
CVX Beats XOM; AXP Earnings
Markets finished at record highs yesterday, with the S&P 500 gaining about +0.53% to close at 6,304.69 as earnings season kicked off with largely favorable results for the bullish crowd from big banks and tech names.
However, Netflix (NFLX) fell yesterday despite beating net profits expectations which benefitted from a weakening dollar.
In the energy world, Chevron (CVX) scored a major legal victory over Exxon (XOM) from the International Chamber of Commerce. The ruling over the dispute over oil assets in Guyana clears the way for Chevron’s $53B acquisition of Hess Corporation (HES).
The House of Representatives passed a major piece of legislation to regulate the cryptocurrency after wrangling among lawmakers, which establishes a regulatory framework for the $250B stablecoin market.
Today’s economic data includes Housing Starts and Consumer Sentiment, while earnings season continues on Monday with results from VZ, NXPI, and DPZ.
Snapshot (as of 7 AM ET)
- Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are up over 1%, above $67.
- Gold (/GC) – Gold futures are up +0.5% near 3,361, as price continues to drift sideways in a range since mid-April.
- Bitcoin (/BTC) – Bitcoin futures are little changed near 119.4K as traders eye the all-time highs of 123,615.
- VIX – VIX closed at 16.52 yesterday, only slightly lower than the previous close of 16.69.
- U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is down almost -0.5% near the 98 mark after failing to break above its relative highs of 99.01 from late June.
Biggest Premarket Movers (Mark % Change as of 7 AM ET)
- Hess (HES): +7.30%
- Norfolk Southern (NSC): +4.05%
- Ansys (ANSS): +3.35%
- Viatris (VTRS): -3.45%
- Netflix (NFLX): -2.53%
- Smurfit Westrock (SW): -1.30%
Economic Data
- 8:30AM ET: Housing Starts & Permits
- 10:00AM ET: Consumer Sentiment
- 1:00PM ET: Baker Hughes Rig Count
Notable Earnings
- Premarket: AXP, SCHW, MMM, TFC, SLB, HBAN, RF
- Postmarket: None
- Premarket Tomorrow: VZ, ROP, DPZ, CLF
- Postmarket Tomorrow: NXPI, WRB, STLD, CCK
Upgrades/Downgrades
- Jefferies upgrades Abbott Labs (ABT) to Buy from Hold
- BMO Capital upgrades Chipotle (CMG) to Outperform from Market Perform
- Guggenheim upgrades Cognizant (CTSH) to Buy from Neutral
- KGI Securities downgrades Netflix (NFLX) to Neutral from Outperform
- Leerink downgrades Elevance Health (ELV) to Market Perform from Outperform
- Evercore downgrades Rexford (REXR) to In Line from Outperform