Consumer Staples +0.1%. Utilities -0.1%. Financials +0.1%. Telecom +1.%. Healthcare +1.1%. Industrials +0.7%. Information Technology +1.8%. Materials +0.7%. Energy -0.9%. Consumer Discretionary +1.%.
World Indices
London -0.2% to 7,123. France -1.1% to 6,553. Germany +0.3% to 15,650. Japan -1.% to 28,783. China -2.5% to 3,519. Hong Kong -3.5% to 28,252. India -0.8% to 52,485.
Commodities and Bonds
Crude Oil WTI +1.5% to $75.14/bbl. Gold +0.6% to $1,788.8/oz. Natural Gas +5.7% to 3.695. Ten-Year Treasury Yield +0.7% to 132.76.
Forex and Cryptos
EUR/USD -0.57%. USD/JPY +0.23%. GBP/USD -0.3%. Bitcoin +5.1%. Litecoin +6.5%. Ethereum +15.5%. Ripple +4.9%.
Top Stock Gainers
Marin Software Incorporated (NASDAQ:MRIN) +433%. Bridgeline Digital (NASDAQ:BLIN) +288%. Cuentas (NASDAQ:CUEN) +150%. Newegg Commerce (NASDAQ:NEGG) +85%. Intellia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NTLA) +84%.
Top Stock Losers
CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE:CVM) -68%. Kiromic BioPharma (NASDAQ:KRBP) -52%. Citius Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CTXR) -44%. DiaMedica Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DMAC) -42%. Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) -42%.
Where will the markets be headed next week? Current trends and ideas? Add your thoughts to the comments section. | | | | |
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