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NEW YORK Jan 3 Reuters The US dollar rose against a basket of major currencies on Monday the first trading day of the new year tracking government bond yields as investors anticipate the Federal Reserve will stay on its path of interest rate hikes in 2022 While the surge in coronavirus cases caused by the Omicron variant continued to impact global travel and public services hopes ran high that lockdowns would be averted On Monday the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of a third dose of the Pfizer PFEN and BioNTech COVID 19 vaccine for children aged between 12 and 15 years and narrowed the time for all booster shots to 5 months from 6 months after primary doses read more Yields on US two year notes which are sensitive to rate hike expectations along with 5 year notes soared to their highest level since March 2020 Benchmark US 10 year and 5 year yields rose to six week peaks The US central bank is seen as likely to begin hiking interest rates by mid 2022 read more Stocks on Wall Street were modestly higher but had pulled back from earlier gains You’ve seen this spike in yields a drop in the SP and that is kind of like a double whammy you get the yield play and a little bit of a risk off combination said Erik Bregar president and CEO at Bregar Capital Corp in Toronto Right now yields are the driver The dollar index rose 0615 with the euro down 063 to 11296 Economic data showed a gauge of manufacturing for December by Markit dipped to 577 from its prior reading of 578 but still indicating expansion November construction spending rose 04 shy of expectations calling for a rise of 06 The Japanese yen weakened 021 versus the greenback at 11530 per dollar while Sterling was last trading at 13437 down 068 on the day Trading volumes however were expected to be thin as London Europe s main FX trading center is closed for a market holiday In the broader euro zone manufacturing activity remained resilient as factories took advantage of an easing in supply chain constraints and stocked up on raw materials at a record pace read more Turkey s annual inflation rate surged to 361 last month its highest in the 19 years Tayyip Erdogan has ruled laying bare the extent of a currency crisis caused by the president s unorthodox interest rate cutting policies read more The lira was trading at 1302 against the dollar after the data 12 weaker on the day but off an early low of 1392

Oil futures climbed on Wednesday with global and US benchmark crude settling at their highest prices in more than three weeks after US government data showed weekly declines for both crude and gasoline inventories and as recent reports said Iran may be preparing an attack on Saudi Arabia Oil prices held onto their gains for the session following the Federal Reserve s decision to lift its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points finding support from the potential for a slowdown in the rate hikes ahead analysts said A tick higher in refining activity ongoing strength in exports and a move lower in oil production encouraged a 3 million barrel draw to crude inventories said Matt Smith lead oil analyst Americas at Kpler in emailed commentary The Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported that US crude inventories fell by 31 million barrels for the week ended Oct 28 On average analysts forecasted a decrease of 16 million barrels according to a poll conducted by SP Global Commodity Insights The EIA also showed a weekly inventory decline of 13 million barrels for gasoline while distillate stockpiles edged up by 400000 barrels The analyst survey had called for decreases of 19 million barrels for gasoline and 1 million barrels for distillates Crude stocks at the Cushing Okla Nymex delivery hub climbed by 13 million barrels to 282 million barrels for the week stocks in the SPR declined by 19 million barrels to 3998 million barrels and total domestic petroleum production fell by 100000 barrels to 119 million barrels EIA data showed Meanwhile a widening discount for WTI relative to Brent throughout trading in the second half of October points to continued strength in US exports and coupled with a seasonal recovery in domestic refinery runs should mean continued US crude supply draws in the coming weeks said Troy Vincent senior market analyst at DTN However given that US commercial crude stocks are far more robust than those of refined products this outlook of falling US crude stocks isn t decidedly bullish for oil prices as it will likely coincide with a recovery in East Coast refined product imports and product inventories where they re needed most said Vincent Oil prices held onto the bulk of their gains after the Federal Reserve s decision to raise interest rates as expected which was released about a half hour ahead of the futures price settlement In the press conference that followed Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that at some point it will be appropriate to slow the pace of increases Stewart Glickman energy equity analyst at CFRA Research told MarketWatch that there was a glimmer of hope that the incessant rate hikes could be moderating soon If that puts some wind in the sails for the economy it s a plus for GDP and therefore for oil demand Positive for oil all else being equal The risk of course is that inflation numbers subsequently refuse to cooperate and then we have to go back to a more hawkish Fed said Glickman Powell also said at the press conference that interest rates are likely to end up higher than previously expected Halfway through the press conference Powell s statements indicated more of a hawkish stance on higher rates said Tariq Zahir managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors This put pressure on risk assets in all asset classes he said adding that Powell has said several times we have ways to go in raising rates This should weigh on equity markets and energy markets while creating a bid to yields in the bond markets said Zahir Oil has been pressured on worries the Fed s aggressive rate increases will tip the global economy into a sharp slowdown curtailing demand for crude Prices rose Tuesday however amid reports that Iran was planning an attack on Saudi Arabia A lot of the IranSaudi Arabia news was priced in yesterday but the latest headlines did reiterate their legitimacy and remind traders of the bullish supply side threat Tyler Richey co editor at Sevens Report Research told MarketWatch

NRG Energy IncNYSENRG is facing pressure from the activist investorElliott Investment Managementfor expelling its Chief Executive Officer CEO Mauricio Gutierrez Elliott is reportedly talking to potential candidates for replacing NRG CEO and other top executives as perWSJ Last month Elliott acquired a 13 economic interest around 1 billion in the company and stated its motive to restructure the board and initiate cost saving measures and a strategic review of Vivint the home services unit of the company Elliott calledVivint s buyoutthe single worst deal in the power andutilities sector during the past decade As per the report an NRG spokesperson said in an email that the company looks forward to discussing NRG s strategic plan with shareholders at an investor day today morning and further added The board fully supports NRG s CEO Mauricio Gutierrez and management team and the strategy they are executing to drive substantial shareholder value In 2017 Elliott made a significant investment in NRG and appointed two new board members pushing the company to change its business plans and consider asset sales and debt reduction Earlier Elliott targeted major tech and energy companies such asSalesforce IncNYSECRMPayPal Holdings IncNASDAQPYPL andDuke Energy CorpNYSEDUK forcing executive changes This month NRG named Bruce Chung the new Chief Financial Officer replacing Alberto Fornaroeffective June 1 2023 Also the company recently disclosed a deal to sell its 44 equity interest in South Texas Project Electric Generating Station toConstellation Energy CorpNASDAQCEGfor 175 billion Price Action NRG shares are trading higher by 334 at 3501 premarket on the last check Thursday

Booking Holdings Inc on Wednesday posted better than expected revenue and a surge in profit in the third quarter the latest sign that travel demand has been resilient despite ongoing inflation Here s what we watched REVENUE The online travel services provider logged revenue of 605 billion up from 468 billion in the year ago period Analysts polled by FactSet expected 592 billion ADJUSTED EARNINGS The Norwalk Conn based company recorded adjusted earnings of 5303 a share Analysts polled by FactSet expected 4952 a share NET INCOME Booking posted net income of 167 billion compared to 769 million in the year ago period Analysts polled by FactSet expected 195 billion DEMAND Booking said room nights booked in the third quarter increased 31 from the year ago period the latest company to report results showing that travel demand remains strong despite rampant inflation The company previously forecast record revenue for the quarter its seasonally largest revenue quarter due to higher gross bookings on the books for the remainder of the summer period through the end of the third quarter than in 2019 Chief Executive Glenn Fogel said in August COMMENTARY Despite the rising concern around the macroeconomic environment we are encouraged by the slight improvement in room night growth we have seen in October and by the level of bookings for travel in early 2023 said Mr Fogel

TODAY ONLY For only 7 you can get 2 winning options trade alerts every month Click Here to See Trade Ideas Risk free with a 14 day refund guarantee A whale with a lot of money to spend has taken a noticeably bullish stance on Block Looking at options history for Block SQ we detected 20 strange trades If we consider the specifics of each trade it is accurate to state that 50 of the investors opened trades with bullish expectations and 50 with bearish From the overall spotted trades 10 are puts for a total amount of 399476 and 10 calls for a total amount of 749897 Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 700 to 2500 for Block over the last 3 months Looking at the volume and open interest is an insightful way to conduct due diligence on a stock This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Block s options for a given strike price Below we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts respectively for all of Block s whale activity within a strike price range from 700 to 2500 in the last 30 days Block Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Where Is Block Standing Right Now With a volume of 4538815 the price of SQ is up 64 at 10884 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching oversold Next earnings are expected to be released in 15 days What The Experts Say On Block Mizuho has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Block which currently sits at a price target of 210 Keybanc has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Block which currently sits at a price target of 225 BTIG has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Block which currently sits at a price target of 230 Jefferies has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Block which currently sits at a price target of 200 Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closely If you are already an options trader or would like to get started head on over to Benzinga Pro Benzinga Pro gives you up to date news and analytics to empower your investing and trading strategy

Oil futures ticked lower early Monday with weakness tied in part to fading hopes China would relax curbs aimed at curtailing the spread of COVID 19 West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery CL1 CL00 CLZ22 fell 38 cents or 04 to 9223 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange January Brent crude BRN00 BRNF23 the global benchmark was off 26 cents or 03 at 9831 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe Back on Nymex December gasoline RBZ22 fell 12 to 2703 a gallon while December heating oil HOZ22 shed 11 to 3872 a gallon Speculation around the potential easing of COVID 19 curbs by China was credited with lifting oil futures last week News reports over the weekend however said Beijing would largely stick to its policies Health officials on Saturday said China would stick to its “dynamic clearing” policies Reuters reported Asked about a potential change in policy in the near term Hu Xiang a disease control official said the country’s measures are “completely correct as well as the most economical and effective” China’s strict COVID curbs which have resulted in sweeping lockdowns of major cities and regions have been cited as a drag on crude demand Last week it was a weaker US dollar and “unverified reports of China looking to ease its zero COVID policy which really provided the boost to markets” said Warren Patterson head of commodities strategy at ING in a note “It appears these reports were nothing more than a rumor after the National Health Commission said that China will stick to its zero COVID policy Unsurprisingly oil markets opened lower this morning following these comments” Crude oil imports in October averaged 102 million barrels a day or mbd up from 983 mbd in September and 89 mbd in October last year Patterson noted It was the strongest monthly import figure since May when 1083 mbd of inflows were seen Crude oil imports over the first 10 months of the year are still down 27 versus the same stretch in 2021 to average 997 mbd

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a rebound in the Producer Price Index PPI for final demand in April with a month over month rise of 02 The increase comes after a revised drop of 04 in March and falls short of the expected 03 increase The modest rise is largely attributable to an 03 increase in prices for final demand services which accounted for 80 of the overall upswing What 5 Economists Are Saying Thursday Peter Essele head of portfolio management at Commonwealth Financial Network said the PPI figures are asolid confirmation that inflation is a thing of the past saying that he expects the bond party to continue and predictingpotential rate cuts in the second half of the year Quincy Krosby chief global strategist at LPL Financial said the PPI release is indicative of prices inching lower easing market concerns about elevated prices The data along with higher initial unemployment claims could lower Treasury yields while boosting equity futures he said Read alsoUnemployment Claims Rise Highest Since October 2021 Signs Of Cracks In The Job Market Jeffrey Roach chief economist at LPL Financial highlighted the rise in service producer prices as the main contributor to the PPI increase The inflation pipeline is clearing with supply chains normalizing and commodity prices falling in response to global slowdowns he said Chris Zaccarelli chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance welcomed the data as good inflation news following a similar pattern in the CPI data The data gives the Fed room to take a pause in the next meeting he said Bill Adams chief economist at Comerica Bank said he interpreted the PPI data as a sign the economy is cooling down The likely direction for unemployment is higher over the next six months he saidand he expects the Fed to start reducing interest rates before the end of the year Read nextPaul Krugman s Debt Ceiling Fix Trillion Dollar Coin Or Premium Bond Strategy Photo via Shutterstock

Feb 23 Reuters A group of four conservative leaning US states is challenging a new rule from Wall Street s top regulator that requires certain investment funds to reveal more about how they vote on shareholder ballots including on pay packages for top executives The new rule which the US Securities and Exchange Commission adopted in November will put shareholders at increased risk of loss encouraging political activism and raising administrative costs according to the office of Utah s attorney general West Virginia Texas and Louisiana also joined the lawsuit which was filed on Tuesday before the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals where a large majority of judges was appointed by Republican presidents Republican legislators and elected officials have voiced increasing opposition in recent years to what they view as progressive activism among large Wall Street investors and attempts to enable this through regulation In addition to disclosures on voting on executive pay the rule the commission adopted in November requires mutual funds exchange traded funds and others to produce more comprehensive and machine readable information which the Commission says helps analysis and comparison by investors Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington Editing by Matthew Lewis

Yield hunting is back in emerging markets with a force not seen for 17 years Investors are buying the bonds of some of the world’s poorest nations so fast that the risk premium on them is falling at the quickest pace since June 2005 relative to their investment grade peers JPMorgan Chase Co data show And countries that were tottering on the brink of default just months ago such as Pakistan Ghana and Ukraine are leading this high yield rally

Cannabis companieslapsed intocollective Twitter ecstasy in March when the Bluebird opened its wings andembraced cannabis advertisingon its site making history in the process as the first social media site to do so The hope was that more and more would soon fly into the Twitternest Now several months later some of those cannabis companies are complaining that while the site may have opened up to allowing cannabis to advertise the change hasn’t made it easyfor weed companies to benefit from Twitter’s real golden egg the platform’s vast reach This brings us to the famous blue checkmark the oneStephen King announced that he would not be paying“20 a month to keep my blue check “F–k that they should pay me” King tweeted TelsaNASDAQTSLAand Twitter CEO Elon Musk haggled andmade a counteroffer “How about 8” Now several months later the famous blue checkmarkcosts 1000 a month And while famous writers might be able to afford that many small cannabis businesses can’t And Twitter requires advertisers to be Twitter Blue or Verified Organization subscribers What Happened Not long after what seemed like a seismic shift reality hit in the form of Twitter rules and regs such as not permitting ads to include pricing offer promotionsdiscountspromote giveaways sweepstakes or contests wrote MJBizDaily which did deep dive into the hurdles facing cannabis advertisers trying to work through Twitter s policies Twitter allows placing ads in new marijuana markets although the company spublicpolicy for advertising drugsdoesn’t indicate whichmarkets aremedical and which are recreational At the same time cannabis companies advertising on Twitter must attest to the fact thatthey are licensed to do business in the states wheretheir ads will appear and that they llonly target customers over 21in jurisdictions where they relicensed Fair enough Despite the red tape Rosie Mattio CEO of cannabis industry PR firm Mattio Communications saidcompaniesthat use Twitterwill see benefits “Now they can promote their products with great content in the ad copy” including photos she told MJBiz and target their preferred audience Chicago based PharmaCannhas been trying to advertise on Twitter for more than a month and was hoping to be up and up and tweeting by 420 said Bryan Benavides the company sdirector of digital marketing “We had to fill out forms and prove we have licenses in certain states and markets” he told MJBiz Hemp Is Hobbling Though It Shouldn’t Be While hemp is legal in all 50 states Denver based CBDistillery the first CBD company to launch ads on Twitter has only managed to get ads in 20 out of the 50 states where it sells products Company president and CEO Chase Terwilliger said the issue is that Twitter requires proof of licenses in each state in which he wants to advertise although not all states require CBD companies to be licensed But he s patient “Twitter is new to this too and they’re obviously going through a lot of changes” he said “We have to walk them through the process” Alexa Alianiello Twitter’s head of sales and partnerships is probably happy to hear Terwilliger’s kindwords “We have gathered meaningful feedback from the cannabis industry which we have taken into consideration to create even more opportunity” saidAlianiello who was a keynote speaker at Benzinga’s Cannabis Capital Conference in Miami inApril She told thepacked roomof cannabisinvestors and leaders to think of Twitter as a home for advertising highlighting the importance of conversation on the platform Twitter has your back We re a part of this community We re with you on this journey Alianiello said

Finland sold 3 billion euros 339 billion in new April 2043 dated government bonds on Wednesday one of the bookrunner banks said as the issue drew solid demand The new bond has a 050 coupon and it was priced 5 basis points below mid swaps at an issue price of 99440 and a yield of 0528 the same bank said Books for the bond closed in excess of EUR16 billion including EUR13 billion interest from the joint lead managers the same bank said This issue has been Finland s first government bond sale this year with two more new issues planned for 2022 Bookrunners of the issue were BofA Danske Bank Goldman Sachs Bank Europe JPMorgan and Nordea

“As January goes so goes the year” in the stock market Thus runs a common belief among traders If you believe it you’re probably scared right now as the Standard Poor’s 500 Total Return Index was down 766 in the first three weeks of this year Take heart The January indicator belief—often called the January barometer—is a superstition I’ve studied market action from 1950 through the present to see if this barometer means anything That’s a period of 72 years In the crudest sense the barometer was right 77 of the time However a naïve forecasting model that predicts every year will be an up year was right 79 of the time That doesn’t speak well for the putative barometer But wait it gets worse January is of course part of the year it’s supposed to predict So a fairer test would be How well does January predict the next 11 months On that basis it has been right only 67 of the time Most important for the jangled nerves of traders is this question How accurate is the barometer in years when January is down Here is where the fallacy of January’s prophetic quality really falls apart From 1950 through 2021 January has been down 29 times but in only 12 cases did the market decline for the full year That’s an accuracy rate of 44 worse than chance Can I offer assurances that the market will be up this year No no one can But whether it’s up or down for the year is in no way determined by market action of the first three or four weeks For what it’s worth my own prediction is for the market to post positive single digit returns this year Investors’ chief worry is rising interest rates But I think Edson Gould a market pundit of the 1930s through 1950s was on the right track when he said it takes three rate hikes to derail stocks He called it the “three steps and a stumble” rule In Gould’s day the Fed usually raised interest rates in half point increments Today the Fed tends to use quarter point moves So I think it might take more than three rate hikes to produce serious trouble for stocks Another piece of market lore attached to January is the January effect Really this is a confluence of three effects · Stocks in general tend to rise in January · Small stocks usually do well · Last year’s losers often bounce back in a “January rebound” So far this year I see no sign of the January effect The first element a general market rise obviously isn’t happening Small stocks aren’t doing much better than big ones The Russell 2000 Total Return Index a small cap index is down 697 through January 21 As for last year’s losers they are getting beaten up again In December I wrote about five stocks that has suffered remarkable declines in 2021 Peloton Interactive PTON Altice USA ATUS Zillow Group ZG Coupa Software COUP and Ring Central RNG All five of these unfortunate stocks have fallen more than the SP 500 in the first three weeks of 2022 Collectively they are down 17 on top of their losses last year which ranged from 50 to 76 I don’t have systematic data on the January effect the way I do on the January barometer But I can say from personal experience that it’s far from a sure thing In 2018 for example I lost a bundle of money buying call options on the previous year’s downtrodden stocks While it’s been a tough year so far not everything is falling About 10 of stocks are up Many of the gainers are energy stocks Oil and gas producers have slashed the number of active oil and gas wells in North America in the past three years to less than 500 from more than 800 As a result oil and gas prices have been rising and many energy stocks are doing well Two oilfield service giants Schlumberger Ltd SLB and Halliburton Co HAL are both up about 15 A slew of other energy stocks are also up including Hess HES Occidental Petroleum OXY and Phillips 66 Partners LP PSXP My feeling is that the energy industry rally has further to run These stocks were on their knees for six years beginning in mid 2014 Many are still reasonably valued Disclosure A hedge fund I manage has sold short bet on a decline in Ring Central

The second anniversary of the COVID 19 pandemic is a perfect time to reflect on risk and how it might impact your retirement financial security It was two years ago this week—March 11 2020 to be exact—when the World Health Organization formally declared COVID 19 a global pandemic Yet just two or three months before that declaration no one outside a handful of epidemiologists had even heard of the virus much less were worried that the economy was about to be put into the equivalent of a medically induced coma Read Two years of COVID 19 How the pandemic changed the way we shop work invest and get medical care But even if you did somehow have advance knowledge of the pandemic and that we would be struggling with it in two years’ time you still would have gotten it wrong You undoubtedly would have predicted a prolonged period of poor stock market performance or worse I highly doubt that any of you would have guessed that the stock market today would instead be some 50 higher Nor can we overlook how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took everyone by surprise Even though Russia several months ago started amassing troops on the Ukrainian border few expected the country to actually invade It’s not even clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself knew what he was going to do Furthermore the strength of the Ukrainian resistance “continues to surprise Russia” according to a British intelligence report As if that’s not enough uncertainty it’s rumored that Russia is contemplating the use of chemical biological or even nuclear weapons in Ukraine It’s hard to overstate the associated risks Is the sea really calm after the storm has passed I could go on and on But none of us—least of all retirees—need to be reminded that the future is uncertain Instead we need to be reminded of how this uncertainty and risk play out over the long term The traditional belief repeated by almost every adviser and financial planner is that the markets eventually recover and things ultimately calm down Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel in his book Stocks for the Long Run is famous for showing that the standard deviation of returns declines as holding period lengthens This is illustrated in the accompanying chart which I produced after updating data presented in Siegel’s book When holding stocks for one year for example the standard deviation is more than 18 Per statistics 101 that means—on various assumptions including that the future is like the past—95 of years should fall within two standard deviations above or below the average That’s a very wide range of over more than 72 percentage points Notice that at the 10 year horizon however the standard deviation drops below 5 And when holding period lengthens to 30 years it drops below 2 That implies that 95 of all 30 year returns will fall within a range of 8 annualized percentage points—a lot less than 72 percentage points I’m not sure how useful this information is however As British economist John Maynard Keynes argued a century ago “Economists set themselves too easy too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again” Consider research conducted by Robert Stambaugh a colleague of Siegel’s at the Wharton School and Lubos Pastor of the University of Chicago Their peer reviewed study which was published in the Journal of Finance is titled “Are Stocks Really Less Volatile in the Long Run” The professors in effect argue that the US stock market over the last 220 years got lucky and there is no assurance that in the future risk will decline as holding period lengthens The complex statistics the professors employ is beyond the scope of this column but I described their findings in greater detail in an October 2020 column But one of their conclusions that is particularly sobering is that when holding stocks for 30 years your risk is nearly 50 greater than when holding for just one year Another study by pursuing a different statistical approach reached largely similar findings Titled “The Volatility of Stock Investor Returns” the study was conducted by Ilia Dichev a professor of accounting at Emory University and Xin Zheng a professor of accounting at the University of British Columbia The professors focused on investors who are actively trying to beat the market and measured how much more volatile their portfolios will be than a simple index fund The professors found that at “the 10 year horizons the investors’ portfolios … are about 15 20 more volatile than the overall market but this differential rises to 70 75 for the 30 year horizon specifications” A third approach is to calculate how much an insurance company would charge you for a hypothetical policy that insures against your portfolio losing money This approach to analyzing risk was proposed decades ago by Zvi Bodie who for many years was a finance professor at Boston University Upon applying the standard theoretical formulae for such a calculation Bodie found that as time horizon lengthens the cost of such insurance rises The investment implication of these studies is that risk is far greater than we previously thought A corollary is that sources of guaranteed income—annuities for example—become more important than ever Only after we’ve made sure that our basic needs will be met should we even contemplate making speculative bets in our portfolios Mark Hulbert is a regular contributor to MarketWatch His Hulbert Ratings tracks investment newsletters that pay a flat fee to be audited He can be reached at markhulbertratingscom

SYDNEY Feb 10 Reuters The Australian and New Zealand dollars were trying for a fourth session of gains on Thursday as global equity markets rallied and commodities kept climbing while Australian bonds formally waved goodbye to buying by the central bank The Reserve Bank of Australia RBA ceased its quantitative easing campaign on Thursday having hoovered up more than A350 billion 25123 billion in bonds as part of a massive pandemic stimulus package The central bank estimates the buying binge kept bond yields around 30 basis points lower than they otherwise would be so its demise could be one reason yields have been surging In just the past four sessions yields on 10 year paper have climbed 27 basis points to 213 and heights last visited in early 2019 Three year futures also dived as much as 27 ticks before steadying at 98420 maintaining a bearish flattening across the curve Over coming weeks we will get a better sense of the true demand in the bond market However we think there will be minimal disruption said Damien McColough head of rates strategy at Westpac Domestic market sentiment and momentum are being dominated by the broader global bond direction so yields are likely to keep pushing higher over coming weeks The jump in local yields has more than kept pace with rising US yields and helped the Aussie firm to 07172 and away from last month s trough of 06967 The break of resistance at 07168 also brightened the technical outlook and could see the rally extend to 07275 The kiwi dollar followed to reach 06680 having added 05 overnight to as high as 06697 Again the break of resistance at 06683 improved the technical background and opened the way to retracement targets at 06710 and 06753 Strong commodity prices should be supporting the Aussie with major Australian exports of coal base metals and liquefied natural gas all climbing Iron ore took a hit on Wednesday as Beijing protested its sharp recent gains but was still near five month peaks The RBA s commodity price index has climbed 31 in the past year a trend that would historically be associated with a higher Aussie Instead the correlation to commodities has been lost along the way so that the Aussie is down around five US cents on a year ago and undervalued by normal measures

DELTA 9 CANNABIS INC OTCQXDLTNF TSXDN has secured a purchase order from a United States based customer for up to 8 of its modular Grow Pods for an integrated pre licensed cultivation and processing facility in Alabama The customer has also entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the company whereby Delta 9 will provide services relating to the development of the customer’s cannabis production facility training and other services supporting the acquisition of a state integrated facility license The company anticipates the value of the purchase order and strategic cooperation agreement will be approximately 600000 “We are delighted to partner on the development of this facility which will house eight of our proprietary and turn key Grow Pod systems” stated John Arbuthnot founder and CEO of Delta 9 “Our turnkey platform for Grow Pods and services continues to prove one of the best options for cannabis industry entrepreneurs seeking to produce premium quality cannabis products” The company s cannabis production methodology is based around a modular scalable and stackable production unit called a Grow Pod which are based on retrofitted 40 foot shipping containers The customer’s production facility has been designed for cultivation processing extraction and product manufacturing and will be purpose built using this turnkey and state of the art Grow Pod system Since 2018 Delta 9 has successfully installed over 250 Grow Pods in third party facilities across Canada and the United States Photo by Richard T on Unsplash Related News Delta 9 Q3 Revenue Stagnates Here Are The Details Strategic Cannabis Execs Making Changes At Companies You Know PharmaCielo Willow Industries Delta 9 More Delta 9 Repays Convertible Debentures Provides Guidance Timing For Q2 2022 Results

Shares of two meme stocks surged higher on Thursday boosted by retail investors despite the wider market sell off as GameStop’s stock was halted several times for volatility after it surged more than 20 while AMC Entertainment also rallied more than 10 Despite the ongoing market sell off bringing the SP 500 to the brink of bear market territory on Thursday meme stocks bucked the trend and surged higher thanks to retail investors buying shares Video game retailer GameStop’s stock was halted as many as four times in bizarre trading on Thursday morning rising up to 33 at one point before paring back gains somewhat Shares of movie theater chain AMC Entertainment also spiked jumping up to 29 earlier in the morning before falling back down to earth Both stocks which are favorites among retail investors were still significantly higher on Thursday with GameStop rising over 13 to trade at 93 per share while AMC gained nearly 15—trading at almost 12 per share The two companies are heavily shorted however with numerous hedge funds and short sellers betting against their stocks GameStop has a short interest of 214 and AMC 195 according to FactSet Large short positions against a company can often lead to wild swings in share price as retail investors driving up the stock can create a “short squeeze” forcing hedge funds to close out shorts and creating more buying pressure Despite moving higher on Thursday meme stocks have struggled this year falling victim to the wider selloff that has roiled markets GameStop shares are down roughly 45 in 2022 while AMC has fallen more than 60 GameStop and AMC were at the center of the “meme stock mania” in early 2021 when retail investors used online forums like Reddit’s “Wall Street Bets” coordinated trades to drive up stock prices often causing huge losses for hedge funds and other short sellers betting against them GameStop shares rose as high as 483 per share in January 2021 while AMC hit a peak of around 60 per share in June last year What To Watch For GameStop shares have gotten a boost in recent months as investors cheered the company’s plans to venture into the non fungible token NFT space GameStop announced in March that it plans to create an NFT Marketplace by the end of July Later that same month the company also announced that it will ask shareholders to approve a stock split which would make it easier for retail investors to buy shares While stock splits don’t change the intrinsic value of a company they do generate buzz often providing a short term boost in share price Meme Stocks And Crypto Surge Again As Experts Warn Of Dangerous Market Conditions Forbes

Warren Financial CEO Randy Warren said that in a time of rising interest rates investors should offset their exposure in tech stocks by adding stocks of regional banks

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bullish stance on PayPal Holdings NASDAQPYPL And retail traders should know We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual we don t know But when something this big happens with PYPL it often means somebody knows something is about to happen So how do we know what this whale just did Today Benzinga s options scanner spotted 14 uncommon options trades for PayPal Holdings This isn t normal The overall sentiment of these big money traders is split between 50 bullish and 50 bearish Out of all of the special options we uncovered 3 are puts for a total amount of 166345 and 11 are calls for a total amount of 669704 What s The Price Target Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 650 to 1400 for PayPal Holdings over the last 3 months Volume Open Interest Development Looking at the volume and open interest is a powerful move while trading options This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for PayPal Holdings s options for a given strike price Below we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts respectively for all of PayPal Holdings s whale trades within a strike price range from 650 to 1400 in the last 30 days PayPal Holdings Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Biggest Options Spotted Symbol PUTCALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp Date Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume PYPL CALL SWEEP BULLISH 051923 7000 1650K 175 101 PYPL CALL TRADE BULLISH 062124 6500 987K 586 237 PYPL CALL SWEEP BEARISH 061623 8000 931K 48K 720 PYPL PUT TRADE BEARISH 091523 14000 659K 10 10 PYPL PUT TRADE BEARISH 011924 10000 616K 47K 24 Where Is PayPal Holdings Standing Right Now With a volume of 3160234 the price of PYPL is up 279 at 7564 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overbought Next earnings are expected to be released in 14 days Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closely If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for PayPal Holdings Benzinga Pro gives you real time options trades alerts

US stock futures drifted lower early Monday to kick off August after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and SP 500 logged their biggest monthly gains since November 2020 Stocks ended sharply higher on Friday leaving the Dow DJIA up 67 for the month while the SP 500 SPX saw a 91 July jump the biggest monthly gains for both since November 2020 The Nasdaq surged 123 for its best monthly performance since April 2020 and its strongest July on record according to Dow Jones Market Data Big gains for stock indexes last week capped a strong July bounce fueled by earnings that have so far been better than feared Investors also cheered what they saw as signals the Federal Reserve might not have to raise rates as aggressively as previously expected as the economy slows “In equity markets there were few signs of caution about how Fed speakers and the upcoming data might affect the narrative as generally impressive earnings results in both America and Europe gave the bulls the upper hand while the retreat in yields provided additional support” said Raffi Boyadjian lead investment analyst at XM in a note On Friday data showed that higher gasoline prices led the personal consumption expenditures price index up 1 in June exceeding forecasts of 09 June inflation measured by the PCE index showed the cost of living over the past year climbed 68 the highest rate since January 1982 Last Wednesday the Fed ended its two day policy meeting with another 75 basis point rate hike in an effort to curb soaring inflation Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that another 75 basis point move could be considered in September but that the Fed would take a data dependent meeting by meeting approach to decisions Powell also warned that the economy would need to see a period of below trend growth to rein in red hot inflation and that the path to a so called soft landing for the economy continued to narrow Skeptics contend bulls in looking for a so called pivot from the Fed were misreading the message from central bankers Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said Sunday that the central bank is still committed to its goal of 2 inflation However “We are a long way away” from that goal he said in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” “Investors run the risk of reading too much into Powell’s somewhat toned down hawkish rhetoric last week and have brushed off hawkish remarks by the Fed’s most dovish policy maker Neel Kashkari on Sunday likely because he is not a voting FOMC member this year” Boyadjian said Chinese manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted in July as Beijing’s COVID 19 restrictions and weak demand undercut hopes for a more robust economic revival The official manufacturing purchasing managers index pulled back to 490 in July from 502 in June China’s National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday The result left the index below the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction and short of the median forecast of 503 among economists polled by The Wall Street Journal

A whale with a lot of money to spend has taken a noticeably bullish stance on Amazoncom Looking at options history for Amazoncom NASDAQAMZN we detected 15 strange trades If we consider the specifics of each trade it is accurate to state that 66 of the investors opened trades with bullish expectations and 33 with bearish From the overall spotted trades 9 are puts for a total amount of 682978 and 6 calls for a total amount of 253035 What s The Price Target Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 1150 to 1875 for Amazoncom over the last 3 months Volume Open Interest Development Looking at the volume and open interest is an insightful way to conduct due diligence on a stock This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Amazoncom s options for a given strike price Below we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts respectively for all of Amazoncom s whale activity within a strike price range from 1150 to 1875 in the last 30 days Amazoncom Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Biggest Options Spotted Symbol PUTCALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp Date Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume AMZN PUT TRADE BEARISH 091523 18750 1345K 16K 69 AMZN PUT TRADE BULLISH 091523 18750 1344K 16K 111 AMZN PUT TRADE BULLISH 091523 18750 1342K 16K 24 AMZN CALL SWEEP BULLISH 092322 12600 766K 35K 21 AMZN PUT SWEEP BULLISH 092322 12300 667K 48K 25K Where Is Amazoncom Standing Right Now With a volume of 4081006 the price of AMZN is down 144 at 12286 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching oversold Next earnings are expected to be released in 37 days Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closely If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Amazoncom Benzinga Pro gives you real time options trades alerts

Stocks in Canada rose on Thursday mid trading in step with US markets In the session technology and health technology stocks were the lead gainers while materials and retail were the main laggards All major Canadian banks have now released their earnings for the third quarter coming in with mixed results and ending this morning with Toronto Dominion Bank and CIBC Toronto Dominion Bank shares were higher after reporting better than expected results in the fiscal third quarter supported by growth in its main segments Canada s SPTSX Composite Index was 055 higher at 2013116 and the blue chip SPTSX 60 rose by 058 to 121504 Toronto Dominion Bank adjusted basis earnings for the quarter of 209 Canadian dollars US161 a share were ahead of forecasts for C204 Propped up by strong performances from its largest divisions total revenue rose to C1093 billion from C1071 billion a year earlier and topping the consensus forecast of C1088 billion Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce on reported a fall in third quarter profit as provisions for credit losses mounted and its largest business segments saw incomes fall Adjusted earnings of C185 a share beat expectations of C183 while revenue of C557 billion was in line with consensus forecast Shares were 02 higher at C6562 Shares of Kits Eyecare Ltd rose by 69 to C265 after it said the Toronto Stock Exchange has approved its share repurchase plan to buy back around 5 of its public float over the course of a one year period

Ashmore Group PLC reported on Friday a worse than expected pretax profit fall for fiscal 2022 driven by the widespread risk aversion due to Ukraine war inflation and higher rates The FTSE 250 listed company which focuses on emerging markets said that for the year ended June 30 pretax profit was 1184 million pounds 1367 million compared with a profit of GBP2825 million a year ago and a consensus of GBP1549 million taken from FactSet and based on 12 analysts forecasts The company reported net outflows of 135 billion for the year and a negative investment performance of 166 billion Net revenue came in at GBP2625 million compared with GBP2917 million for the year prior and a consensus of GBP2614 million taken from FactSet Assets under management fell 32 to 640 billion the company said The board declared a total dividend of 169 pence a share the same from a year ago While the global macro environment still presents some near term uncertainty the situation in emerging markets is improving and the breadth of investment opportunity helps to mitigate the risks Risk appetite will improve as some of the recent macro headwinds abate supporting a recovery in emerging markets asset prices and higher investor allocations Chief Executive Officer Mark Coombs said

LONDON Jan 7 Reuters The dollar retreated slightly on Friday but was still on course for an on week gain before the release of US labour data that investors think could reinforce the case for early Federal Reserve interest rate hikes While markets eagerly awaited the US job update traders were unmoved by euro zone inflation rising to 5 in December a record high figure that was above analysts consensus forecast for 47 read more The euro ticked down after the data and settled just above the flotation mark against the dollar with a modest 004 rise to 11304 Normally a high inflation reading implies a currency to rise because its central bank tends to raise interest rates accordingly commented Ulrich Leuchtmann head of FX and commodity research at Commerzbank in Frankfurt But normally does not apply in this case to the euro because the ECB is on wait and see he said Euro zone policymakers have repeatedly said they expect inflation to gradually slow down in 2022 and expressed confidence a rate hike will likely prove unnecessary this year There is no reason in this case to get bullish on the euro as the surprise was not large enough to change expectations one would need a massive surprise but this data is not large enough Leuchtmann argued Earlier data showed German exports grew in November despite persisting supply bottlenecks in manufacturing while industrial output fell At 1205 GMT the dollar index which measures the greenback against major peers was down 007 at 96189 and set for weekly gains of about 05 The yen has been the most prominent casualty of the dollar s strength in the first trading week of the year as investors reckon the Bank of Japan will lag others on rate hikes The greenback hit a five year peak on the yen at 11635 on Tuesday and hovered around 11580 on Friday It is up about 06 on the yen this week and about 27 over five weeks The dollar is also eyeing its best week in more than a month against the Australian and New Zealand dollars The release on Federal Reserve meeting minutes on Wednesday supported expectations that the Fed could raise rates as soon as March and several times this year pushing up US yields and the currency On Thursday St Louis Fed President James Bullard said the Fed could start reducing its balance sheet soon after it begins hiking Even dovish San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said the balance sheet reduction would follow normalising rates read more It s a surprise the dollar hasn t done better this week on the surge in Treasury yields and the hawkish FOMC minutes said Kenneth Broux an FX strategist at Societe Generale in London Elsewhere sterling has held its own this week as traders figure the Bank of England will soon begin its own hiking path It last bought 13547 not far from Tuesday s two month high of 13599 It is near a two year high on the euro The big moves in the US bond market have unsettled traders sentiment across asset classes Cryptocurrencies have dropped sharply in thin holiday trade Bitcoin hit its lowest since September in Asia trading at 40939 but recouped some losses and ticked up to 42339 Reporting by Julien Ponthus Saikat Chatterjee in London and Tom Westbrook in Sydney Editing by Jacqueline Wong Edmund Blair and Hugh Lawson

On CNBC’s Halftime Report Final Trades Rob Sechan of New Edge Capital Group named ConocoPhillips NYSECOP as his final trade On Wednesday Citigroup maintained ConocoPhillips with a Buy and lowered the price target from 145 to 140 Mizuho maintained the stock with a Neutral and raised the price target from 126 to 127 Liz Young of BNY Mellon Investment Management pickedEnergy Select Sector SPDR Fund NYSEXLE and said that energy works both in bull or bull thesis this year See Also Producer Inflation Falls To 35 Month Low Joseph Terranova of Virtus Investment Partners said Broadcom Inc NASDAQAVGO is the reasonable valuation AI trade in the semiconductor industry Broadcom won conditional approval Wednesday from the European Commission to complete its acquisition of Vmware Inc NYSEVMW Jim Lebenthal of Cerity Partners said Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc NYSETMO is high quality and trades at just under 20 times next year’s earnings Thermo Fisher Scientific recently agreed to acquire CorEvitas LLC from Audax Private Equity for 9125 million in cash Don’t forget to check out our premarket coverage here Price Action Thermo Fisher Scientific shares gained 18 to 53548 at last check Thursday morning Broadcom opened at 89817 on Thursday ConocoPhillips shares opened at 10992 on Thursday’s session Check This Out These 3 Health Care Stocks Delivering High Dividend Yields Are Recommended By Wall Street s Most Accurate Analysts

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bullish stance on Alibaba Group Holding BABA And retail traders should know We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual we don t know But when something this big happens with BABA it often means somebody knows something is about to happen So how do we know what this whale just did The overall sentiment of these big money traders is split between 64 bullish and 35 bearish Out of all of the special options we uncovered 3 are puts for a total amount of 220981 and 14 are calls for a total amount of 918633 Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 900 to 1600 for Alibaba Group Holding over the last 3 months Looking at the volume and open interest is an insightful way to conduct due diligence on a stock This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Alibaba Group Holding s options for a given strike price Below we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts respectively for all of Alibaba Group Holding s whale activity within a strike price range from 900 to 1600 in the last 30 days Alibaba Group Holding Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Where Is Alibaba Group Holding Standing Right Now With a volume of 5637429 the price of BABA is up 454 at 981 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overbought Next earnings are expected to be released in 78 days Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closely If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Alibaba Group Holding Benzinga Pro gives you real time options trades alerts

Rates going up another 100 basis points will be a lot more painful than the first 100 Dimon says JPMorgan Chase Co JPM CEO Jamie Dimon warned investors on Monday that he expects markets to remain volatile for the foreseeable future and that the SP 500 could easily fall another 20 as the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates Asked by CNBC about where he expects stocks to bottom Dimon said he couldn t say for sure but that it s easy to imagine the SP 500 falling by another 20 as volatile markets become even more disorderly as rates continue to climb It may have a ways to go It really depends on that soft landing hard landing thing and since I don t know the answer to that it s hard to answerit could be another easy 20 Dimon said The next 20 could be much more painful than the first Rates going up another 100 basis points will be a lot more painful than the first 100 because people aren t used to it and I think negative rates when all is said and done will have been a complete failure Europe is already in a recession Dimon said and he expects a recession in the US will arrive within six to nine months An eventual economic downturn in the US could range from very mild to quite hard Ultimately it will depend on the outcome of the war in Ukraine Dimon added Since it s impossible to guess exactly how bad things might get for both the economy and markets investors and companies should be prepared for the worst case scenario Dimon said Companies should start shoring up their balance sheets now Dimon said adding that if you need money go raise it He also warned that cracks are starting to appear in credit markets and that a full blown panic could emerge somewhere in the universe of global debt The likely place you might see more of a crack or a little bit more of a panic is in credit markets And it might be ETFs it might be a country it might be something you don t suspect If you make a list of all the credit crisesyou cannot predict where they came from although I think you can predict that this time it will happen he said After assuring the public that the Fed would do its best to minimize the fallout for the US economy Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has recently adjusted his rhetoric to suggest that Americans likely won t be spared from another recession as the Fed s hopes for a soft landing dim In September the central bank cut its projections for US economic growth to just 02 for 2022 and 12 in 2023 JPMorgan is already becoming very conservative with its lending standards Dimon added The New York based megabank is expected to report third quarter earnings on Friday Dimon s comments helped to drive US stocks to their lows of the session on Monday as the main indexes were on track for a fourth day of losses In recent trade the SP 500 was down 03 the Dow Jones Industrial Average flat and the Nasdaq Composite off 05 as major indexes bounced off session lows The longtime bank chief warned earlier this year that he saw an economic hurricane headed for the US In August he warned that chances of a harder recession were on the rise

Spain s inflation rate has eased markedly in November due to lower fuel and electricity prices Consumer prices rose 66 in November compared with the same month a year earlier by European Union harmonized standards easing from the 73 increase registered in October preliminary data from the Spanish statistics office INE showed Tuesday This is the lowest level since January The reading is below the 74 forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal Measured by national standards consumer prices rose 68 on year down from 73 in October Core inflation which excludes the more volatile categories of food and energy was at 63 on year in November up from 62 in October On a monthly basis Spain s consumer prices fell 01 by national standards and declined 05 by EU harmonized standards

Biden Appointee Pushes To Allow School Nurses To Administer Medical Marijuana To Students In Need Representative Malcolm Kenyattais looking to expand PA smedical marijuana program under which only parents are allowed to administer cannabis to their children on school grounds reported KATV Kenyatte was named the chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity Excellenceand Economic Opportunity for Black Americans by President Bidenearlier this month Kenyatta argues that medical cannabis should be viewed as any other medicine If nurses can administer all the other medicines that people have then we should not put medical cannabinoid oil in a separate bucket Bipartisan Bill To Allow PA MMJ Patients To Buy Edibles These Companies Will Take Market Share Meanwhile Senate Bill 538 introduced earlier this month by a group of state Senators including Democrats Dan LaughlinJohn Kaneand Katie Muthseeks to amend medical marijuana MMJ products to include all types of edible MMJ products The measure is currently pending a vote in the Senate Law and Justice Committee reported PA Home Page At the moment Pennsylvanians can buy and use MMJproducts such as pills oils topicals dry leaf vaporized not smokedtinctures and liquids Laughlin earlier said that edibles have the benefit of gradual disbursement of marijuana The aversion to smoking is one of the main factors that fueled the significant growth of cannabis infused edibles over the past years For many patients their medical conditions require gradual relief over an extended period of time Laughlin said last year Consuming medical cannabis in edible form is among the best ways to achieve the time release effect that these patients need Some of the cannabis companies that stand to benefit from the policy change given their operational footprint in PA include Curaleaf Holdings Inc OTCQXCURLF Trulieve Cannabis Corp CSETRUL OTCQXTCNNF Ayr Wellness Inc CSEAYR OTCQXAYRWF and Verano Holdings Corp CSEVRNO OTCQXVRNOF Photo Courtesy of Kindel Media by Pixabay and Quintin Gellar by Pexels

A recent survey reveals that 47 of investors anticipate Ethereum CRYPTO ETH to surpass Bitcoin CRYPTO BTC in value Cointelegraph reports Positive Outlook for Ethereum The “Q2 2023 Signals Report” by Fidelity Digital Assets suggests a positive outlook for Ethereum over the next 12 months and beyond The report attributes this optimism to the network’s higher burn rate versus coin issuance the “new address momentum” and a growth in the number of network validators “The net issuance since the Merge in September 2022 resulted in a net supply decrease of more than 700000 Ether” the Fidelity report states See Also Cathie Wood Continues Tesla Sell Off Streak ARK Dumps 84M Worth Of EV Maker’s Stock Upcoming Upgrades Upcoming upgrades to the Ethereum network including the anticipated “Dencun” upgrade and Uniswap v4 are expected to improve smart contract efficiency reduce costs and potentially recoup market share lost due to high gas fees “The announcement fueled the likelihood that EIP 1153 will be included in the next ‘Dencun’ upgrade” the report adds Read Next Netflix Carvana Tesla Microsoft Rocket Lab Why These 5 Stocks Are Trending Today Image by DrawKit Illustrations on Unsplash Engineered by Benzinga Neuro Edited by Pooja Rajkumari The GPT 4 Benzinga Neuro content generation system exploits the extensive Benzinga Ecosystem including native data APIs and more to create comprehensive and timely stories for you Learn more

US stocks traded higher midway through trading with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 1 on Thursday Following the market opening Thursday the Dow traded up 015 to 3557349 while the NASDAQ rose 103 to 1427302 The SP 500 also rose gaining 055 to 459191 Check This Out Top 5 Materials Stocks That Could Sink Your Portfolio For July Leading and Lagging Sectors Communication services shares climbed by 29 on Thursday In trading on Thursday utilities shares fell by 07 Top Headline Meta Platforms Inc NASDAQMETA shares jumped 7 on Thursday after the company reported better than expected second quarter financial results Meta Platforms reported second quarter revenue of 32 billion which was up 11 year over year The revenue total came in ahead of a Street consensus estimate of 3112 billion Earnings per share totaled 298 in the second quarter beating a Street consensus estimate of 291 Equities Trading UP Carmell Therapeutics Corporation NASDAQCTCX shares shot up 41 to 424 after the company announced a merger with Axolotl Biologix Shares of Femasys Inc NASDAQFEMY got a boost shooting 174 to 09990 after the company announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a Notice of Allowance for FemBloc for permanent birth control North American Construction Group Ltd NYSENOA shares were also up gaining 38 to 2596 after the company posted better than expected second quarter results Equities Trading DOWN Mersana Therapeutics Inc NASDAQMRSN shares dropped 77 to 09166 after the company said UPLIFT clinical trial of upifitamab rilsodotin did not meet primary endpoint Shares of TPI Composites Inc NASDAQTPIC were down 35 to 695 after the company lowered its 2023 forecast Asensus Surgical Inc NYSEASXC was down falling 35 to 03289 as the company reported a 10 million registered direct offering Also Check This Out Amazon Roblox And 2 Other Stocks Insiders Are Selling Commodities In commodity news oil traded up 15 to 7994 while gold traded down 13 at 194480 Silver traded down 27 to 2430 on Thursday while copper fell 09 to 38670 Euro zone European shares were higher today The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 132 London’s FTSE 100 rose 033 while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 108 The German DAX gained 15 French CAC 40 climbed 203 and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 198 The European Central Bank increased interest rates by 25 basis points Germany s GfK Consumer Climate Indicator increased to 244 heading into August versus a revised reading of 252 in the previous month Consumer confidence in Italy fell to 1067 in July from 1086 in the prior month while manufacturing confidence index declined to 993 in July versus a revised 1002 a month ago Spain s retail trade growth increased to 64 year over year in June versus a revised 61 in the prior month while jobless rate declined to 116 in the second quarter from 133 in the prior three month period UK car production rose 162 year over year to 84767 units in June Asia Pacific Markets Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 068 China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 020 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 141 India’s SP BSE Sensex meanwhile fell 07 The Hong Kong Monetary Authority lifted the base rate by 25bps to 575 Profits earned by Chinese industrial firms fell by 168 from a year ago to CNY 338846 billion during the first six months of the year Australia s import prices declined by 08 quarter on quarter in three months to June while export prices fell by 85 on quarter Economics US initial jobless claims fell by 7000 from the previous week to 221000 in the week ended July 22 recording the lowest level in five months and compared to market estimates of 235000 The US economy grew by an annualized 24 quarter over quarter in the second quarter compared to 2 in the prior period and higher than market estimates of 18 US durable goods orders surged 47 month over month in June versus a revised 2 growth in May The US trade deficit in goods shrank to 878 billion in June versus a revised 919 billion gap in the prior month Wholesale inventories in the US declined 03 month over month in June the same as in the earlier month US pending home sales rose 03 month over month in June US natural gas supplies increased 16 billion cubic feet during the week that ended July 21 2023 Now Read This Boeing To Rally Around 29 Here Are 10 Other Analyst Forecasts For Thursday COVID 19 Update The US has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world reporting a total of 107498920 cases with around 1169740 deaths India confirmed a total of at least 44995390 cases and 531910 deaths while France reported over 40138560 COVID 19 cases with 167640 deaths In total there were at least 692169020 cases of COVID 19 worldwide with more than 6902970 deaths

Right on Brands Inc’s OTCPKRTON board of directors has approved a 1 for 250 reverse stock split of its ordinary common shares After the split the total authorized shares will be reduced to one hundred million common shares with no par value At the commencement of trading when issued every two hundred fifty shares of the company s issued and outstanding ordinary shares will be automatically converted into one issued and outstanding ordinary share Stockholders holding shares through a brokerage account will have their shares automatically adjusted to reflect the 1 for 250 reverse stock split and do not need to take any action in connection with the reverse stock split The reverse stock split will affect all stockholders uniformly and will not alter any stockholder s percentage interest in RTON s equity except to the extent that the reverse stock split would result in a stockholder owning a fractional share No fractional shares will be issued in connection with the reverse stock split Any fractional share of a stockholder resulting from the reverse stock split will be rounded up to the nearest whole ordinary share The reverse stock split will reduce the number of RTON s outstanding shares from 59 billion shares to approximately 234 million shares Proportional adjustments will be made to the number of ordinary shares issuable upon exercise or conversion of RTON s outstanding equity awards warrants or other convertible securities as well as the applicable exercise or conversion price Get your daily dose of cannabis news on Benzinga Cannabis Don’t miss out on any important developments in the industry Photo by Esteban Lopez on Unsplash Related News Cannabis Company Right On Brands To Open New Dispensary In Miami Florida

Stocks rallied Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled a potential slowdown in interest rate increases powering the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 700 points higher and into a new bull market The SP 500 and Nasdaq Composite jumped 31 and 44 respectively and all three indexes ended November with a second consecutive month of gains The SP 500 rose 12248 points or 31 to 408011 The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 73724 points or 22 to 3458977 The Nasdaq Composite advanced 48422 points or 44 to 1146800 Japanese stocks were higher in early trade led by gains in electronics and tech stocks as hopes grew for slower tightening by the Fed USDJPY was at 13746 after falling to a three month low of 13728 earlier down from 13847 as of Wednesday s Tokyo stock market close China s Covid measures remained in focus The Nikkei Stock Average was up 16 at 2841744 South Korea s benchmark Kospi rose 11 to 249970 in early trade tracking Wall Street s rally overnight after Fed Chairman Powell signaled a downshift in policy tightening His indication that the Fed was on track to raise rates by 50bps in December after a series of 75bp increases was buoying investor sentiment Tech and internet stocks were leading the gains USDKRW was 18 lower at 129460 on risk on sentiment touching the 1200 level for the first time since Aug 12 Hong Kong stocks rose in morning trade extending a recent rally following signals of slower interest rate increases from Fed Chair Jerome Powell The benchmark Hang Seng Index was up 17 at 1890660 The market was further buoyed by Chinese authorities latest comments on the country s Covid policy after Beijing s top official in charge of pandemic control said efforts to combat the virus were entering a new phase That seems to hint at some plans being underway for reopening next year IG said Chinese shares rose tracking broad gains among regional markets which were buoyed by US Fed Chair Powell s comments overnight signaling that a slowdown in rate increases was coming The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 12 to 319006 the Shenzhen Composite Index gained 15 to 204895 and the ChiNext Price Index added 20 to 239326 Auto stocks advanced with BYD gaining 44 and SAIC Motor adding 06 China appeared to be softening its tone on its Covid 19 policy after Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said efforts to combat the virus were entering a new phase IG said That seems to hint at some plans being underway for reopening next year it added USDJPY was at 13688 after hitting a three month low of 13650 earlier as the prospects of the Fed s slower tightening pushed US Treasury yields lower overnight USDJPY was likely to continue trending lower as the pair is susceptible to US bond yield movements IG said US inflation data due later in the day would be closely watched as well as several Fed speakers it added NZDUSD traded in a 06190 06290 range overnight but shot above 06300 after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell made unusually frank remarks regarding a potential pivot by the central bank BNZ said Powell noted the time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the December meeting However BNZ highlighted that Powell reiterated that the US inflation fight was far from over with policy rates to stay at restrictive levels for some time The last four Fed decisions have seen 75 basis point increases with the Fed Funds rate 375 4 up 375bps so far this year Gold was higher in early Asian trade supported by overall weakness in USD and Treasury yields following comments by Fed Chairman Powell who signaled that a slowdown in rate increases is coming Investors focus would also likely remain on China s Covid 19 measures If China lifts more lockdowns a risk rally should help keep gold prices supported Oanda said Spot gold was 04 higher at 177515oz Oil prices were mixed in early Asian trade as investors continue to digest data which showed another large weekly drop in US crude inventories Focus remains on the OPEC meeting on Dec 4 where members will decide on oil production levels The market remains uncertain about OPEC s decision with some expecting a cut while others suggest a rollover of the current deal is more likely ANZ said If China s Covid rules are slowly eased and OPEC stays the course crude prices could rally Oanda said Front month WTI futures were 01 lower at 8047bbl front month Brent gained 30 to 8679bbl

Ripple CRYPTO XRP the blockchain payments firm is taking steps towards increasing diversity and representation within the company said Ripple’s Managing Director Sendi Young at the Financial Times’s Crypto and Digital Assets Summit What Happened Young on Thursday noted the existence of a “crypto bro” stereotype within the industry adding “Crypto bros are certainly a problem” reported Decrypt This comes as the crypto industry has been criticized for not being as diverse as it could be “You look at a lot of people coming to crypto are either from tech or finance or everything in between And those historically have diversity challenges” said Young To address this issue Ripple has several strategies deployed “There are loads of ways to do it Obviously it’s not one magic bullet” Young noted “We look at diverse slate for example in the recruitment process To make sure there is representation of at least two underrepresented groups in every single role” See More The Art Of The Future Lisa Ray’s TheUpsideSpace Bring NFTs To Center Stage Why It Matters Young also addressed the challenges for the institutional adoption of cryptocurrency due to its more libertarian roots “The space has moved a lot from the original very revolutionary libertarian undertones There’s still that maximalist school out there” said Young Earlier on Wednesday US Congressman Brad Sherman criticized Crypto Bros for making money “out of thin air Price Action At the time of writing XRP was trading at 0421 down 179 in the last 24 hours according to Benzinga Pro Read More Bitcoin Ethereum Dogecoin Drop Despite Mildly Upbeat Jobs Report Price Data Analyst Sees Elon Musk Stepping Down As Twitter CEO ‘Bad News’ For DOGE

Prominent market commentator Jim Cramer on Tuesdaysuggested a six point checklist of events that must happen before declaring an end to the market sell off Major Wall Street indices closed over 2 lower on Tuesday recording their worst trading session in 2023 as a rebound in US business activity sparked investor concerns about the possibility of extended rate hikes The SP Global Purchasing Manufacturer s index returned to expansion for the first time in eight months in February reported Reuters The SPDR SP 500 ETF Trust NYSESPY closed 201 lower on Tuesday while the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 NASDAQQQQ fell 237 Also Read How To Invest In Startups The Checklist Cramer pointed out that the downturn might not be just a one day affair according to a CNBC report In order for the sell off to end he believes the following six things should happen 1 The accelerated surge in Treasury yields should slow down 2 Anomaly stocks trading disproportionately high should come down 3 Recession resistant stocks like PepsiCo Inc NASDAQPEP and Merck Co Inc NYSEMRK need to bounce back Cramer believes such a movement is on its way 4 Banks should stabilize Cramer believes banks could bring a lot of value by coexisting with higher rates provided they don’t spike suddenly 5 Retailers should identify the industry’s winners and losers 6 The market should be much more oversold as measured by the SP oscillator “Now that we’re getting discouraging data on the inflation front much of the buying well it needs to be unwound That’s why the selling is so aggressive” Cramer said Read Next Cathie Wood Adds 55M Of This Chip Stock Despite Bleak Outlook Trims Roku Holdings Photo Courtesy ofScott Bealeon Flickr

Shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc BMRN gained 56 in premarket trading on Monday the day after the company announced promising data from a Phase 3 clinical study of its investigational gene therapy for adults with severe hemophilia A Biomarin said the treatment reduced the annualized bleeding rate among the 134 participants in the study Biomarin said it plans to use the data from this trial as part of its submission to the Food and Drug Administration with a goal of resubmitting valoctocogene roxaparvovec to US regulators in the second quarter of this year The FDA had told the company in August 2020 to gather data about the annualized bleeding rate as part of its application Biomarin s stock is down 46 for the year while the broader SP 500 SPX has declined 18 For comparison the table below provides results from both the Phase 3 GENEr8 1 Study and the Phase 12 Study 201 by Study Year for Factor VIII activity by CS assay ABR and annualized Factor VIII utilization infusions per year

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Qualcomm QCOM And retail traders should know We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual we don t know But when something this big happens with QCOM it often means somebody knows something is about to happen So how do we know what this whale just did The overall sentiment of these big money traders is split between 42 bullish and 57 bearish Out of all of the special options we uncovered 11 are puts for a total amount of 818115 and 10 are calls for a total amount of 436682 Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 750 to 1850 for Qualcomm over the last 3 months In terms of liquidity and interest the mean open interest for Qualcomm options trades today is 83218 with a total volume of 98700 In the following chart we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Qualcomm s big money trades within a strike price range of 750 to 1850 over the last 30 days Qualcomm Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Where Is Qualcomm Standing Right Now With a volume of 2139889 the price of QCOM is up 156 at 11166 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching oversold Next earnings are expected to be released in 16 days What The Experts Say On Qualcomm Keybanc has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Qualcomm which currently sits at a price target of 170 Wells Fargo has decided to maintain their Equal Weight rating on Qualcomm which currently sits at a price target of 125 JP Morgan has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Qualcomm which currently sits at a price target of 190 Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closely If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Qualcomm Benzinga Pro gives you real time options trades alerts

Goldman Sachs raised the price target for Duolingo Inc NASDAQDUOL from 109 to 132 Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan maintained a Neutral rating Duolingo shares rose 02 to 14800 in pre market trading Keefe Bruyette Woods increased the price target for WisdomTree Inc NYSEWT from 7 to 8 Keefe Bruyette Woods analyst Michael Brown maintained a Market Perform rating Hain Celestial shares gained 17 to 668 in pre market trading Wells Fargo raised the price target for Ventas Inc NYSEVTR from 50 to 53 Wells Fargo analyst Connor Siversky maintained an Overweight rating Ventas shares rose 07 to 4735 in pre market trading B Riley Securities lowered ViewRay Inc NASDAQVRAY price target from 4 to 1 B Riley Securities analyst Justin Walsh downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral ViewRay shares fell 63 to 09375 in pre market trading JP Morgan cut ProFrac Holding Corp NASDAQACDC price target from 18 to 15 JP Morgan analyst Arun Jayaram downgraded the stock from Overweight to Neutral ProFrac Holding shares fell 22 to 1080 in pre market trading Morgan Stanley lowered the price target for Warner Music Group Corp NASDAQWMG from 38 to 32 Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne maintained an Overweight rating Warner Music shares rose 18 to close at 2622 on Wednesday Morgan Stanley boosted Costco Wholesale Corporation NASDAQCOST price target from 520 to 535 Morgan Stanley analyst Simeon Gutman maintained an Overweight rating Costco shares fell 01 to 49899 in pre market trading Susquehanna raised International Game Technology PLC NYSEIGT price target from 25 to 31 Susquehanna analyst Joseph Stauff upgraded the stock from Neutral to Positive International Game Technology shares fell 41 to close at 2586 on Wednesday JP Morgan raised JB Hunt Transport Services Inc NASDAQJBHT price target from 200 to 204 JP Morgan analyst Brian Ossenbeck upgraded the stock from Neutral to Overweight JB Hunt Transport shares rose 04 to close at 17661 on Wednesday Credit Suisse cut Nutrien Ltd NYSENTR price target from 70 to 60 Credit Suisse analyst Edlain Rodriguez reiterated an Underperform rating Nutrien shares fell 76 to 5855 in pre market trading Truist Securities cut RingCentral Inc NYSERNG price target from 55 to 45 Truist Securities analyst Terry Tillman maintained a Buy rating RingCentral shares fell 03 to 3020 in pre market trading Check This Out Top 5 Industrials Stocks That You May Want To Dump In Q2

JPMorgan Chase Co has appointed Sophie Qian as head of equity capital markets for Southeast Asia effective immediately according to an announcement seen by The Wall Street Journal which was confirmed by a company spokesperson Ms Qian will relocate to Singapore from New York later in the year according to the memo She joined the US equity capital markets team last year where she focused on cross border opportunities between the US and Asia Ms Qian has spent the last nine years working with JPMorgan first joining the China corporate team in Hong Kong in 2013 In her new role Ms Qian will report to Peihao Huang and Sunil Dhupelia who are co heads of JPMorgan s equity capital markets for Asia excluding Japan according to the memo

Avicanna Inc TSXAVCN OTCQXAVCNF FSE0NN total fiscal 2022 revenue of CA4 million representing growth of 24 from CA33 million in fiscal 2021 2022 Financial Highlights Gross profit of CA11 million compared to CA28 million in 2021 Gross margin of 27 compared to 86 in 2021 Net loss of CA147 million compared to a net loss of CA168 million in 2021 Cash at the end of the period was CA12 million Aras Azadian CEO stated “During 2022 we continued to successfully demonstrate the scalable potential of our business model and differentiated value of our proprietary products in Canada In parallel we expanded our global reach into the 19th international market We are pleased to demonstrate our ongoing advancements in research and our pipeline including our first pharmaceutical partnership and several drug submissions We have established a leadership position for Avicanna’s scientific platform and intellectual property portfolio through our dedicated focus on medical and pharmaceutical applications of cannabinoids We believe that 2023 will be a transformational year for us as we expect to scale commercialization efforts and address significant market opportunities both in Canada and internationally” Benzinga s Cannabis Capital Conference Is Back The most successful cannabis business event in the world the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference returns to Miami for its 16th edition This is the place where DEALS GET DONE where money is raised MA starts and companies meet investors and key partners Join us at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel in Florida on April 11 12 Don’t miss out Secure your tickets now Prices will surge very soon Photo by Richard T on Unsplash

Nov 22 Reuters The Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates to a higher level and hold them there for longer in order to successfully moderate consumer demand and bring down high inflation given the amount of spare savings households still hold since the pandemic Kansas City Fed President Esther George said on Tuesday The dynamics of this excess saving and the distributionis a key factor shaping the outlook for output inflation and certainly for interest rates George said during an economics conference hosted by the Central Bank of Chile in Santiago Higher saving of course can lessen a precautionary pullback in consumption and it could well take a higher interest rate for some time to convince households to hold on to their savings rather than spend it down and that of course is adding to inflationary pressure

WeWork Inc is in discussions to raise new equity according to people with knowledge of the matter after the co working company’s shares fell by more than half since its October public debut The stock plunged to a record on the news The talks were kick started by investor interest said one of the people who like the others requested anonymity discussing private plans The capital raise may be structured as a so called private investment in public equity or PIPE some of the people said New York based WeWork is looking at bringing in more than 200 million another person said

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Meta Platforms NASDAQMETA And retail traders should know We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual we don t know But when something this big happens with META it often means somebody knows something is about to happen So how do we know what this whale just did Today Benzinga s options scanner spotted 23 uncommon options trades for Meta Platforms This isn t normal The overall sentiment of these big money traders is split between 30 bullish and 69 bearish Out of all of the special options we uncovered 20 are puts for a total amount of 853405 and 3 are calls for a total amount of 107201 What s The Price Target Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 1000 to 1300 for Meta Platforms over the last 3 months Volume Open Interest Development Looking at the volume and open interest is an insightful way to conduct due diligence on a stock This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Meta Platforms s options for a given strike price Below we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts respectively for all of Meta Platforms s whale activity within a strike price range from 1000 to 1300 in the last 30 days Meta Platforms Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Biggest Options Spotted Symbol PUTCALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp Date Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume META PUT SWEEP BEARISH 121622 11900 851K 11K 13K META PUT SWEEP BULLISH 120922 11500 781K 72K 71K META PUT TRADE BEARISH 120922 12200 679K 41K 66 META PUT TRADE BEARISH 121622 11900 596K 11K 216 META PUT SWEEP BULLISH 120922 12200 470K 41K 10K Where Is Meta Platforms Standing Right Now With a volume of 6581953 the price of META is down 469 at 11669 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overbought Next earnings are expected to be released in 57 days Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closely If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Meta Platforms Benzinga Pro gives you real time options trades alerts

Target Corp TGT said Wednesday that it will add the option for placing a Starbucks SBUX order and making a return at the curbside pickup service in select markets starting in the fall Customers will be able to place a Starbucks order or start the return in the app and the full order will be available when they arrive at the store The goal is to continue to grow the capabilities of the company s stores as fulfillment hubs As the company s digital business has more than doubled during the last two years Order Pickup Drive Up and Same Day Delivery with Shipt have accounted for more than half of those sales the company said in a statement The retailer is also adding categories of items to the backup capability which allows customers to include a second choice in case some items are unavailable The option was first available for food and beverage Target stock is up 54 over the last year while the SP 500 index SPX has gained nearly 11

Shares of Baker Hughes Co BKR dropped 43 in premarket trading Wednesday after the oilfield products and services company reported second quarter results that missed expectations as component shortages supply chain inflation and the suspension of Russian operations weighed on results Net losses widened to 839 million or 84 cents a share from 68 million or 8 cents a share in the year ago period Excluding nonrecurring items adjusted earnings per share ticked up to 11 cents from 10 cents but missed the FactSet consensus of 21 cents Revenue fell 18 to 505 billion below the FactSet consensus of 534 billion Free cash flow dropped 618 to 147 million missing expectations of 235 million The company said the demand outlook for the next 12 months to 18 months is deteriorating as inflation erodes consumer purchasing power and as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates but years of underinvestment and the need to replace Russian barrels can keep commodity prices at elevated levels The stock has dropped 201 over the past three months through Tuesday while the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF XLE has declined 104 and the SP 500 SPX has lost 117

Early futures action on Friday suggested Wall Street might be able to make it three positive days in a row Chastened investors will be wary however It hasn’t benefited either bulls or bears of late to assume a march in either direction can be maintained for long without containing sharp reversals For example within the last six months the SP 500 SPX has seen a 16 drop then a 7 rally followed by a 12 slide a 17 surge and a 9 decline So how should traders those with a short term horizon navigate across such choppy markets The answer look for extremes in momentum and positioning then plan your contrarianism accordingly That’s the inference from Jason Goepfert director of research at SentimenTrader who provides a startling chart on positioning to illustrate More on that in a minute First let’s consider momentum One of its most closely watched measures is the 14 day relative strength index where a move meaningfully above 70 is considered overbought territory and a slip below 30 is viewed as oversold At the SP 500’s mid June trough of 3667 the RSI hit 28 providing a contrarian buy signal Two months later the SP 500 hit its recent peak at 4305 and the RSI was near 80 Time to sell Similarly at this week’s trough the RSI again fell below 30 Cue the bounce Incidentally any forex traders bemoaning being caught out by the Japanese yen’s USDJPY sharp rally off 24 year lows on Friday might like to consider the risk they were taking in maintaining a yen short when the USDJPY 14 day RSI by midweek was touching 88 So to positioning SentimenTrader’s Goepfert describes the chart below as the most remarkable he’s seen in his career It shows the net dollar value of premiums that institutional traders spent on buying calls to open minus buying puts to open The lower the blue line the more they spent on puts He explains that last week traders of fifty or more contracts bought to open nearly five million put options spending 81 billion on those contracts almost double the amount of any other week in 22 years There is a caveat “With options trading it’s essential to consider both sides Sometimes when there is a spike in put buying it’s because overall volume is higher and there is a coincident spike in call buying So we prefer to net them out which is what the chart below shows” says Goepfert Still it suggests the largest traders in the options market are “buying protection against a crash at a pace unlike anything the market has ever seen…Whatever the explanations the data is clear – institutional traders are in a mad scramble for protection” he concludes SP 500 futures ES00 rose 08 to 4036 and US crude futures CL1 rallied 17 to 8497 a barrel The 10 year US Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y dipped 53 basis points to 3272 while the weaker dollar helped Bitcoin BTCUSD jump 71 to 20754 and gold GC00 add 11 to 1738 an ounce There is more chatter expected on Friday from Fed officials before the central bank goes into blackout ahead of the two day policy setting meeting starting on September 20th Chicago Fed president Charles Evans is due to speak at 10 am Fed governor Chris Waller and Kansas City Fed president Esther George are due to talk separately at noon All times Eastern The US dollar index DXY was pulling back from its fresh 20 year highs after traders were reminded how riding the currency bandwagon with wild abandon can be a risky game “Sudden moves in foreign exchange rates increase uncertainty for firms and are undesirable” said Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Friday The prospect of BoJ intervention pushed the yen USDJPY sharply off 24 year lows and gave the pound GBPUSD and euro EURUSD a boost too Citigroup C has won an appeal over the 500 million it mistakenly sent to hedge funds in relation to a Revlon loan Better news out of Europe where the benchmark natural gas measure the ICE Dutch TTF future slipped a further 5 to 2089 euros per megawatt hour Less than three weeks ago the price was about 350 euros pmh “Sell in May and go away and come back again on St Leger Day” That’s the full UK quote for the old and contentious market saying The 245th running of the St Leger horse race the final classic of the British flat season was due to take place on Saturday at its traditional home of Doncaster South Yorkshire Racing was suspended on Friday because of Queen Elizabeth II’s death and at time of writing it was not clear if the St Leger would go ahead New London the bay colt owned by Sheikh Mohammed was the favorite Best of the web Can Japan feed itself The tragedy at Bed Bath Beyond How Bitcoin bombed in El Salvador The IHS Markit’s PMI business surveys contain a backlog indicator which it describes as capturing “the volume of orders that a company has received but has yet to either start work on or complete” It’s a useful barometer of the extent to which companies are struggling to cope with demand and as such can “provide useful information about pricing power and developing inflation trends” As the chart below shows it tends to move in unison with the US Treasury yields – though there was a dislocation due the pandemic shutdown Callum Thomas head of research at Topdown Charts asks “It took a while for bond yields to catch up to rising backlogs but now the open question is how long will it take bond yields to catch back down to easing backlogs” Here were the most active stock market tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 am Eastern What happened to manners at work They liked the house so much they bought the town Need to Know starts early and is updated until the opening bell but sign up here to get it delivered once to your email box The emailed version will be sent out at about 730 am Eastern

China Jo Jo Drugstores Holdings IncNASDAQCJJD stock is surging Wednesday morning following the termination of itspreviously announced equity offering The company had announcedregistered direct offering to issue 23 million shares and registered warrants to purchase up to 45 million shares to an institutional investor Thepurchase price for the equity offeringwas 310 per share The company had hoped to rake in 7 million in proceeds from the offering Price Action CJJD shares are trading higher by 91 at 129 on the last check Wednesday

Third quarter US GDP is forecast to increase at an 23 annual pace according to economists polled by The Wall Street Journal The report will be released at 830 am Eastern by the Bureau of Economic Analysis GDP contracted in the first and second quarters

Wedbush analysts downgraded Starbucks Corp stock to neutral from outperform saying returning Chief Executive Howard Schultz’s decision to halt share buybacks could hurt profit Wedbush cut its price target to 91 from 105 Starbucks had set a goal to return 20 billion to shareholders over the next three years including buybacks and dividends “We now believe a discount is appropriate given a lower earnings per share growth outlook with the termination of Starbucks’ share repurchase authorization adding to declining visibility into the performance of Starbucks’ International and US businesses” analysts wrote In a March 17 note Wedbush raised an alarm about risk to earnings per share from COVID related challenges and the momentum behind unionization which could drive up labor costs In the Tuesday note Wedbush added that the share buyback program also served as a “cushion” for any hit resulting from investments to address the headwinds the coffee company faces With share buybacks off the table analysts say they no longer have high conviction that the company will return to low double digit EPS growth in fiscal 2023 Starbucks SBUX announced last month that Chief Executive Kevin Johnson would retire and Schultz the company’s founder and former CEO would fill the role on an interim basis during the search for a permanent replacement See Starbucks CEO stepping down with Howard Schultz returning on an interim basis and pay of 1 On his first day back in the corner office Schultz announced that he would suspend share buybacks in order to invest in workers and stores which would benefit everyone including investors in the long run “My first work is to spend lots of time with partners” Schultz wrote in a letter posted on the Starbucks website “Our vision is to once again reimagine a first of a kind for purpose company in which the value we create ­— for each of us as partners for each of us as customers for our communities for the planet for shareholders comes because our company is designed to share success with each of us and for the collective success of all our stakeholders ” Schultz spoke to 15000 employees on Monday at an “Open Forum” where he promised to “do better for our partners” and revamp the customer experience as guests are using the cafes in different ways He said NFTs and the “evolution” of employee benefits are in the works Schultz also directly addressed the issue of unionization A Seattle location voted to unionize last month and a New York City Reserve Roastery voted in favor of unionization on Friday Nine Starbucks owned restaurants have voted to unionize according to the New York Post Also Opinion Starbucks CEO gets a 60 million ‘golden goodbye’ even as company tries to keep out unions “ M y job in coming back to Starbucks is to ensure the fact that we the collective we co create reimagine a new Starbucks with our partners at the center of it all” he said at the Open Forum “As a pro partner company A company that does not need someone in between us and our people” RBC Capital Markets had a different view of the buyback suspension saying it will afford Starbucks with greater flexibility to achieve its goals and the signal that it sends about Schultz’s intentions is a strong one “ P articularly in the context of current unionization efforts across a number of stores though still representing a very small portion of Starbucks’ 9000 US company owned stores the move is also a clear message that Schultz is willing to take bold steps during his time as CEO” analysts wrote in a note RBC anticipates that Starbucks will spend on training and wages for workers as well as technology and store growth Don’t miss Here’s how a greener Starbucks will reward you for reusing your cup MKM Partners also expressed optimism regarding Schultz’s vision over the longer term “This letter creates a format to begin re evaluating its priorities and potentially help Starbucks refocus on driving organic growth and returns in order to better reward its partners and shareholders in our view” wrote MKM Partners in a note “Although additional bumps in the road remain possible for Starbucks domestic macro China marketplace operationallabor challenges inflation and strategic uncertainty and we accept the potential for additional margin pressures related to investments around structural moves andor stepped up store level expenses we continue to rate Starbucks shares buy with an inched lower price target of 115 from 117” MKM notes that most of the plans are still to be determined but calls this buyback suspension a “modest course correction” For now analysts say they are leaving their model unchanged “We do not know what dynamics are in play or if any items or initiatives are untouchable but we believe with Starbucks’ founder helming these discussions the dialogue should prove to be robust and likely receive significant backing from the board to drive change” analysts said Starbucks shares slumped 43 in Tuesday trading and have fallen nearly 28 for the year to date

A group of bipartisan lawmakers includingSenatorsJeff MerkleyD andSteve DainesR along with RepresentativesDavid JoyceR andEarl BlumenauerD reintroduced amarijuana banking bill last week Underthe Secure and Fair Enforcement SAFE BankingAct of 2023 financial institutions would be allowed to provide financial services to legal cannabis businesses Just one day following the reintroduction of the bill Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer D restatedhis pledge to push for the cannabis banking measure with criminal justice provisionsreportedMarijuana Moment “The SAFE Banking Act would ensure cannabis businesses that operate in states with legal cannabis have equal access to critical banking infrastructureClearly this bill has provisions particularly aimed at helping minority business owners who are at a critical disadvantage in the cannabis industry”Schumer said “Right now the norm for the cannabis businesses is to operate on all cash and that is simply not fair it exposes them to too many risks and stifles their opportunities to grow” he continued “Congress should be in the business of promoting entrepreneurs promoting job growth not holding these things back “We have a moral responsibility in Congress to undo the terrible damage caused by the War on Drugs and almost always has affected people of color So I am going to work very hard with my colleagues to make sure criminal justice provisions are part of SAFE Banking when it reaches the floor” SAFE Banking Act Of 2023 Summary The bill would prevent federal banking regulators from Prohibiting penalizing or discouraging a bank from providing financial services to a legitimate state sanctioned and regulated cannabis business or an associated business such as a lawyer or landlord providing services to a legal cannabis business Terminating or limiting a bank’s federal deposit insurance primarily because the bank is providing services to a state sanctioned cannabis business or associated business Recommending or incentivizing a bank to halt or downgrade providing any kind of banking services to these businesses or Taking any action on a loan to an owner or operator of a cannabis related business This legislation for the first time explicitly extends the safe harbor to Community Development Financial Institutions CDFI and Minority Depository Institutions MDI to ensure they can also serve cannabis businesses CDFI and MDI serve underserved communities that face challenges in accessing capital and providing affordable access to financial services Schumer also tweeted his top priorities for this bill The SAFE Banking Act re introduced this week would ensure cannabis businesses in states with legal cannabis have equal access critical banking infrastructure And I’m making it a top priority to ensure it contains social equity provisions to undo harm caused by the War on Drugs— Chuck Schumer SenSchumer April 27 2023 The SAFE Banking Act has passed the House seven times with broad bipartisan support Photo Benzinga edit with images by US Senate Photographic StudioJeff McEvoyvia Wikimedia Commons andGreenForce StaffingonUnsplash

A whale with a lot of money to spend has taken a noticeably bearish stance on Deere Looking at options history for Deere NYSEDE we detected 12 strange trades If we consider the specifics of each trade it is accurate to state that 25 of the investors opened trades with bullish expectations and 75 with bearish From the overall spotted trades 3 are puts for a total amount of 244075 and 9 calls for a total amount of 377508 What s The Price Target Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 1500 to 4500 for Deere over the last 3 months Volume Open Interest Development Looking at the volume and open interest is an insightful way to conduct due diligence on a stock This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Deere s options for a given strike price Below we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts respectively for all of Deere s whale activity within a strike price range from 1500 to 4500 in the last 30 days Deere Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Biggest Options Spotted Symbol PUTCALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp Date Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume DE PUT TRADE BEARISH 091523 44000 1069K 24 0 DE PUT TRADE BULLISH 091523 44000 830K 24 61 DE CALL TRADE NEUTRAL 063023 40000 686K 480 17 DE CALL SWEEP BULLISH 063023 40000 618K 480 167 DE PUT SWEEP BEARISH 102023 35000 540K 66 1 Where Is Deere Standing Right Now With a volume of 341829 the price of DE is down 041 at 40782 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be overbought Next earnings are expected to be released in 51 days What The Experts Say On Deere Canaccord Genuity downgraded its action to Buy with a price target of 530 BMO Capital has decided to maintain their Market Perform rating on Deere which currently sits at a price target of 425 Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closely If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Deere Benzinga Pro gives you real time options trades alerts

Jan 11 Reuters Australian shares closed nearly 1 lower on Tuesday led by financials as an Omicron led surge in COVID 19 infections in the country hovered near record levels sending major retailers lower The SPASX 200 index AXJO ended 077 lower at 73901 extending losses for the second consecutive session The benchmark fell 008 on Monday Australia reported 86000 COVID 19 cases on Tuesday with two more states due to report later in the day straining hospitals already stretched thin and hitting company supply chains read more Financial stocks AXFJ slid as much as 17 with some investors factoring in the possibility of US interest rate hikes at quicker pace Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBAAX led losses among the Big Four banks with a 18 drop We are probably looking at faster and quicker interest rate hikes coming out of the US markets which will filter to the Australian markets in 2022 and 2023 said Dale Raynes associate director at CPS Capital Australia s two biggest supermarket chains Woolworths and Coles COLAX fell more than 2 each while Wesfarmers dropped 12 Retail sales data for November surged past estimates for a second month but a surge in COVID 19 infections since then threaten to point to weaker showings in December read more Gold miners AXGD added 124 leading to the index s sharpest gain since December on the back of a rise in the price of the metal considered a hedge against rising interest rates New Zealand s benchmark SPNZX 50 index NZ50 fell 048 to 1283173 hurt by a 354 fall in movie software maker Vista Group VGLNZ

The number of Americans registering for unemployment benefits rose by 13000to 242000 in the week ending April 29 the US Labor Department reported Thursday The outcome was slightly abovemarket estimates of 240000 The release of the jobless claims data came a day after the ADP national employment report showed private sector employment increasing by 296000jobs in April far exceeding market expectations of a 148000increase and signaling continued tightness in the labor market ahead of the key non farm payroll data due on Friday What To Know Initial jobless claims rose by 13000 to 242000in the week endedApril 29 The figure came in slightly higher than the projected 240000 The previous week s level was revised down by 1000 from 230000 to 229000 Initial claims rose by 27457 to 234577 on a seasonally unadjusted basis The four week moving average for unemployment claims which eliminates week to week variability rose to 239250 up 3500 from the prior reading Continuing jobless claimsdecreased to 1805000in the week ending April 22 Market Reaction E minifutures contracts for theSP 500 index which is tracked by theSPDR SP 500 Trust ETFNYSESPY edged marginally higher following the print The US dollar index extended its daily gainsafter the ECB hiked interest rates by 025 to 375 reducing the pace of hikes after three consecutive 05 increases Photo via Shutterstock

US stocks traded lower this morning with the Dow Jones dropping over 100 points on Wednesday Following the market opening Wednesday the Dow traded down 034 to 3386062 while the NASDAQ fell 066 to 1207362 The SP 500 also fell dropping 042 to 413731 Check This Out Apple To Rally 15 Here Are 10 Other Analyst Forecasts For Wednesday Leading and Lagging Sectors Utilities shares rose by 06 on Wednesday Meanwhile top gainers in the sector included Alliant Energy Corporation NYSELNT up 2 and Cadiz Inc NASDAQCDZI up 2 In trading on Wednesday communication services fell by 11 Top Headline Morgan Stanley NYSEMS reported upbeat Q1 earnings results Morgan Stanley reported Q1 net revenues of 145 billion down from 148 billion a year ago exceeding the consensus of 139 billion Net income declined to 30 billion from 37 billion a year ago with EPS of 170 beating the consensus of 162 Equities Trading UP VYNE Therapeutics Inc NASDAQVYNE shares shot up 31 to 410 after the company announced new preclinical data showing the effect of its novel pan BET inhibitor VYN201 in a preclinical model of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis Shares of SAITECH Global Corporation NASDAQSAI got a boost shooting 32 to 332 Western Alliance Bancorporation NYSEWAL shares were also up gaining 17 to 3816 after the company reported better than expected Q1 earnings Equities Trading DOWN Oblong Inc NASDAQOBLG shares dropped 32 to 233 after jumping more than 61 on Tuesday Shares of Extreme Networks Inc NASDAQEXTR were down 17 to 1521 Craig Hallum downgraded Extreme Networks from Buy to Hold and announced a 175 price target CDW Corporation NASDAQCDW was down falling 13 to 16526 after the company issued preliminary Q1 sales below estimates Also Check This Out Ethereum Falls Below This Key Level Arbitrum Becomes Top Loser Commodities In commodity news oil traded down 2 to 7921 while gold traded down 1 at 199990 Silver traded up 01 to 25275 on Wednesday while copper fell 11 to 40485 Stocks of crude oil in the US dropped by 2675 million barrels in the week that April 14 2023 compared to estimates of a 2464 million decline the API said Tuesday Euro zone European shares were mixed today The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 02 London’s FTSE 100 fell 02 while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 03 The German DAX fell 01 French CAC 40 rose 01 and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 02 Construction output in the Eurozone increased 23 from a year ago in February versus a revised 05 growth in the previous month The annual inflation rate in the Eurozone was confirmed at 69 in March recording its lowest level since Feb 2022 The Eurozone recorded a current account surplus of EUR 213 billion in February versus a year ago deficit of EUR 19 billion UK’s producer inflation eased to 87 year over year in March versus a revised 119 in the prior month while consumer price inflation rate slowed to 101 year over year in March from 104 in February Asia Pacific Markets Asian markets closed lower on Wednesday with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 018 Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 137 and China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 068 India’s SP BSE Sensex dropped 02 Industrial production in Japan climbed 46 percent month over month in February The Westpac Melbourne Institute Leading Economic Index in Australia came in almost flat versus the previous month during March Economics Mortgage applications in the US fell 88 in the week ended April 14 2023 following a 53 increase in the prior week according to Mortgage Bankers Association Now Read This These 3 Utilities Stocks With Over 4 Dividend Yields Are Recommended By Wall Street s Most Accurate Analysts COVID 19 Update The US has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world reporting a total of 106481960 cases with around 1158340 deaths India confirmed a total of at least 44845400 cases and 531190 deaths while France reported over 39914030 COVID 19 cases with 166160 deaths In total there were at least 685865890 cases of COVID 19 worldwide with more than 6843940 deaths

JPMorgan Chase s NYSEJPM short percent of float has risen 741 since its last report The company recently reported that it has 1686 million shares sold short which is 058 of all regular shares that are available for trading Based on its trading volume it would take traders 10 days to cover their short positions on average Short interest is the number of shares that have been sold short but have not yet been covered or closed out Short selling is when a trader sells shares of a company they do not own with the hope that the price will fall Traders make money from short selling if the price of the stock falls and they lose if it rises Short interest is important to track because it can act as an indicator of market sentiment towards a particular stock An increase in short interest can signal that investors have become more bearish while a decrease in short interest can signal they have become more bullish See Also List of the most shorted stocks As you can see from the chart above the percentage of shares that are sold short for JPMorgan Chase has grown since its last report This does not mean that the stock is going to fall in the near term but traders should be aware that more shares are being shorted Peer comparison is a popular technique amongst analysts and investors for gauging how well a company is performing A company s peer is another company that has similar characteristics to it such as industry size age and financial structure You can find a company s peer group by reading its 10 K proxy filing or by doing your own similarity analysis According to Benzinga Pro JPMorgan Chase s peer group average for short interest as a percentage of float is 085 which means the company has less short interest than most of its peers Did you know that increasing short interest can actually be bullish for a stock This post by Benzinga Money explains how you can profit from it This article was generated by Benzinga s automated content engine and was reviewed by an editor

Something that s only happened one other time will be occurring again last this month Nasdaqannounced that on July 24th they will be doing a special rebalance of the Nasdaq 100 This won t change the securities within the index but rebalancing the weightings of each constituent after the index has become unbalanced Nasdaq said that in 2010 they studied the concept of doing special rebalances and the only other time one has been done was in 2011 not giving us a lot of sample size to work with to evaluate the implications of the action On the chart below I ve plotted blue lines when the special rebalance was announced and then initiated Again this is a sample size of 1 so we can t put too much weight on it but we did see a temporary negative reaction to the Index I d also note there were many other developments taking place in the summer of 2011 so it wasn t necessarily all a result of this rebalance that caused stocks to pull back What about the reaction to the stocks impacted by the special rebalance The biggest change in 2011 was a reduction in AppleNASDAQAAPL after its strong performance QCOMNASDAQQCOM and SBUX NASDAQSBUX also saw declines and many others but they were very minor in their weightings Meanwhile MSFT NASDAQMSFT ORCL NYSEORCL INTC NASDAQINTC and GOOGLNASDAQGOOGL saw the largest increases Below we can see the performance of both groups The performance shown begins on the announcement date with a black line showing when the change was initiated in May 11 Apple saw a decline of about 6 before rallying back Interestingly the stocks that saw their index weight increase actually saw a larger negative reaction The recent dip in US equities could be a result of some frontrunning ahead of this rebalance While Nasdaq hasn t sited the specific changes it s not hard to imagine that it ll be the Magnificent 7 AAPL NVDA NASDAQ NVDA MSFT NASDAQMSFT TSLA NASDAQTSLA META NASDAQMETA GOOGL AMZN NASDAQAMZN that get put on the chopping block This could be a positive for the market making the Index a little less reliant on such a heavy weighting in a few names We ll see in the coming weeks how traders digest the change Want to subscribe to Thrasher AnalyticsVisitwwwThrasherAnalyticscomto learn more Disclaimer Do not construe anything written in this post or this Substack in its entirety as a recommendation research or an offer to buy or sell any securities Everything in this post is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only I or my affiliates may hold positions in securities mentioned 15 discount code “substack” applies to first subscription charge for time period selected upon subscribing renewals will be at original price

China’s central bank is failing to impress the group that it wants to influence the most with its fixings the yuan bears Investors are trading the yuan in the spot market at the largest discount since May to the reference rate a sign that sentiment toward the Chinese currency remains poor despite Beijing’s push to restore confidence The exchange rate marched almost half way through its allowed trading range on the weak side of the fixing meaning the central bank many need to use another strong rate in the next session to rein in the bearishness

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bullish stance on Ford Motor NYSEF And retail traders should know We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual we don t know But when something this big happens with F it often means somebody knows something is about to happen So how do we know what this whale just did Today Benzinga s options scanner spotted 12 uncommon options trades for Ford Motor This isn t normal The overall sentiment of these big money traders is split between 50 bullish and 50 bearish Out of all of the special options we uncovered 4 are puts for a total amount of 229388 and 8 are calls for a total amount of 1242265 What s The Price Target Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 100 to 150 for Ford Motor over the last 3 months Volume Open Interest Development Looking at the volume and open interest is a powerful move while trading options This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Ford Motor s options for a given strike price Below we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts respectively for all of Ford Motor s whale trades within a strike price range from 100 to 150 in the last 30 days Ford Motor Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Biggest Options Spotted Symbol PUTCALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp Date Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume F CALL TRADE BEARISH 011924 1435 7400K 1109K 108K F CALL TRADE BEARISH 081823 1300 2170K 25K 37K F CALL SWEEP BULLISH 011924 1435 1255K 1109K 126K F PUT TRADE NEUTRAL 121523 1200 1237K 134K 12K F PUT SWEEP BULLISH 062124 1000 488K 18K 14K Where Is Ford Motor Standing Right Now With a volume of 19467295 the price of F is up 186 at 1262 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overbought Next earnings are expected to be released in 51 days What The Experts Say On Ford Motor Jefferies upgraded its action to Buy with a price target of 16 Citigroup upgraded its action to Buy with a price target of 16 Benchmark downgraded its action to Buy with a price target of 20 Daiwa Capital upgraded its action to Neutral with a price target of 12 Citigroup has decided to maintain their Neutral rating on Ford Motor which currently sits at a price target of 12 Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closely If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Ford Motor Benzinga Pro gives you real time options trades alerts

Indonesia s trade surplus widened in June as palm oil exports jumped after the country removed export restrictions The Southeast Asian country recorded a trade surplus of 509 billion in June wider than the surplus of 290 billion in April and the 348 billion expected in a poll of analysts by The Wall Street Journal Indonesia recorded trade surpluses with India the US and the Philippines said Margo Yuwono head of the country s statistics agency Exports rose 213 from the previous month to 2609 billion thanks to the resumption of palm oil exports Exports of the vegetable oil jumped more than ninefold during the month to 246 billion the statistics agency head said Indonesia s exports rose 4068 in June from a year earlier led by an increase in mining exports In June imports rose 1287 from a month earlier to 2100 billion led by a rise in raw material imports The country s imports were 2198 higher compared with a year earlier

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Unity Software NYSEUAnd retail traders should knowWe noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at BenzingaWhether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual we don t know But when something this big happens with U it often means somebody knows something is about to happenToday Benzinga s options scanner spotted 10 options trades for Unity SoftwareThis isn t normalThe overall sentiment of these big money traders is split between 40 bullish and 60 bearishOut of all of the options we uncovered 9 are puts for a total amount of 665378 and there was 1 call for a total amount of 37500What s The Price TargetTaking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 200 to 750 for Unity Software over the last 3 months Volume Open Interest DevelopmentLooking at the volume and open interest is a powerful move while trading options This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Unity Software s options for a given strike price Below we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts respectively for all of Unity Software s whale trades within a strike price range from 200 to 750 in the last 30 days Unity Software Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Biggest Options Spotted SymbolPUTCALLTrade TypeSentimentExp DateStrike PriceTotal Trade PriceOpen InterestVolume UPUTTRADEBEARISH10142231002275K30K123 UPUTTRADEBULLISH01192475001175K20925 UPUTTRADEBEARISH0119247500682K20940 UPUTSWEEPBEARISH0119242250663K867132 UPUTTRADEBEARISH0119247000523K3460 Where Is Unity Software Standing Right Now With a volume of 5053263 the price of U is down 047 at 3062 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching oversoldNext earnings are expected to be released in 26 days What The Experts Say On Unity Software Needham downgraded its action to Buy with a price target of 50 Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closelyIf you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Unity Software Benzinga Pro gives you real time options trades alerts

Companies Reporting Before The Bell Pyxis Tankers NASDAQPXS is likely to report earnings for its second quarter Kandi Technologies Gr NASDAQKNDI is projected to report earnings for its second quarter Tredegar NYSETG is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter PowerFleet NASDAQPWFL is likely to report quarterly loss at 012 per share on revenue of 3436 million PDS Biotechnology NASDAQPDSB is projected to report earnings for its second quarter LENSAR NASDAQLNSR is expected to report quarterly loss at 072 per share on revenue of 930 million Precision BioSciences NASDAQDTIL is likely to report quarterly loss at 041 per share on revenue of 497 million Delcath Systems NASDAQDCTH is likely to report quarterly loss at 095 per share on revenue of 420 thousand CPI Card NASDAQPMTS is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 037 per share on revenue of 10180 million Grupo Televisa NYSETV is estimated to report quarterly loss at 003 per share on revenue of 6884 million GEO Group NYSEGEO is projected to report quarterly earnings at 014 per share on revenue of 4520 million Heska NASDAQHSKA is likely to report quarterly loss at 003 per share on revenue of 6858 million Marketwise NASDAQMKTW is expected to report quarterly earnings at 007 per share on revenue of 13104 million Alpha Metallurgical NYSEAMR is expected to report quarterly earnings at 3080 per share on revenue of 124 billion Inspirato NASDAQISPO is estimated to report quarterly loss at 026 per share on revenue of 8498 million Reata Pharmaceuticals NASDAQRETA is likely to report quarterly loss at 202 per share on revenue of 146 million MondayCom NASDAQMNDY is likely to report quarterly loss at 075 per share on revenue of 11822 million Energy Vault Holdings NYSENRGV is likely to report quarterly loss at 008 per share on revenue of 792 million Benson Hill NYSEBHIL is expected to report quarterly loss at 021 per share on revenue of 8438 million Information Servs Gr NASDAQIII is projected to report quarterly earnings at 009 per share on revenue of 7390 million Holly Energy Partners NYSEHEP is expected to report quarterly earnings at 048 per share on revenue of 12417 million FREYR Battery NYSEFREY is likely to report quarterly loss at 026 per share on revenue of 300 million Barrick Gold NYSEGOLD is projected to report quarterly earnings at 031 per share on revenue of 318 billion ObsEva NASDAQOBSV is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter Viatris NASDAQVTRS is likely to report quarterly earnings at 083 per share on revenue of 419 billion BioNTech NASDAQBNTX is projected to report quarterly earnings at 736 per share on revenue of 409 billion Clovis Oncology NASDAQCLVS is projected to report quarterly loss at 041 per share on revenue of 3703 million Assertio Holdings NASDAQASRT is projected to report quarterly earnings at 008 per share on revenue of 3178 million ANI Pharmaceuticals NASDAQANIP is likely to report quarterly earnings at 022 per share on revenue of 7210 million Treehouse Foods NYSETHS is estimated to report quarterly loss at 013 per share on revenue of 110 billion CECO Environmental NASDAQCECE is projected to report quarterly earnings at 009 per share on revenue of 9128 million Hawaiian Electric Indus NYSEHE is expected to report quarterly earnings at 052 per share on revenue of 67233 million Kosmos Energy NYSEKOS is projected to report earnings for its second quarter Tyson Foods NYSETSN is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 197 per share on revenue of 1324 billion Dominion Energy NYSED is expected to report quarterly earnings at 076 per share on revenue of 357 billion Tegna NYSETGNA is projected to report quarterly earnings at 062 per share on revenue of 80083 million Party City Holdco NYSEPRTY is projected to report quarterly earnings at 006 per share on revenue of 52940 million Palantir Technologies NYSEPLTR is projected to report quarterly earnings at 003 per share on revenue of 47134 million Blue Apron Hldgs NYSEAPRN is expected to report quarterly loss at 055 per share on revenue of 12501 million HF Sinclair NYSEDINO is projected to report quarterly earnings at 457 per share on revenue of 938 billion Elanco Animal Health NYSEELAN is expected to report quarterly earnings at 025 per share on revenue of 118 billion Energizer Holdings NYSEENR is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 076 per share on revenue of 74747 million Radware NASDAQRDWR is likely to report quarterly earnings at 019 per share on revenue of 7546 million Overseas Shipholding Gr NYSEOSG is likely to report earnings for its second quarter Sohucom NASDAQSOHU is projected to report earnings for its second quarter Rand Capital NASDAQRAND is expected to report earnings for its second quarter Genie Energy NYSEGNE is projected to report earnings for its second quarter Companies Reporting After The Bell 180 Degree Capital NASDAQTURN is likely to report earnings for its second quarter Syndax Pharmaceuticals NASDAQSNDX is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter Y mAbs Therapeutics NASDAQYMAB is projected to report earnings for its second quarter Taseko Mines AMEXTGB is projected to report earnings for its second quarter EuroDry NASDAQEDRY is likely to report quarterly earnings at 363 per share on revenue of 2280 million PFSweb NASDAQPFSW is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter Mersana Therapeutics NASDAQMRSN is estimated to report quarterly loss at 052 per share on revenue of 218 million Lument Finance Trust NYSELFT is expected to report quarterly earnings at 006 per share on revenue of 1309 million Pennant Gr NASDAQPNTG is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter Tattooed Chef NASDAQTTCF is expected to report earnings for its second quarter PlayAGS NYSEAGS is estimated to report quarterly loss at 003 per share on revenue of 7426 million Chimerix NASDAQCMRX is estimated to report quarterly loss at 024 per share on revenue of 20 thousand Vishay Precision Group NYSEVPG is likely to report quarterly earnings at 055 per share on revenue of 8500 million Gran Tierra Energy AMEXGTE is likely to report quarterly earnings at 003 per share on revenue of 13490 million Cepton NASDAQCPTN is estimated to report quarterly loss at 009 per share on revenue of 217 million Granite Point Mortgage NYSEGPMT is projected to report quarterly earnings at 022 per share on revenue of 2324 million National Health Investors NYSENHI is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 073 per share on revenue of 7351 million Par Pacific Hldgs NYSEPARR is projected to report quarterly earnings at 196 per share on revenue of 183 billion Crawford Company Common Stock NYSECRD is expected to report quarterly earnings at 019 per share on revenue of 29495 million Helios Technologies NYSEHLIO is expected to report quarterly earnings at 117 per share on revenue of 24043 million Qualys NASDAQQLYS is projected to report quarterly earnings at 079 per share on revenue of 11745 million PHX Minerals NYSEPHX is likely to report quarterly earnings at 015 per share on revenue of 1675 million EverCommerce NASDAQEVCM is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 008 per share on revenue of 15302 million Trinseo NYSETSE is projected to report quarterly earnings at 203 per share on revenue of 143 billion Bridge Investment Group NYSEBRDG is expected to report quarterly earnings at 020 per share on revenue of 7772 million Hims Hers Health NYSEHIMS is likely to report quarterly loss at 009 per share on revenue of 10388 million New Mountain Finance NASDAQNMFC is projected to report quarterly earnings at 030 per share on revenue of 7033 million MRC Global NYSEMRC is expected to report quarterly earnings at 025 per share on revenue of 81503 million Vivint Smart Home NYSEVVNT is projected to report quarterly loss at 035 per share on revenue of 39217 million Hanger NYSEHNGR is projected to report quarterly earnings at 031 per share on revenue of 30523 million Global Blood Therapeutics NASDAQGBT is expected to report quarterly loss at 118 per share on revenue of 6439 million HighPeak Energy NASDAQHPK is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 075 per share on revenue of 18684 million Novavax NASDAQNVAX is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 550 per share on revenue of 102 billion PARTS iD AMEXID is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 001 per share on revenue of 10910 million Anterix NASDAQATEX is likely to report quarterly loss at 067 per share on revenue of 170 thousand StarTek NYSESRT is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 006 per share on revenue of 16034 million Switch NYSESWCH is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 006 per share on revenue of 16652 million DocGo NASDAQDCGO is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 004 per share on revenue of 9794 million Montrose Environmental Gr NYSEMEG is expected to report quarterly loss at 012 per share on revenue of 13760 million United Insurance Holdings NASDAQUIHC is likely to report quarterly loss at 022 per share on revenue of 10864 million Performant Finl NASDAQPFMT is projected to report quarterly loss at 005 per share on revenue of 2419 million Mesa Air Group NASDAQMESA is projected to report quarterly loss at 022 per share on revenue of 12382 million Sitio Royalties NYSESTR is likely to report quarterly earnings at 063 per share on revenue of 7718 million SI BONE NASDAQSIBN is estimated to report quarterly loss at 049 per share on revenue of 2517 million Hudbay Minerals NYSEHBM is likely to report quarterly earnings at 013 per share on revenue of 44078 million DigitalOcean Holdings NYSEDOCN is expected to report quarterly earnings at 010 per share on revenue of 13445 million Akoya Biosciences NASDAQAKYA is expected to report quarterly loss at 037 per share on revenue of 1690 million Nelnet NYSENNI is expected to report quarterly earnings at 165 per share on revenue of 30128 million HCI Group NYSEHCI is likely to report quarterly earnings at 024 per share on revenue of 13057 million Establishment Labs Hldgs NASDAQESTA is projected to report quarterly loss at 040 per share on revenue of 3839 million Gevo NASDAQGEVO is expected to report quarterly loss at 008 per share on revenue of 400 thousand INDUS Realty Trust NASDAQINDT is likely to report earnings for its second quarter Radius Global Infr NASDAQRADI is likely to report quarterly loss at 046 per share on revenue of 3409 million PowerSchool Holdings NYSEPWSC is expected to report quarterly earnings at 019 per share on revenue of 15534 million Quantum Si NASDAQQSI is projected to report earnings for its second quarter Westport Fuel Systems NASDAQWPRT is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter Nyxoah NASDAQNYXH is likely to report quarterly loss at 029 per share on revenue of 620 thousand View NASDAQVIEW is expected to report quarterly loss at 028 per share on revenue of 2270 million Noble NYSENE is expected to report quarterly earnings at 046 per share on revenue of 27297 million AerSale NASDAQASLE is likely to report quarterly earnings at 018 per share on revenue of 11090 million ATI Physical Therapy NYSEATIP is projected to report quarterly loss at 006 per share on revenue of 16951 million Aterian NASDAQATER is likely to report quarterly loss at 012 per share on revenue of 5961 million Allbirds NASDAQBIRD is likely to report quarterly loss at 015 per share on revenue of 7777 million QualTek Services NASDAQQTEK is estimated to report quarterly loss at 039 per share on revenue of 17209 million Augmedix NASDAQAUGX is projected to report quarterly loss at 015 per share on revenue of 733 million Macrogenics NASDAQMGNX is projected to report quarterly loss at 097 per share on revenue of 1377 million Standard BioTools NASDAQLAB is likely to report earnings for its second quarter ARKO NASDAQARKO is likely to report quarterly earnings at 019 per share on revenue of 238 billion Itau Unibanco Holding NYSEITUB is expected to report quarterly earnings at 014 per share on revenue of 598 billion Root NASDAQROOT is likely to report quarterly loss at 039 per share on revenue of 8347 million i3 Verticals NASDAQIIIV is likely to report quarterly earnings at 036 per share on revenue of 7768 million Crane NYSECR is expected to report earnings for its second quarter DermTech NASDAQDMTK is expected to report quarterly loss at 101 per share on revenue of 481 million FibroGen NASDAQFGEN is expected to report quarterly loss at 094 per share on revenue of 3439 million MagnaChip Semiconductor NYSEMX is projected to report quarterly earnings at 018 per share on revenue of 10113 million Paltalk NASDAQPALT is expected to report quarterly loss at 006 per share on revenue of 293 million Ramaco Resources NASDAQMETC is likely to report quarterly earnings at 149 per share on revenue of 17859 million Vaxart NASDAQVXRT is projected to report quarterly loss at 021 per share on revenue of 100 thousand Asensus Surgical AMEXASXC is estimated to report quarterly loss at 008 per share on revenue of 125 million Kaleyra NYSEKLR is projected to report quarterly loss at 019 per share on revenue of 8137 million Marathon Digital Holdings NASDAQMARA is estimated to report quarterly loss at 022 per share on revenue of 3757 million Alto Ingredients NASDAQALTO is likely to report quarterly earnings at 009 per share on revenue of 32098 million Emerald Holding NYSEEEX is expected to report earnings for its second quarter Tricida NASDAQTCDA is expected to report earnings for its second quarter Lantern Pharma NASDAQLTRN is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter Atea Pharmaceuticals NASDAQAVIR is likely to report earnings for its second quarter Superior Gr of Cos NASDAQSGC is likely to report quarterly earnings at 038 per share on revenue of 14687 million Quanterix NASDAQQTRX is projected to report quarterly loss at 048 per share on revenue of 3005 million Prothena Corp NASDAQPRTA is expected to report quarterly loss at 052 per share on revenue of 1717 million Precigen NASDAQPGEN is expected to report quarterly loss at 013 per share on revenue of 2463 million Ocular Therapeutix NASDAQOCUL is projected to report quarterly loss at 023 per share on revenue of 1425 million Enanta Pharmaceuticals NASDAQENTA is estimated to report quarterly loss at 139 per share on revenue of 2070 million Atara Biotherapeutics NASDAQATRA is likely to report quarterly loss at 093 per share on revenue of 684 million ShockWave Medical NASDAQSWAV is projected to report quarterly earnings at 044 per share on revenue of 10752 million 10x Genomics NASDAQTXG is estimated to report quarterly loss at 039 per share on revenue of 11719 million PubMatic NASDAQPUBM is expected to report quarterly earnings at 008 per share on revenue of 6078 million Oportun Financial NASDAQOPRT is expected to report quarterly earnings at 009 per share on revenue of 21561 million CarLotz NASDAQLOTZ is likely to report quarterly loss at 025 per share on revenue of 7150 million Castle Biosciences NASDAQCSTL is expected to report quarterly loss at 076 per share on revenue of 2837 million 23andMe Holding NASDAQME is expected to report quarterly loss at 016 per share on revenue of 6160 million Broadmark Realty Capital NYSEBRMK is likely to report quarterly earnings at 017 per share on revenue of 2990 million Canoo NASDAQGOEV is expected to report earnings for its second quarter RxSight NASDAQRXST is expected to report quarterly loss at 069 per share on revenue of 1075 million Talkspace NASDAQTALK is expected to report quarterly loss at 013 per share on revenue of 3145 million LivePerson NASDAQLPSN is expected to report quarterly loss at 013 per share on revenue of 13559 million Vicarious Surgical NYSERBOT is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter Northwest Pipe NASDAQNWPX is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 073 per share on revenue of 11000 million ESCO Technologies NYSEESE is likely to report quarterly earnings at 087 per share on revenue of 21516 million National CineMedia NASDAQNCMI is projected to report quarterly loss at 007 per share on revenue of 6500 million Digital Turbine NASDAQAPPS is expected to report quarterly earnings at 035 per share on revenue of 18484 million Xperi Holding NASDAQXPER is likely to report quarterly earnings at 040 per share on revenue of 22376 million Manning Napier NYSEMN is likely to report earnings for its second quarter Inseego NASDAQINSG is projected to report quarterly loss at 011 per share on revenue of 6237 million Ligand Pharmaceuticals NASDAQLGND is projected to report quarterly earnings at 043 per share on revenue of 3773 million Apellis Pharmaceuticals NASDAQAPLS is projected to report quarterly loss at 136 per share on revenue of 1694 million CTI BioPharma NASDAQCTIC is projected to report quarterly loss at 020 per share on revenue of 910 million Asure Software NASDAQASUR is projected to report quarterly loss at 007 per share on revenue of 2029 million Ambac Financial Group NYSEAMBC is projected to report quarterly loss at 075 per share on revenue of 2800 million Cannae Holdings NYSECNNE is projected to report quarterly earnings at 007 per share on revenue of 22723 million CrossAmerica Partners NYSECAPL is projected to report quarterly earnings at 033 per share on revenue of 66229 million BWX Technologies NYSEBWXT is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 075 per share on revenue of 53894 million Conformis NASDAQCFMS is estimated to report quarterly loss at 008 per share on revenue of 1515 million American Equity Inv NYSEAEL is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 071 per share on revenue of 54677 million Crawford Company Common Stock NYSECRD is likely to report earnings for its second quarter ONEOK NYSEOKE is projected to report quarterly earnings at 090 per share on revenue of 518 billion BRT Apartments NYSEBRT is projected to report quarterly loss at 012 per share on revenue of 1138 million eHealth NASDAQEHTH is projected to report quarterly loss at 115 per share on revenue of 7277 million Masonite International NYSEDOOR is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 248 per share on revenue of 73210 million Avalara NYSEAVLR is projected to report quarterly loss at 007 per share on revenue of 20918 million ACADIA Pharmaceuticals NASDAQACAD is expected to report quarterly loss at 025 per share on revenue of 13043 million Veeco Instruments NASDAQVECO is expected to report quarterly earnings at 029 per share on revenue of 16082 million Freshpet NASDAQFRPT is projected to report quarterly loss at 014 per share on revenue of 14703 million Aspen Technology NASDAQAZPN is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 215 per share on revenue of 28076 million SmileDirectClub NASDAQSDC is projected to report quarterly loss at 014 per share on revenue of 14186 million Argo Gr Intl Hldgs NYSEARGO is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 115 per share on revenue of 50950 million PRA Group NASDAQPRAA is expected to report quarterly earnings at 054 per share on revenue of 23397 million 3D Sys NYSEDDD is likely to report earnings for its second quarter Cara Therapeutics NASDAQCARA is projected to report quarterly loss at 025 per share on revenue of 2071 million Turtle Beach NASDAQHEAR is likely to report quarterly loss at 047 per share on revenue of 4920 million Babcock Wilcox NYSEBW is estimated to report quarterly loss at 006 per share on revenue of 22120 million FreightCar America NASDAQRAIL is projected to report quarterly loss at 009 per share on revenue of 7290 million AAON NASDAQAAON is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 041 per share on revenue of 20433 million Desktop Metal NYSEDM is likely to report quarterly loss at 010 per share on revenue of 5470 million Primoris Services NASDAQPRIM is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 058 per share on revenue of 92953 million Primerica NYSEPRI is expected to report quarterly earnings at 301 per share on revenue of 68795 million Federal Agricultural NYSEAGM is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter TaskUs NASDAQTASK is projected to report quarterly earnings at 033 per share on revenue of 24211 million Invacare NYSEIVC is expected to report quarterly loss at 042 per share on revenue of 20822 million ICU Medical NASDAQICUI is expected to report quarterly earnings at 186 per share on revenue of 56647 million CarGurus NASDAQCARG is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 031 per share on revenue of 50585 million Velodyne Lidar NASDAQVLDR is estimated to report quarterly loss at 021 per share on revenue of 1121 million Edgio NASDAQEGIO is expected to report quarterly loss at 003 per share on revenue of 6350 million Trex Co NYSETREX is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 067 per share on revenue of 38081 million Luminar Technologies NASDAQLAZR is estimated to report quarterly loss at 016 per share on revenue of 859 million ProAssurance NYSEPRA is likely to report quarterly earnings at 012 per share on revenue of 24063 million Tanger Factory Outlet NYSESKT is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 015 per share on revenue of 10445 million Beachbody Co NYSEBODY is estimated to report quarterly loss at 010 per share on revenue of 18339 million Marriott Vacations NYSEVAC is projected to report quarterly earnings at 227 per share on revenue of 115 billion FS KKR Capital NYSEFSK is likely to report quarterly earnings at 067 per share on revenue of 37240 million Perdoceo Education NASDAQPRDO is projected to report quarterly earnings at 037 per share on revenue of 16310 million Brookdale Senior Living NYSEBKD is projected to report quarterly loss at 039 per share on revenue of 68550 million Cabot NYSECBT is projected to report quarterly earnings at 156 per share on revenue of 105 billion Principal Finl Gr NASDAQPFG is likely to report quarterly earnings at 141 per share on revenue of 334 billion GoodRx Holdings NASDAQGDRX is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 004 per share on revenue of 18471 million Corvus Pharmaceuticals NASDAQCRVS is expected to report earnings for its second quarter CURO Group Holdings NYSECURO is expected to report quarterly loss at 028 per share on revenue of 26041 million Vroom NASDAQVRM is estimated to report quarterly loss at 075 per share on revenue of 54595 million Clover Health Investments NASDAQCLOV is likely to report quarterly loss at 021 per share on revenue of 81462 million Take Two Interactive NASDAQTTWO is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 091 per share on revenue of 106 billion Amphastar Pharmaceuticals NASDAQAMPH is expected to report quarterly earnings at 036 per share on revenue of 11930 million Blink Charging NASDAQBLNK is estimated to report quarterly loss at 037 per share on revenue of 860 million News NASDAQNWSA is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 007 per share on revenue of 259 billion Viasat NASDAQVSAT is likely to report quarterly loss at 043 per share on revenue of 70465 million Groupon NASDAQGRPN is projected to report quarterly loss at 044 per share on revenue of 15757 million Blucora NASDAQBCOR is projected to report quarterly earnings at 104 per share on revenue of 26085 million Intl Flavors Fragrances NYSEIFF is expected to report earnings for its second quarter AECOM NYSEACM is expected to report quarterly earnings at 082 per share on revenue of 347 billion ACCO Brands NYSEACCO is projected to report quarterly earnings at 042 per share on revenue of 53857 million Upstart Hldgs NASDAQUPST is estimated to report quarterly earnings at 010 per share on revenue of 24163 million Lemonade NYSELMND is projected to report quarterly loss at 132 per share on revenue of 4770 million American Intl Gr NYSEAIG is likely to report quarterly earnings at 110 per share on revenue of 1125 billion Eargo NASDAQEAR is expected to report earnings for its second quarter Tiptree NASDAQTIPT is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter News NASDAQNWS is expected to report earnings for its fourth quarter Eastern Co NASDAQEML is likely to report earnings for its second quarter FutureFuel NYSEFF is estimated to report earnings for its second quarter This article was generated by Benzinga s automated content engine and reviewed by an editor

Activist investorRyan Cohenhas reportedly acquired a stake inChinese e commerce giantAlibaba Group Holding LtdNYSEBABA worth hundreds of millions of dollars and is privately nudging the company to hasten its share repurchase program Cohen and others built the stake during the second half of last yearreportedthe Wall Street Journal citing sources He first contacted Alibaba’s board in August to express his view that the company’s shares are deeply undervalued based on his belief that it can achieve double digit sales and nearly 20 free cash flow growth over the next five years the report said Hong Kong listed shares of Alibaba have lost over 11 in the lastyear but have soared over 27 since the beginning of 2023 Also ReadHow To Invest In Startups Buyback BoostCohen has told Alibaba’s board the share repurchase plan could be boosted by another 20 billion to roughly 60 billion the report said The activist investor has also noted his admiration for management’s ability to get earnings growth while assembling quality assets the report added Cohen intends to have a collaborative long term relationship with the e commerce giant it added Cohen has also highlighted his belief thatApple IncNASDAQAAPL in which he owns more than800 million could provide a road map for Alibaba the report said It is noteworthy that since 2012 Apple has repurchased hundreds of billions of dollars of its shares and the stock price has surged Read NextLarry Summers Says Have To Go Back To JFK To Find Democratic President With 1st Midterms Going As Well As Biden s Photo Courtesy ofBill Jeromeon Flickr

Earnings season started to pick up the pace last week with 26 SP 500 companies reporting Banks and financial companies remained a healthy share of the total The SP 500 fell by almost 07 for the week December retail sales gave rise to recession fears and earnings were generally worse than expected According to FactSet 67 of companies have exceeded earnings estimates below the 10 year average of 73 This week starts the heart of the earnings season with 89 SP 500 companies scheduled to report At this early juncture blended earnings which combine actual with estimates of companies yet to report are lower than forecasts at the end of the quarter and deteriorated last week The high earnings growth rate for the industrials remains misleading since the airlines reported a loss in the fourth quarter of 2021 and should post a profit this quarter Only one sector consumer staples is expected to post higher earnings than forecasted on December 30th The energy sector retains the crown with the highest expected growth rate driven by increased energy prices with expected earnings slated to increase by 59 year over year On a related note Berkshire Hathaway continued to buy shares of Occidental Petroleum OXY in 2022 and now owns over 20 of the company A previous piece discussed why Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway could be adding to its holdings in Occidental Petroleum The blended revenues paint a similar picture with only real estate and consumer staples having better estimates than at the end of the quarter Sales in the energy sector illustrate the robust increase in energy commodity prices So far the blended earnings performance has underperformed expectations at the end of the quarter Combining actual results with consensus estimates for companies yet to report the blended earnings growth rate for the quarter weakened to 46 year over year below the expectation of 32 at the end of the quarter Expected earnings growth for the calendar year 2023 declined this week Thanks to worse than expected earnings from Goldman Sachs GS and Allstate ALL the financial sector was the most significant contributor behind the decline in blended earnings for the SP 500 Netflix NFLX rallied sharply on subscriber growth but earnings were well below expectations which dented the blended earnings for the communications services sector This week has some bellwethers reporting results including Microsoft MSFT and Tesla TSLA Outside of earnings season stocks were depressed by worse than expected December retail sales last week This deceleration in consumer spending raised the specter of an economic hard landing in 2023 This week brings the first reading for US fourth quarter economic growth on Thursday While this data is firmly in the rearview mirror investors will look for clues about the economy’s path Despite the Atlanta Fed’s economic model expecting an acceleration in growth over the 32 pace in the third quarter most economists expect a deceleration to a mid 2 growth rate in the fourth quarter Recent data including retail sales seems to indicate slowing economic growth Headline earnings deteriorated last week and remained below estimates at the end of the quarter This week starts the heart of earnings season with financials no longer a dominant force in the results so it will be instructive to see if the earnings can make up some ground As discussed previously margin pressures inflation and the strong dollar remain headwinds for the fourth quarter earnings season Markets should remain particularly sensitive to forward guidance from companies while the threat of recession in 2023 looms

A whale with a lot of money to spend has taken a noticeably bearish stance on AppleLooking at options history for Apple NASDAQAAPL we detected 210 strange tradesIf we consider the specifics of each trade it is accurate to state that 43 of the investors opened trades with bullish expectations and 56 with bearishFrom the overall spotted trades 42 are puts for a total amount of 3800750 and 168 calls for a total amount of 24950287What s The Price TargetTaking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 300 to 1850 for Apple over the last 3 months Volume Open Interest DevelopmentIn terms of liquidity and interest the mean open interest for Apple options trades today is 2279162 with a total volume of 383792400In the following chart we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Apple s big money trades within a strike price range of 300 to 1850 over the last 30 daysApple Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Biggest Options Spotted SymbolPUTCALLTrade TypeSentimentExp DateStrike PriceTotal Trade PriceOpen InterestVolume AAPLPUTSWEEPBEARISH012023145004218K285K23K AAPLCALLTRADEBEARISH11182260003070K2290 AAPLCALLTRADEBULLISH111822170002615K295K19K AAPLCALLSWEEPBEARISH091622160001684K829K564K AAPLCALLSWEEPBULLISH091622162501592K225K818K Where Is Apple Standing Right Now With a volume of 48762169 the price of AAPL is up 31 at 16225 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock is currently neutral between overbought and oversoldNext earnings are expected to be released in 45 days What The Experts Say On Apple Keybanc has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Apple which currently sits at a price target of 185 Wedbush has decided to maintain their Outperform rating on Apple which currently sits at a price target of 220 Credit Suisse upgraded its action to Outperform with a price target of 201 Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closelyIf you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Apple Benzinga Pro gives you real time options trades alerts

US stocks closed sharply higher on Tuesday with Johnson Johnson JNJ reporting better than expected results for its second quarter Below is a look at the major economic reports scheduled for release today The MBA s index of mortgage application activity for the latest week is scheduled for release at 700 am ET Data on existing home sales for June will be released at 1000 am ET Existing home sales have slowed to an annualized rate of 541 million in May with analysts expecting a slight drop to 5395 million for June The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the US is scheduled for release at 1030 am ET The Treasury is set to auction 20 year bonds at 100 pm ET Over 112 Million Bet On Occidental Petroleum 4 Stocks Insiders are Buying Check out our premarket coverage here

US stocks bounced Tuesday recovering from a 21 month low and were aiming to snap a five day losing streak as volatility in global bond and currency markets subsided The Dow entered a bear market on Monday having fallen 205 from its record close on Jan 4 while the SP 500 took out its 2022 low from June 16 to end at its lowest since Dec14 2020 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 06 The mood across global markets was more composed encouraging investors to nibble at stocks bonds and commodities on Tuesday We are seeing some recovery in the risk sentiment today after a very weak start to the week yesterday said strategists at Citi in a morning note But analysts were skeptical whether the respite would lead to a sustained bounce Stocks have sold off sharply as the Fed has hiked interest rates aggressively and indicated that there are plenty more to come Recession fears are growing which is making stock picking that much harder said Fiona Cincotta senior financial markets analyst at City Index in a note While stocks are edging higher this is more pause in the market selloff rather than the start of anything more positive The fundamentals remain the same and a recession is looking increasingly more likely she wrote Wall Street s benchmark SP 500 index was down 57 over the last five trading days as investor concerns about the economic impact of high inflation and rising interest rates resulted in signs of stress in the bond and currency markets Heightened volatility in the currency markets has exacerbated what was already a difficult time in most asset classes with equities reeling from the prospect of a global recession as central banks continue their aggressive monetary policies said Richard Hunter head of markets at Interactive Investors Chicago Fed President Charles Evans on Tuesday said rates may need to plateau next year Loretta Mester president of the Cleveland Fed on Monday reiterated it was necessary to slow the economy to damp inflation St Louis Fed president James Bullard is due to give a speech on the economic outlook and monetary policy at 955 am Eastern However relative calm returned to the UK gilt market after its rout Friday and Monday caused by fears about the government s fiscal strategy This in turn has helped steady the pound and halted the rally in the dollar whose recent surge to 20 year highs caused fretting about its impact on US company earnings SeeA surging US dollar is creating an untenable situation for the stock market warns Morgan Stanley s Wilson The less febrile tone comes amid evidence that parts of the market are exhibiting extreme bearishness The SP 500 s 14 day relative strength index a closely watched momentum barometer finished Monday around 25 where any point below 30 is considered in oversold territory The CBOE Vix index a measure of volatility known as Wall Street s fear gauge remained elevated above 30 Meanwhile Marko Kolanovic market strategist at JPMorgan notes that investor positioning is notably pessimistic Our chosen positioning metrics comprise an eclectic mix of futures positions hedge fundmutual fund return betas and JPM client surveys he said in a note This indicator is mean reverting and close to its all sample lows suggesting that that investors positioning is almost as defensive as it can get In US economic data Tuesday durable goods orders fell 02 in August declining less than forecast Orders minus transportation were up 02 while core durable gods orders climbed 13 The Case Shiller 20 city home price index showed a deceleration to a gain of 161 year over year in July from 187 in June Other data set for release include the Conference Board consumer confidence for September and new home sales for August at 10 am

TODAY ONLY Get 2 Winning Bear Market Beating Options Trade Ideas Straight to your Inbox SMS for 40 off with our annual membership a special bonus for the next 10 customers Click Here to Get These Trades Now Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bullish stance on Alibaba Group Holding BABA And retail traders should know We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual we don t know But when something this big happens with BABA it often means somebody knows something is about to happen So how do we know what this whale just did The overall sentiment of these big money traders is split between 50 bullish and 49 bearish Out of all of the special options we uncovered 40 are puts for a total amount of 2737378 and 51 are calls for a total amount of 3988712 Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 700 to 2800 for Alibaba Group Holding over the last 3 months Looking at the volume and open interest is a powerful move while trading options This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Alibaba Group Holding s options for a given strike price Below we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts respectively for all of Alibaba Group Holding s whale trades within a strike price range from 700 to 2800 in the last 30 days Alibaba Group Holding Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Where Is Alibaba Group Holding Standing Right Now With a volume of 18012348 the price of BABA is down 417 at 11403 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock is currently neutral between overbought and oversold Next earnings are expected to be released in 2 days What The Experts Say On Alibaba Group Holding Truist Securities has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Alibaba Group Holding which currently sits at a price target of 180 Mizuho has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Alibaba Group Holding which currently sits at a price target of 180 Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closely If you are already an options trader or would like to get started head on over to Benzinga Pro Benzinga Pro gives you up to date news and analytics to empower your investing and trading strategy

Manufacturing activity in New York likely slowed down to 165 in May according to economists polled by the Wall Street Journal In April the index had a big rebound to 246 after three months of soft readings The report will be released by the New York Fed at 830 am Eastern

The oil industry just got another major tailwind… Two weeks ago Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the US aims to start purchasing oil from domestic producerslater this year It’s not a huge surprise Just last week I wrote about our country’s need to refill theStrategic Petroleum Reserve SPR—the US’s emergency oil supply—which is nearly half empty These future purchases will create a floor under oil prices… and addanother tailwind for oil stocksover the coming months Today I’ll share several opportunities to profit from the energy sector’s improving outlook But first let’s take a closer look at why oil prices are set to keep rising… The Bullish Picture For Oil You’ve probably heard a lot about the massive growth in green energy in recent years The trend makes sense Renewable energy sources like wind and solar will play an important role in the fight against climate change But anyone who thinks green energy will kill the oil gas industry is crazy The simple fact is that the world still relies on fossil fuels for most of its energy needs Oil and gas account for about 23 of the totalUS energy consumptionand about 45 of global energy demand Based on the most recent proposals governments worldwide could eventually commit to hittingnet zero emissions by 2050 Even in this arguably “best case scenario” for green energy proponents the plan still assumes that fossil fuels will account for 15 of global energy production And even then fossil fuels will still be used for several products and applications—from plastics to facilities using carbon capture technologies In fact the green energy push actually increases the value of existing oil reserves as energy companies are becoming hesitant to explore and develop new oil fields Put simply less oilfield development means less future oil production And this dwindling supply situation improves the long term outlook for oil prices It’s Economics 101 And as I mentioned above our need to refill theStrategic Petroleum Reserve SPRcreates a major near term boost for oil prices… and oil producers The purchases will help put a floor under oil prices which are already showing signs of strength After dipping sharply last month the price of oil quickly recovered and is now trading back near its 2023 highs… despite the widespread fears of a looming recession Put simply the oil industry isn’t about to disappear… It’s set to flourish in the coming years And this translates into a huge opportunity for investors Below I’ve highlighted three ways for investors to capitalize on the sector’s resilience… 1 Occidental Petroleum NYSEOXY It’s almost impossible to go wrong following Warren Buffett’s investments… And when it comes to energy the Oracle of Omaha has an obvious favorite Occidental Petroleum At the end of 2022 Buffett’sBerkshire Hathawaywas the largest owner of eight mega companies—American Express Bank of America Chevron Coca Cola HP Inc Moody’s Paramount Global and Occidental Petroleum It’s worth noting that OXY is the only energy company on that list Last summer Buffett got the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s FERC permission to buyup to half of Occidental’s stock Today he’s sitting on more than 221 million shares—or 235 of the company The reason Buffett loves OXY is simple The company has massive reserves in the Permian Basin—the largest oilfield in the US Back in 2019 OXY outbid Chevron to buy independent producer Anadarko… thereby expanding OXY’s footprint in the Permian—bringing its stake to a sector leading 28 million acres Buffett has been scooping up shares ever since In fact Occidental is now the largest player in theDelaware Basinpart of the larger Permian… and it has 38 billion barrels of oil equivalentsin reserves Plus OXY is one of the lowest cost producers in the Permian… which makes it a profit machine as long as oil prices are above 40 And the company has no problem sharing its profits with shareholders In February OXY hiked its dividend by a whopping 38 2 Pioneer Natural Resources NYSEPXD Pioneer is one of the biggest players in the Permian… and the largest player in the Permian’s best field theMidland Basin The Midland Basin is shallower than the nearby Delaware Basin and holds higher grade crude That means more successful drilling… and higher quality output Operating in such a well researched highly developed oil region is also less costly since much of the infrastructure is already in place And lower production costs mean higher profits… especially as energy prices rise In short Pioneer’s assets are the best of the best—which translates to higher margins and growing profits And thanks to its incredible assets Pioneer is a prime acquisition target asBig Oil launches a landgrab in the oil patch But I don’t think PXD shareholders will need a buyout in order to score a profit PXD’s flexible dividend policy is currently generating a 12 plus annual yield—one of the highest in the entire stock market And the longer PXD stays independent the higher the ultimate reward for its shareholders—in terms of dividend payouts and share price appreciation 3 SPDR SP Oil and Gas Exploration Production ETF NYSEXOP If you’d rather own a basket of leading oil companies consider buying an exchange traded fund ETF—like the iShares SP Oil and Gas Exploration Production This ETF gives investors exposure to the exploration and production segment of the market What makes this ETF different from the competition is its equal weight focus In other words it starts with the same sized stake in each of its holdings… Like with any portfolio the stronger the stock the more of it you end up owning until the next rebalancing As of today the ETF owns a larger position in PXD than it does in ExxonMobil XOM or Chevron CVX as you can see below Thanks to how it’s constructed XOP is a better choice if your portfolio already has a lot of exposure to Big Oil… but is underweighted in smaller cap oil companies the cheapest group of the sector Plus you don’t have to research individual stocks Altogether XOP has about 75 invested in exploration production… 7 in integrated oil gas… and 18 in refining marketing In short this ETF gives you instant exposure to companies big and small across the entire energy sector And because the ETF is smaller cap focused the stocks there are still very cheap… trading on average at less than seven times 7x forecasted earnings vs 106x for PXD or 115x for OXY The bottom line Demand for oil gas isn’t about to wane any time soon so if you don’t have energy exposure now’s the time to get it… Each of the picks above are great choices to play the improving outlook for the oil sector This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice

US stocks opened sharply lower on Thursday as bond yields rose again with the positive impact of the Bank of England s intervention on debt markets Wednesday fading On Wednesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 549 points or 188 to 29684 the SP 500 increased 72 points or 197 to 3719 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 222 points or 205 to 11052 The Nasdaq Composite remained down 312 from its record closing high on November 19 2021 Equity markets had rallied Wednesday after the Bank of England s intervention to calm UK bonds reduced broader fixed income market stresses and revived hopes that central banks might intervene to support markets if severe dislocations occur But the effects of the BoE s announcement appeared short lived as US stocks turned lower again on Thursday amid a broader selloff in global equity markets Treasurys also tumbled alongside European sovereign bonds sending yields higher across the globe after US sovereign bonds recorded their biggest one day rally since the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic In a note to clients a team of fixed income strategists at Barclays explained why the market impact of the Bank of England s intervention was so short lived While the bond market intervention might stave off a crisis it hasn t changed anything in regards to the macro backdrop and investors are instead being forced to price in expectations that a combination of monetary and fiscal stimulus could further stoke inflationary pressures A fter the first rounds of short covering and squaring up of positions is over we worry that markets will go back to fixating on one issue large fiscal stimulus is now being accompanied by open ended monetary stimulus for the next few weeks the team of Barclays macro strategists wrote As a result borrowing costs are expected to continue rising as most of the world s big central banks rush to combat inflation which in turn diminishes demand for risk assets The benchmark 10 year Treasury yield climbed more than 9 basis points to 3797 and the equivalent duration UK gilt rose 96 basis points to 4117 The Stoxx 600 index of European stocks fell 14 The US dollar also weighed on stocks as it resumed its advance against the euro and pound As a result the ICE US Dollar Index rose 02 to 11279 just shy of its 20 year high around 11450 hit midweek The dollar still exhibits a strong negative correlation to global equities because in a world where monetary and fiscal policy are now at odds with each other the value of collateral is being testedthe whole reason central banks are hiking rates is to tighten financial conditions which implicitly means that the Fed is targeting a lower equity market said a team of Citi analysts led by Jamie Fahy Investor anxiety manifested in the CBOE Volatility Index or the VIX a measure of expected SP 500 volatility known as Wall Street s fear gauge The VIX whose long term average is around 20 was hovering near 31 having stood above 30 for much of this week In a note to clients on Thursday Nicholas Colas co founder of DataTrek Research said the VIX would likely need to hold above 30 until at least Friday to signal a tradeable low SeeWall Street s fear gauge might hold the key to the timing of the next market rebound Here s why On the economic data front the latest update to second quarter GDP figures confirmed that the US economy shrank at an annualized clip of 06 during the second quarter See US economy shrank in the first half of 2022 updated GDP figures confirm Meanwhile a weekly report on US jobless benefit claims revealed that the number of Americans initially applying for unemployment benefits fell by 16000 to 193000 in the week ended September 24 the lowest level since April Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said during an interview on CNBC that the interest rates in the US haven t reached restrictive territory yet and that the Fed has yet to reach a point where it should consider pausing rate hikes Investors will hear from Fed speakers including St Louis Fed President James Bullard who is due to speak at 930 am Eastern Time and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will make some comments at 445 pm

OTTAWA Feb 8 Reuters The Bank of Canada hiked rates last month rather than leaving them unchanged because of labor market tightness and stronger than expected growth according to minutes from the policy setting meeting released on Wednesday The central bank which issued a so called summary of Governing Council deliberations for the first time said a second rationale was the risk of inflation getting stuck somewhere above 2 for the period ending in 2024 Data on both the labor market and economic activity suggested that there was more excess demand in the economy in the fourth quarter of 2022 than previously forecast the minutes said explaining the decision to raise rates On Jan 25 the Bank of Canada hiked its key interest rate to 45 the highest level in 15 years and became the first major central bank to say it would likely hold off on further increases for now The council operates on a consensus basis and does not vote on policy decisions On Tuesday Governor Tiff Macklem said no further rate hikes would be needed if as expected the economy stalled and inflation fell Inflation slowed to 63 in December still more than three times the central bank s 2 target The minutes described what the central bank wanted to communicate when it announced a pause which it says is needed to gauge the effect of eight rate hikes in the past 11 months Council wanted to convey that the bar for additional rate increases was now higher and to give a clear sense that they would need an accumulation of evidence to determine whether further rate increases would be required to return inflation to target The bank announced it would release minutes from its policy setting meetings late last year as it battled to restore credibility lost when inflation spiked to more than 8 The Bank of Canada had stood out from its peers including the US Federal Reserve the Bank of England and the European Central Bank in not providing some form of record of their meetings The minutes divided into four sections covered policy meetings that began on Jan 18 The last two sections speak directly to the considerations made ahead of the decision and the decision itself The first two sections provided an overview of the international and domestic economic context much of which was also in the Monetary Policy Report MPR published on Jan 25 However the members of the governing council discussed one risk to the US outlook not mentioned in the MPR which is the threat by Republicans to potentially shut down government if President Joe Biden does not reduce federal spending The impending debt ceiling negotiations could be protracted and pose risks of financial volatility if an agreement were elusive the minutes said Three quarters of all Canada goods and services exports go to the United States

B90 Holdings PLC said Tuesday that Ronny Ingvar Breivik a shareholder seeking the removal of Executive Chairman Karim Peer and Nonexecutive Director Nigel Eastwood has satisfied a debt through the transfer of B90 shares The online marketing and operating company said a debt owed by Mr Breivik was satisfied by the transfer of 90 million shares in aggregate to Senior Nonexecutive Director Mark Rosman Mr Breivik is a substantial shareholder in Performance Media SIA one of the shareholders proposing the removal of Mr Peer and Mr Eastwood and the appointment of Mr Breivik to the board The company said it was surprised Mr Breivik chose to satisfy the debt through a share transfer as it diminishes his interest in the company Following the transfer Mr Rosman now holds 234 million ordinary shares or 83 of the entire issued share capital of the company We are increasingly confused by the actions of Mr Breivik who while seeking to join the board has recently served conditional notice terminating his engagement with B90 Ventures Ltd and is now significantly reducing his shareholding in the company Mr Rosman said B90 reiterated its recommendation that shareholders vote against all proposed resolutions at its extraordinary general meeting set for Sept 7

A sign advertising home loan rates for purchase or refinancing at a Bank of America in New York After rising at the end of the year mortgage rates dropped sharply last week That drove demand from current homeowners hoping to save on their monthly payments but it did little to excite potential homebuyers As a result total mortgage application volume rose just 12 last week compared with the previous week according to the Mortgage Bankers Association s seasonally adjusted index The average contract interest rate for 30 year fixed rate mortgages with conforming loan balances 647200 or less decreased last week to 642 from 658 with points remaining at 073 including the origination fee for loans with a 20 down payment One year ago that rate was 352 Mortgage rates declined last week as markets reacted to data showing a weakening economy and slowing wage growth All loan types in the survey saw a decline in rates said Joel Kan an MBA economist The drop in rates sparked a 5 increase in applications to refinance a home loan Volume however was still 86 lower than the same week one year ago Even with rates lower than their previous high of over 7 last fall at the current rate just 270000 borrowers could benefit from a refinance according to Black Knight a mortgage technology and analytics firm A year ago with the rate half what it is now roughly 7 million borrowers could benefit Mortgage applications to purchase a home fell 1 for the week and were 44 lower than the same week one year ago That was the lowest reading since 2014 Buyers today are not only contending with higher interest rates but falling supply They are also seeing prices come down and may be waiting to see how low they go So far this week mortgage rates have moved in a narrow range The market is eyeing the next release of the monthly consumer price index set for Thursday If it shows inflation to be cooling even more mortgage rates could drop further

OSLO Nov 11 Reuters Operating profit at Norway s largest utility Statkraft rose to 90 billion Norwegian crowns 8944 million in the third quarter as high power prices offset lower production Statkraft s underlying earnings before interest and tax EBIT rose from 46 billion Norwegian crowns a year ago Power generation was down by 20 to 122 terawatt hours TWh year on year as Statkraft sought to save water after reservoir filling levels in southern Norway dropped to historic lows due to dry weather earlier this year Statkraft reduced its southern Norwegian hydropower generation considerably to store water for the coming winter Chief Executive Christian Rynning Toennesen said in a statement The benchmark Nordic system price for wholesale power averaged 17635 eurosMWh over the quarter up from 6827 eurosMWh in line with higher European prices due to the war in Ukraine

Cannabis businesses may find that inviting lawmakers to tour their facilities could be a game changer in terms of building relationships with government officials That was the key takeaway from a recent session featuring Ohio Rep David Joyce who discussed the importance of outreach to elected officials with Trulieve Cannabis Corp OTCTCNNF CEO Kim Rivers You can meet leaders like Kim Rivers and Rep David Joyce at the most successful cannabis business event in the world theBenzinga Cannabis Capital Conference Returning to Miami for its 16th edition this is the place where DEALS GET DONE where money is raised MA starts and companies meet investors and key partners Join us at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel in Florida on April 11 12 Don’t miss out Secure your tickets now Prices will surge very soon During the discussion Rivers asked how businesses could engage with lawmakers in a meaningful way Rep Joyce suggested inviting representatives to tour cannabis operations from dispensaries to growing facilities He pointed out that this is an effective way for lawmakers to see firsthand how the industry operates and to build relationships with industry leaders The CEO agreed stating that inviting local lawmakers to visit facilities is a great tangible takeaway I think that s really important because I think that all of us oftentimes think about what can I do that s happening in DC she said I don t know how effective my time is getting on a plane going to DC and knocking on doors but absolutely making those connections in your local market is…I agree with you that can be a game changer This approach is especially important at a time when the cannabis industry is at a tipping point as more states move to legalize cannabis and the federal government considers changes to regulations Building relationships with lawmakers can help to shape policy and pave the way for future growth Inviting lawmakers to tour facilities can also help to dispel myths and misconceptions about the cannabis industry By seeing the operations firsthand lawmakers can better understand the safety and regulatory measures in place and gain a better understanding of how the industry operates You can meet leaders like Kim Rivers and Rep David Joyce at the most successful cannabis business event in the world theBenzinga Cannabis Capital Conference Returning to Miami for its 16th edition this is the place where DEALS GET DONE where money is raised MA starts and companies meet investors and key partners Join us at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel in Florida on April 11 12 Don’t miss out Secure your tickets now Prices will surge very soon

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bullish stance on Foot Locker NYSEFLAnd retail traders should knowWe noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at BenzingaWhether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual we don t know But when something this big happens with FL it often means somebody knows something is about to happenSo how do we know what this whale just did Today Benzinga s options scanner spotted 11 uncommon options trades for Foot LockerThis isn t normalThe overall sentiment of these big money traders is split between 54 bullish and 45 bearishOut of all of the special options we uncovered 6 are puts for a total amount of 201390 and 5 are calls for a total amount of 192250What s The Price TargetTaking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from 275 to 380 for Foot Locker over the last 3 months Volume Open Interest DevelopmentLooking at the volume and open interest is a powerful move while trading options This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Foot Locker s options for a given strike price Below we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts respectively for all of Foot Locker s whale trades within a strike price range from 275 to 380 in the last 30 days Foot Locker Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days Biggest Options Spotted SymbolPUTCALLTrade TypeSentimentExp DateStrike PriceTotal Trade PriceOpen InterestVolume FLCALLSWEEPBEARISH1216223250611K986214 FLPUTSWEEPBULLISH0519233000480K6430 FLPUTSWEEPBULLISH0519233000460K643400 FLCALLTRADEBULLISH0120232750384K43851 FLCALLSWEEPBULLISH1118223400372K354199 Where Is Foot Locker Standing Right Now With a volume of 5615806 the price of FL is up 1132 at 3673 RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overboughtNext earnings are expected to be released in 0 days What The Experts Say On Foot Locker Citigroup has decided to maintain their Neutral rating on Foot Locker which currently sits at a price target of 33 JP Morgan has decided to maintain their Neutral rating on Foot Locker which currently sits at a price target of 37 Deutsche Bank has decided to maintain their Hold rating on Foot Locker which currently sits at a price target of 31 Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock but they have higher profit potential Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily scaling in and out of trades following more than one indicator and following the markets closelyIf you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Foot Locker Benzinga Pro gives you real time options trades alerts

US stock futures edged lower as investors considered a mixed set of corporate results and the continued march higher in interest rates Futures tied to the SP 500 declined 06 Contracts tied to the technology focused Nasdaq 100 fell 09 and futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 05

Stablecoins are usually described as the remedy to the volatility of cryptocurrencies However Michael S Barr vice chair for Supervision for the US Federal Reserve is worried they could “pose a risk to the financial stability” of the country See Also TOP STABLECOINS TYPES OF STABLECOINS Barr said it is important to get the regulatory framework right “The President s Working Group report on stablecoins that came out about a year ago called upon Congress to take the necessary action to ensure that stablecoins particularly those that serve as a means of payment are subject to prudential regulation” Barr said in his speech at DC Fintech Week He noted that crypto assets have proved to be very volatile and are unlikely to become a viable means to pay for transactions adding that “stablecoins linked to the dollar are of particular interest to the Federal Reserve” While stablecoins such as Tether USDTUSD and USD Coin USDCUSD have recovered after getting de pegged from the US dollar the Terra USTUSD crash caused considerable apprehension about stablecoins Major coins such as Bitcoin BTCUSD Ethereum ETHUSD and Dogecoin DOGEUSD have been far more volatile with a less than impressive performance so far this year See More CRYPTO AND DEFI 101 BENZINGA’S INTRO TO BLOCKCHAIN Barr warned banks of the potential risks of crypto related activities suggesting crypto service providers be subject to similar regulations as traditional financial institutions He seemed to encourage banks to explore issuing tokens on distributed ledger networks but “only in a controlled and limited manner” “The Fed is working with our colleagues at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to ensure that crypto asset related activities banks may become involved in are well regulated and supervised” he said

SYDNEY Coles Group Ltd s first quarter sales rose by 18 on year and the Australian supermarket operator said it is seeing further growth so far in its fiscal second quarter The ASX listed firm on Wednesday reported gross retail sales for the three months through September of 1016 billion Australian dollars US650 billion up by 18 on a comparable basis On a statutory basis Coles reported A989 billion in sales revenue up 13 on year Coles said that price inflation at its supermarket chain was at 71 in the first quarter compared with 43 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 It expects inflation to rise further in the three months through December

Union Pacific Corp on Thursday said profit and revenue rose in its second quarter as increased prices higher fuel surcharge revenue and a positive business mix helped to offset a decline in volume The Omaha Neb based railroad company posted net income of 184 billion or 293 a share compared with 180 billion or 272 a share in the year ago quarter Revenue rose 14 to 627 billion Analysts polled by FactSet expected revenue of 613 billion Chief Executive Lance Fritz said inflation and high fuel prices affected the company s operating costs but the higher costs were offset by changes including price increases and train size initiatives Business revenues as measured by total revenue carloads were down 1 from the prior year the company said Additionally the company said train speeds are down while idle time is up The average number of miles traveled daily and average mile per hour speed decreased in the latest quarter and the average terminal dwell time increased

CNBC s Jim Cramer on Friday previewed next week s earnings slate and other pivotal market events including congressional testimony from Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell Given the calendar the Mad Money host said he believes Wall Street s primary focus will shift from Ukraine to the economy specifically price pressures Fortunately even after today s run the averages remain somewhat oversold but unfortunately inflation is sky high right now Cramer said All earnings and revenue estimates are courtesy of FactSet Q4 2022 earnings release after the close conference call at 430 pm ET Monday Cramer said Workday s problem is its stock is expensive based on earnings so it may get hit even if its quarter is solid Q1 2022 earnings release after the bell conference call at 5 pm ET Monday Cramer said investors need to be careful with HP ahead of the print because its rival in the PC industry Dell Technologies reported Thursday night and was hurt by supply chain issues Q4 2022 earnings after the close conference call at 5 pm ET Monday You have to be concerned about their business and whether it holds up as the pandemic recedes Cramer said Q4 2021 earnings before the bell conference call at 9 am ET Tuesday While Target shares jumped 4 Friday Cramer said it s hard to know which type of retail story the company will tell when it reports It s unclear whether it will say that business is going great or if it will speak largely about supply chain and inflation challenges Cramer said Q4 2021 earnings before the open conference call at 9 am ET Tuesday Predicting Kohl s quarter is even more difficult than it is for Target Cramer said noting the department store chain has been the target of takeover talks Q4 2021 earnings before the bell conference call at 10 am ET Tuesday Domino s shares have been hit hard in recent weeks Cramer said simply because its performance is seen as consistent not spectacular If Domino s doesn t blow the numbers away this time I think investors will decide that it was merely a Covid winner not a post Covid winner even though it has many years of going higher I disagree I don t make the rules though he said Q4 2022 earnings after the close conference call at 5 pm ET Tuesday Cramer said he thinks the relentless ruthless selling pressure on Salesforce s stock may have finally ended Thursday I think the dumping is overdone I bet it makes the numbers said Cramer whose Charitable Trust owns the enterprise software giant Q4 2021 earnings before the bell conference call at 9 am ET Wednesday Cramer said he s not sure why Dollar Tree often is targeted by activist investors Rather he said he thinks the stock is a winner particularly because the end of pandemic aid programs means some consumers need to shop at more discount oriented retailers Full committee meets at 10 am ET Wednesday for a hearing on Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy Cramer said he s not expecting Powell to make any major policy announcements during the hearing The top US central banker also will address the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday Q4 2022 earnings after the close conference call at 5 pm ET Wednesday Okta is one of the highest valued stocks in the market Cramer said but he explained he s not sure what to expect from the quarter given there s been some recent turnover in management roles Q4 2022 earnings after the bell conference call at 5 pm ET Wednesday Cramer said Snowflake is the high multiple stock people have remained committed to as the market rotated away from growth oriented tech Cramer complimented the data analytics software firm s CEO Frank Slootman calling him the newfound king of the cloud Q4 2021 earnings before the open conference call at 10 am ET Thursday The grocery giant will offer a window into the latest on inflation and how US consumers are responding Cramer said He said he s thinking Kroger s margins may be a little squeezed because its desire to keep customers happy could mean the company ate some of the cost increases it s experiencing Q4 2022 earnings before the bell conference call at 8 am ET Thursday Cramer said he thinks Best Buy s quarter may be better than its previous report However he said he believes there are better stocks out there as people spend less time at home than during peak Covid and therefore may no longer want to upgrade their TV to the latest model Q2 2022 earnings after the close conference call at 5 pm ET Thursday One of his longtime favorite stocks and a part of his Trust portfolio Cramer said he s closely watching whether Costco raises the price of its membership andor issues a special dividend If we don t get one or both then I think my love could momentarily go unrequited What an opportunity no matter what he said If that one goes down buy

Major coins traded in the red on Sunday evening as investors considered the potential consequences of major events in March such as bank failure inflation and cryptocurrency related regulatory actions Cryptocurrency Gains Price Recorded 930 pm EST Bitcoin CRYPTO BTC 136 28027 Ethereum CRYPTO ETH 166 1785 Dogecoin CRYPTO DOGE 578 0078 What Happened The cryptocurrency market was shaken by volatility but Bitcoin CRYPTO BTC gained about 24 in March Top Gainers 24 Hours Cryptocurrency Gains Price Recorded 930 pm EST Aptos 459 1171 Ripple 250 051 EOS 240 122 At the time of writing the global crypto market capitalization stood at 117 trillion a decrease of 134 over the last day US stocks soared on Friday responding to news that the Federal Reserve s preferred measure of inflation has shown a smaller than expected rise in prices The SP 500 jumped 144 while the Nasdaq Composite increased by 174 See More Best Crypto Day Trading Strategies This week investors will have a fresh batch of employment and economic performance data to suss out whether the US economy is picking up steam or continuing to slip as recent indicators suggest On Tuesday the US Census Bureau will release its report on durable goods orders in February with analysts expecting a 1 drop month over month On Friday the US Labor Department will reveal its report on nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate for March News HighlightsThe Arbitrum Foundation has agreed to split a contentious governance package into several individual votes following a series of protests from holders of its ARB token AIP 1 is too large and covers too many topics We will follow the DAO’s advice and split the AIP into parts said the Community Lead with the handle EliDefi in Arbitrum s Discord server Analyst Notes Pseudonymous analyst Rekt Capital observed that when Bitcoin breaks a certain market trend line it usually leads to an uptrend However in 2015 there was a retest before the uptrend If Bitcoin dips in April or May it may be one of the last times it goes below 25000 for a while Historically when BTC has broken the Macro Downtrend a macro uptrend followed In 2015 however there was first a BTC retest of the Downtrend before upside If a dip occurs this April or May it could be one of the last visits below 25K for several monthsCrypto Bitcoin pictwittercombnKh7wUNJv— Rekt Capital rektcapital April 2 2023 Based on the chart provided by ‘Altcoin Sherpa’ Bitcoin appears to have broken out of a descending triangle pattern and is currently on an upward trend The analyst has placed a price target of 36000 for Bitcoin BTC Target acquired at 36kBitcoin pictwittercomkiVklOqrj6— Altcoin Sherpa AltcoinSherpa April 3 2023 According to analyst Jason Pizzino Bitcoin is showing signs of being in the final phase of the accumulation schematic This suggests that Bitcoin is preparing for a period of price rises Pizzino notes that confirmation of this phase may take one or two more weeks on the chart and it will most likely happen if Bitcoin breaks above the 50 level which is around 42000 However Pizzino also cautions that Bitcoin still needs to test the low to mid 30000 range before moving higher Overall while the accumulation phase is coming to an end it hasn t quite arrived yet Read Next Jim Cramer Advises Against Using Binance Provokes Strong Reactions From Twitter Users

The stock market is facing dual stresses as investors and policy makers grapple with stubbornly high inflation The higher interest rates put in place by the Federal Reserve to curb pricing pressures will eventually slow the economy and likely ding corporate earnings At the same time they will constrain the prices that investors are willing to pay for a slice of company profit

Several new reports from real estate companies suggest buyers may be starting to get a break in this red hot housing market More listings are coming up for sale and some sellers are lowering their asking prices The number of new listings last week jumped 8 from a year ago according to Realtorcom This follows four straight weeks of annual declines in new listings The total amount of active inventory for sale is still down 13 from a year ago but it may be on track given the rise in new listings to surpass year ago levels by this summer New listings tend to peak in May Prices however are still well above year ago levels Higher mortgage rates are also making houses less affordable The average borrower is now paying about 38 more than they would have for the same home a year ago on a monthly payment For some buyers general inflation and related mortgage rate hikes mean less budget flexibility to pursue freshly listed homes For those who can afford to persist a silver lining could be relatively less competition for more for sale home options which could lead to some relief from relentless home price momentum As more supply comes on the market and mortgage rates rise sharply sellers appear to be coming back to Earth at least a little About 12 of homes for sale had a price drop during the four weeks ending April 3 That s up from 9 a year ago according to Redfin The rate of sellers dropping their asking prices is now growing faster each month than it has since August Price drops are still rare but the fact that they are becoming more frequent is one clear sign that the housing market is cooling said Daryl Fairweather Redfin s chief economist It goes to show that there s a limit to sellers power There is still way more demand than supply and buyers are still sweating but sellers can no longer overprice their home and still expect buyers to clamor at their door Buyers are sweating because the average rate on the 30 year fixed mortgage which has been rising since January really took off in the past few weeks It surpassed 5 earlier this week according to Mortgage News Daily Consumers are more pessimistic about the housing market according to a monthly survey from Fannie Mae and especially about mortgage rates The share of consumers who expect mortgage rates to rise further increased to 69 from 67 in March More consumers also said they believe home prices will continue to rise If consumer pessimism toward homebuying conditions continues and the recent mortgage rate increases are sustained then we expect to see an even greater cooling of the housing market than previously forecast wrote Mark Palim vice president and deputy chief economist at Fannie Mae

If history is any guide there may be trouble ahead for shares of H World Group NASDAQHTHT A so called death cross has formed on its chart and not surprisingly this could be bearish for the stock What To Know Many traders use moving average crossover systems to make their decisions When a shorter term average price crosses above a longer term average price it could mean the stock is trending higher If the short term average price crosses below the long term average price it means the trend is lower Why It s Important The 50 day and the 200 day simple moving averages are commonly used The death cross occurs when the 50 day moves below the 200 day This could mean the long term trend is changing That just happened with H World Group which is trading around 4003 at publication time Remember Seasoned investors don t blindly trade Death Crosses Instead they use it as a signal to start looking for short positions based on other factors like price levels and company fundamentals events For seasoned investors this is just a sign that it might be time to start considering possible short positions With that in mind take a look at H World Group s past and upcoming earnings expectations Quarter Q1 2023 Q4 2022 Q3 2022 Q2 2022 EPS Estimate 021 017 066 009 EPS Actual 045 012 017 004 Revenue Estimate 62850M 54572M 56544M 53406M Revenue Actual 65200M 53700M 57500M 50400M Do you use the Death Cross signal in your trading or investing Share this article with a friend if you found it helpful This article was generated by Benzinga s automated content engine and reviewed by an editor

HONG KONG Feb 4 Reuters Hong Kong shares jumped on Friday and were set for their best session in two weeks as markets resumed trade after a three day Lunar New Year holiday and played catch up with a rally on Wall Street By lunch break the Hang Seng index HSI was up 64505 points or 271 at 2444731 The Hang Seng China Enterprises index HSCE rose 222 to 853571 China markets are closed for the week and will resume trade on Monday Hong Kong stocks were tracking overall gains in the US markets during the Lunar New Year holidays while the Beijing Winter Olympics gives a stimulus to shares particularly China s sports brands said Linus Yip chief strategist at First Shanghai Securities Shares of Chinese home grown sports brand ANTA Sports 2020HK rose 52 to HK12260 while those of smaller rival Li Ning 2331HK jumped 66 to HK8035 as the Beijing Winter Olympics officially opens on Friday Hong Kong shares of HSBC and Standard Chartered jump to two year highs after the Bank of England BoE hikes interest rates to fight inflation The sub index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares HSCIE rose 23 while the IT sector HSCIIT added 21 the financial sector HSNF gained 319 and the property sector rose 182 The top gainer on the Hang Seng was Haidilao International Holding Ltd 6862HK which advanced 667 while the biggest loser was WH Group Ltd 0288HK which fell 154 Around the region MSCI s Asia ex Japan stock index MIAPJ0000PUS was firmer by 089 while Japan s Nikkei index N225 was up 043 The three biggest H shares percentage decliners were Innovent Biologics Inc 1801HK which was down 505 Longfor Group Holdings Ltd 0960HK which fell 054 and ENN Energy Holdings Ltd 2688HK down by 04

The US Supreme Court reportedly turned away five appeals byExxon Mobil CorpNYSEXOMSuncor Energy IncNYSESUChevron CorpNYSECVX and others to move environment related lawsuits out of state courts and into federal courts The justices determined that the lawsuits belonged in state court a more favorable venue to plaintiffs than federal court The lawsuits were filed by the state of Rhode Island and municipalities or counties in California Colorado Hawaii and Maryland accusing the oil companies of worsening climate change Several state and local governments have pursued litigation against oil companies seeking climate related damagesReutersreported A separate appeal filed by the oil companies challenging lower court decisions in cases out of New Jersey and Delaware is still pending before the Supreme Court Theodore Boutrous an attorney for Chevron expressed confidence that the cases would be dismissed in state court Boutrous said the lawsuits are a national and global magnitude issue requiring a coordinated federal response not a disjointed patchwork of actions from numerous state courts These wasteful lawsuits in state courts will do nothing to advance global climate solutions nothing to reduce emissions and nothing to address climate related impacts Boutrous added Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said his state is preparing for trial after nearly a half decade of delay tactics from the oil companies The Supreme Court s action marks an important milestone Neronha added President Joe Biden s administration in March urged the justices not to take up the appeal by Exxon and Suncor arguing that no federal questions had been raised Photo by Eveline de Bruin via Pixabay

Sempra Energy reported adjusted earnings and top line growth for the third quarter that were above Wall Street analyst expectations as natural gas and electric revenue strengthened The energy infrastructure company posted a profit of 485 million or 153 a share compared with a loss of 648 million or 203 a share a year earlier Stripping out one time items adjusted earnings were 197 a share Analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting 179 a share Revenue rose to 362 billion from 301 billion the company said Analysts had been expecting 336 billion according to FactSet

HR Block Inc shares rose 51 to 2499 in late trading Tuesday after the company raised guidance for certain metrics in 2022 and logged better than expected results in the third quarter The tax preparation provider logged net income of 6732 million or 405 a share for the quarter ended March 31 down from 7582 million or 408 a share in the year ago period Adjusted earnings were 411 a share above analysts expectations of 377 Revenue rose to 206 billion from 198 billion Analysts polled by FactSet expected 195 billion HR Block guided for 2022 revenue to range between 338 billion and 343 billion up from its prior guidance ranging between 325 billion and 335 billion It also guided for earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization to range between 850 million and 875 million up from its prior guidance ranging between 765 million and 815 million The company said results from its third quarter and tax season gave it the confidence to raise its fiscal year and Ebidta outlook

Integrated Diagnostics Holdings PLC said Thursday that its shareholding in the investment fund jointly managed with the World Bank s International Finance Corporation has reached 5 which comes along a 60 million debt financing package to finance its expansion into Pakistan The partnership of IFC with IDH is testament to IDH s recent success and to its ability to consistently deliver on its long term growth strategy and expand access to high quality diagnostic services across emerging markets the consumer healthcare company said The company has collaborated with IFC in past projects including a co investment in Nigeria where they deployed millions of dollars to bring medical diagnostic practices and technology to the country Shares at 0910 GMT were up 004 pence or 35 at 119 pence

MA is down across most industries yet High Tide NASDAQHITI remains on the hunt for targets Our MA strategy is a marked departure from other companies CEO Raj Grover tells Benzinga The Calgary Alberta based company had an active year and will likely keep busy in 2023 Meanwhile other Canadian cannabis retailers struggled to gain market share and are all fading away Grover explains See Also Cannabis Companies Struggle Lay Off Employees To Control Costs We kept our foot on the gas and continuously focused on growing our brick and mortar portfolio through organic store openings Grover adds Same store sales and accretive MA is one of the main reasons why we are more successful than some of our deep pocketed competitors The following interview has been edited for length and clarity BZ High Tide has been expanding what s the company s MA strategy Grover A potential target has to be a good fit in our ecosystem which is retail focused and federally legal For specific stores our real estate team vets their suitability to thrive in the long term From a financial perspective they need to be generating solid EBITDA today which is what we use to derive our purchase price We are very transparent with our shareholders regarding what we are buying and what we are paying As a rule we buy actual tangible EBITDA the company generated over the last few months we don’t buy hope speculative projections or turnaround stories To get to profitability we need to stay ahead of our competition and capitalize on quality growth opportunities as they present themselves We expect to develop one of the largest cannabis brick and mortar store portfolios in the US once we are able to participate in that market We have been in conversations with multiple US groups for a potential acquisition And given our access to US cannabis retail operators our track record of executing large MA deals and being skilled at winning licenses organically positions us well for future growth in the US THC market when the time comes Revenue and profit spiked in Q3 did it meet or exceed expectations Showing 98 revenue growth and 954 million for the third quarter we ve been hailed as one of the most underrated growth stories in cannabis retail and we are said to be massively undervalued Our growth in the quarter was driven by our Canadian operations demonstrating the impact of our discount club model gaining steam across the country Third quarter results were even stronger than our “best case” internal projections as well as analyst consensus for revenue and EBITDA I strongly believe our company’s shares are undervalued especially given our leading national position financial strengthand international exposure What s holding the stock back Three macro factors are unfortunately holding our stock back despite the fact that they don’t specifically apply to us First is a lack of enthusiasm regarding Canadian cannabis companies This has been driven by the large quantums of money many licensed producers have raised from the public which unfortunately has still not been able to position the vast majority of them to generate positive EBITDA four years into legalization In contrast High Tide has created more than 400 million in annual business which has generated positive EBITDA for the past 10 quarters— without ever having a cash balance exceeding 29 million The second factor is a frustration with inaction on the cannabis file in Washington which has deflated investor sentiment across the board While we would like the opportunity to participate in the US THC market and we believe we can eventually be a Top 5 MSO the reality is we are very active and profitable— in the US today We have over 24 million customers in our database in the US alone who have bought consumption accessories andor CBD online from us When legalization happens we plan to start selling these customers THC under whatever the regulations happen to be So while other companies may be sitting on their hands waiting for Washington to move we are very active in the US as we speak Finally there is the state of the broader capital markets which has been very weak The Nasdaq Composite Index has gone from approximately 16000 a year ago to approximately 11000 today Such a risk off environment results in holding back the stock of companies such as ours again despite the fact that we continue to grow and execute on all our plans While these factors have been holding back the price of our shares over the past year I strongly believe that they can’t last forever The market will eventually turn and when it does I believe that companies such as ours with strong fundamentals and industry leading positioning will significantly outperform our peers in the next bull market With credit being so hard to come by plus interest rates and inflation soaring how does that impact financing Credit can be very hard to come by especially in Canadian cannabis where positive cash flows are more of an exception to the rule However given our financial strength we were able to secure a 19 million non dilutive credit facility with connectFirst Credit Union at their floor interest rate These funds will help retire older more expensive debt and add working capital and Capex to keep growing our footprint It was a long drawn out processparticularly given what’s been happening with Canadian cannabis companies as well as broader market weakness over the summer But we got it over the line As we continue to execute the size of the line will also grow New hemp products debuted in October what other products do you hope to unveil in the next year We are looking forward to expanding our Cabana Cannabis Co product line throughout next year providing us with a margin enhancing opportunity The ramp up of our newly built and acquired British Columbia locations will be another catalyst Closing on some attractive e commerce opportunities in front of us will further add to our momentum next year The German market potentially opening up in 2024 will provide a significant growth opportunity in that market through the launch of our Canna Cabana brand The put and the call option are both in play for FAB and Blessed and only the call option is in effect for NuLeaf presently We now have the Fastendr tech installed at 90 locations a total of 169 kiosks We’ve rolled out a newer and faster version of the kiosk operating system which was recently completed in all stores that have Fastendr technology We anticipate installing another 20 or so locations with this tech before the end of this year We also have opportunities in the US that we are exploring to license this tech We are also very excited to introduce Cabana ELITE to our loyal club members where provincial regulations allow This is the first of its kind paid membership program as far as we know in Canadian cannabis Our intention is to convert as many customers as possible into the ELITE membership and we feel the program has great benefits to attract high subscription rates however we are just getting ready to launch this program and it’s hard to predict how steep the uptake curve will be My best guess would be breaching 900000 members by the end of this calendar year and we believe we can achieve over onemillion members by the end of the first calendar quarter in 2023 Presently Cabana Club is only available in Canada with future plans to make it into a global cannabis community Is the goal still to grow retail 200 stores by the end of 2023 We are still in a hyper growth stage with our long term goal of reaching 250 stores in Canada Currently we have 141 locations spanning British Columbia Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba and Ontario Our same store sales continue to grow handsomely and more than the national average which tells us that our concept continues to resonate with our customers and that we should continue expanding our footprint We’ve never had much more than 29 million in our bank account and still managed to fuel this growth from 8 million four years ago to an over 400 million run rate trajectory today Generating such a meaningful amount of sales growth through organic openings and MA has to be financed either by a large war chest of cash or by issuing equity We are in a fortunate position Sellers want to take our stock seeing the difference in execution from our peers Finally the non dilutive credit facility from connectFirst we recently obtained is almost unheard of in Canadian cannabis retail We expect to be able to increase the size of the facility as our fundamentals continue to improve which should drive further growth while minimizing dilution Next 10 Predictions For The Cannabis Industry In 2023

Rose Hill a Jamaica based cultivator supplier and exporter of premium psilocybin products and biomass to research partners and brandsis now offering its first wellness retreat program under the name ONE Retreats The company has also launched its lab tested naturally derived vegan psilocybin gummiesPATOO made with extract and earthed from organic psilocybin biomass and ingredients They are available in 30 retailers in Jamaica including dispensaries hotelsretail storesand retreats Jamaica is known to be one of the few countries worldwide that allows for cultivation and consumption of psychedelic mushrooms Ithas so become one of the key places for retreat offerings and psychedelics related businesses to embed Rose Hill’s operations run through three main channels science and RDits legal psychedelic CPG line PATOOand new ONE Retreats The company prides itself on being the largest legal and natural psilocybin producer in Jamaicaand reportedly the first legal exporter at a global scale It has been cultivating and breeding different varieties of psychedelic mushrooms through sustainable and ethical cultivation practices since 2015 Since2018 PATOO has employed a natural harvesting process of indigenous Jamaican psilocybin fungi curated with high quality standards to ensure its integrity consistency and efficacy The line’s products all psilocybin infused include an organic chocolate bar a handcrafted microdose honey and now the new vegan psilocybin gummies Today besides an export contract with clinical stage company Mydecine Innovations OTCMYCOF ongoing since March 2021 Rose Hill is in the brink of applying for a manufacturing and services license in Oregon leveraging its team s expertise in cannabis operations and retail networks Rose Hill’s co founders serve as inaugural advisors on Jamaica’s Psilocybin Mushroom Industry Technical Committee JPMITC under the Bureau of Standards where they have been tasked to advise on the formalization of industry guidelines and regulations Co founder and chief cultivation and production Charles Lazarus says the Rose Hill team is thrilled to launch the next iteration of the psilocybin product brand “at accessible price points” “We hope that a well respected and recognized brand like PATOO will further lift the stigma associated with psychedelics and create the much needed legitimacy this industry needs” Lazarus added Regarding the ONE Retreats which launched this past June in West End Negril Jamaica with an inaugural veterans cohort co founder and chief marketing and branding officer Kevin Bourke says that “generations have turned to psilocybin and other mushroom variations for their immense potential to heal and ONE is our commitment to offer access to much needed medicine” Photo courtesy of Rose Hill

March 8 Reuters A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever To slightly mangle Bruce Springsteen s Born To Run the market s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance Powell drive everybody s out on the run tonight and there s no place left to hide There certainly appears to be no place left to hide from higher US interest rates bond yields and a stronger dollar following Fed Chair Jerome Powell s testimony to the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday Investors had generally expected Powell to strike a hawkish tone so the scale of price adjustment across financial markets after he opened the door to higher and possibly faster rate increases was even more staggering Asian markets will feel the aftershocks when they open on Wednesday with Japanese current account data the only major economic data point on the calendar that could potentially influence the yen The tone however will be set by Tuesday s seismic market moves some of which bear repeating the dollar jumped 12 its best day since November the two year Treasury yield hit 5 for the first time since 2007 the 2s10s yield curve inversion reached 100 basis points for the first time since 1981 The implied peak Fed rate is now 565 traders now reckon a 50 bps rate hike from the Fed later this month is twice as likely as a quarter point increase Given all that it is maybe surprising that Wall Street s three main indexes only fell between 1 and 15 Powell s hawkishness contrasted with Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann who said sterling could be vulnerable to more aggressive policy moves from other central banks especially the Reserve Bank of Australia RBA The RBA raised rates by 25 bps as expected on Tuesday to 360 the highest in more than a decade But its dovish outlook caught markets flat footed and the Australian dollar plunged 2 Unsurprisingly sterling and the Aussie dollar were easily the worst performing major currencies on the day but the greenback is sure to flex its muscles against Asian currencies on Wednesday As all consuming as Powell s remarks were investors in Asia will also be keeping a close eye on news from China and signs that relations with the US are deteriorating further Trade activity fell in February reflecting weak global and domestic demand but trade with Russia boomed Asked if China and Russia would abandon the US dollar and euro for bilateral trade Foreign Minister Qin Gang said countries should use whatever currency was efficient safe and credible Qin said currencies should not be the trump card for unilateral sanctions or disguise for bullying or coercion and warned Washington to stop suppression or risk conflict Here are three key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Wednesday

MUMBAI Nov 1 Reuters India s gold consumption in the months of October to December could fall by around a quarter from a year ago as inflation depresses rural demand the World Gold Council WGC said on Tuesday The lower purchases in the world s second biggest gold consumer could weigh on prices which are trading near their lowest level in more than two years Falling demand for gold imports could also help to narrow India s trade deficit and support the rupee Higher inflation is likely to curb rural demand which was starting to recover from disruption caused by last year s COVID 19 led lockdowns Somasundaram PR regional chief executive officer of WGC s Indian operations told Reuters India s annual inflation rate in September remained above 7 and beyond the central bank s tolerance band raising the chances the central bank will raise rates at the next policy meeting Two thirds of India s gold demand usually comes from rural areas where jewellery is a traditional store of wealth In the December quarter India s gold demand could fall to around 250 tonnes from 3439 tonnes a year ago Somasundaram said The drop could bring down India s total gold consumption in 2022 to around 750 tonnes down 6 from last year s 7973 tonnes he said India s demand for gold rose 14 from a year ago to 1917 tonnes in the quarter through September as festivals drove jewellery sales the WGC said in a report published on Tuesday Gold smuggling which declined in the last two years because of a lack of international flights has gained momentum since New Delhi in July raised import duty on the precious metal With the total tax of 185 there is lot more propensity to smuggle Somasundaram said

The Federal Reserve’s efforts at raising rates to cool inflation while preventing a full blown banking crisis both could cloud the outlook for stocks The reward for owning stocks over bonds hasn’t been this slim since before the 2008 financial crisis The equity risk premium—the gap between the SP 500’s earnings yield and that of 10 year Treasurys—sits around 159 percentage points a low not seen since October 2007

Home Depot on Tuesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beat analysts expectations as sales increased from a year ago Our performance reflects continued strength in demand for home improvement projects Home Depot CEO and President Ted Decker said in a statement Here s what the home improvement retailer reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv Same store sales rose 58 compared to an estimated 49 according to FactSet

A security guard in personal protective equipment PPE walks at a main shopping area following the coronavirus disease COVID 19 outbreak in Shanghai China March 29 2022 REUTERSAly Song SHANGHAI March 29 Reuters More than 20000 bankers traders and other workers are bedding down in office towers in Shanghai s Lujiazui district as they bid to keep China s giant financial hub ticking over through a COVID 19 lockdown according to local administration officials Brokerages asset managers and financial exchanges in Lujiazui China s answer to Wall Street rushed to summon key personnel to offices ahead of Monday s lockdown in Shanghai and prepared sleeping bags and basic supplies for overnight stays Some have also adopted two team rotation shifts and initiated disaster recovery centres in a financial hub that processed more than 2500 trillion yuan 292 trillion of financial transactions last year The 20000 people working at 285 office towers in Pudong s Lujiazui Financial City east of the Huangpu River include white collar workers and some service staff according to the administration bureau of the district also home to some non financial institutions Shanghai home to 26 million people started a lockdown on Monday by dividing the city roughly along the Huangpu River to allow for staggered testing Shanghai houses China s biggest markets for stock bond foreign exchange and derivatives trading read more Amundi BOC Walth Management Co said its senior executives as well as key investment trading and risk management staff are working and sleeping in their offices to ensure smooth business operations Meanwhile Haitong Securities Co 600837SS said Chairman Zhou Jie arranged emergency on site duty shifts at its subsidiaries in Pudong on Sunday night and led more than 150 key staff to work in offices starting Monday The brokerage also kicked off two team rotation shifts between its two office areas it said on its official website HFT Investment Management BNP Paribas Chinese fund venture also put 52 workers in key positions in offices around the clock during the lockdown period Elsewhere Sinolink Securities 600109SS issued a notice on Sunday night urging its staff on duty to rush back to its headquarters in Pudong before midnight so as to ensure continuity of system operation and trading the Chinese brokerage said on its website An executive at a foreign bank in Shanghai who declined to be identified said his bank is on a hybrid working model with some staff working and sleeping at a backup office in Puxi in the western side of the city while some others staying in a trading room in Pudong A source at another foreign bank said the lender had been using disaster recovery centres for over a week a practice that will continue The officials declined to be identified because they are not authorised to speak to media The Shanghai Stock Exchange told Reuters it kept minimum teams of staff in key positions within the bourse while others work from home in an arrangement designed to minimise human contacts while ensuring safety of trading Reporting by Samuel Shen Winni Zhou and Andrew Galbraith Editing by Kenneth Maxwell

Shares in Mothercare PLC rose Tuesday after the baby products retailer said it swung to a pretax profit for fiscal 2022 as international sales by its franchise partners rose and that the board is positive on the brand s long term prospects Shares at 1524 GMT were up 306 pence or 44 at 10 pence The UK company said pretax profit for the year ended March 26 was 111 million pounds 13 million compared with a pretax loss of GBP214 million for fiscal 2021 International retail sales by franchise partners were GBP3853 million compared with GBP3586 million a year earlier The company said its franchise partners recorded sales of GBP135 million for the first 21 weeks of fiscal 2023 but that these had been hurt by the permanent closure of the Russian retail business Adjusted earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization a metric that strips out exceptional and other one off items were GBP120 million compared with GBP22 million the year before The company said this was ahead of market expectations reflecting its focus on its core international franchise and its brand management Revenue fell to GBP825 million from GBP858 million the year before Mothercare said it expects to suffer a GBP6 million hit to its fiscal 2023 earnings as a result of the suspension of sales in Russia Some GBP88 million of Mothercare s franchise retail sales came from the country in the year the company said The company said in March that Russia represented around 20 25 of its worldwide retail sales and had been previously expected to contribute around GBP500000 per month to the group s profit Whilst mindful of the inflationary global economic environment we are now focused on restoring critical mass and optimizing the Mothercare brand globally over the next five years the company said

China Evergrande Group ’s chief executive sold his holdings of company dollar bonds with a face value of 128 million last summer stock exchange filings showed with the sales coming a few weeks before the property developer issued a profit warning Evergrande CEO Xia Haijun and Hui Ka Yan the group’s founder and chairman have in recent years bought sizable quantities of new bonds from the company according to company statements and to earlier filings disclosing changes to their holdings Some of the bond buying was presented as a public show of support when the Chinese real estate giant was conducting multibillion dollar debt issues

Investors should not step into buy yet even when it feels like the selling in the stock market has gone too far according to Fairlead Strategies Katie Stockton a top chart analyst We look for oversold buy signals in up trending markets and yet in down trending markets like we have now the oversold readings really aren t necessarily a good thing Stockton said on CNBC s Squawk Box The Fairlead Strategies founder and managing partner made her remarks as the market sold off on worries the economy could tip into a recession following the Federal Reserve s aggressive rate hikes On Thursday the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped below 30000 for the first time in more than a year falling about 700 points on the day The S P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 29 and 35 respectively Stockton said that indicators such as the Cboe Volatility Index or VIX have yet to show that stocks are due for a bounce The chart analyst noted she is looking for the VIX to break above 38 for a capitulation signal That according to Stockton could take the S P 500 down to roughly 3500 or even lower The VIX traded above 31 on Thursday I think 3500 would certainly be enough to do it just shaking people s confidence But I ve noticed from a bottom up perspective there s a lot of names especially in the high growth front are still actually above their May lows and I think that might be giving folks is a sense of safety like Okay we don t have new breakdowns unfolding but there s so many that are right on support Stockton said Stockton also said those support levels are very fragile and could be taken out Should Wall Street see two weekly closes below 3815 the analyst said the broad market index could fall even further to 3200 in the coming months So all of this kind of suggests that there s more downside risk she said

Ark Investment Management s decision to sell a significant amount ofCoinbase Global IncNASDAQCOIN shares recently was tied to regulatory uncertainty in the crypto industry founder and CIO Cathie Wood said on Monday What HappenedArk s sale of 75 million of COIN shares last month came after theUS Securities and Exchange CommissionSEC alleged that the cryptocurrency exchange had listed unregistered securities Woodsaidin an interview with Bloomberg TV Ark dumped a total of 142 million COIN shares onJuly 27 sending the stock price tumbling 21 on the day to 5293ARK InnovationOTCARKK sold 113 million shares while theARK Next Generation Internet ETFOTCARKW sold 176611 shares and theARK Fintech Innovation ETFOTCARKF sold 110268 shares It was unclear how many tokens Coinbase would have to delist if it didn’t register them with regulators or how the exchange’s business model would change if it did register them Wood said to Bloomberg She explained that the uncertainty around the SEC probe led Ark to swap Coinbase shares forShopify IncNYSESHOP which also fell on the same day See AlsoCathie Wood Defends Coinbase Allocation Crypto Revolution Will Not Be Stopped Even after the sale Ark remains one of Coinbase’s largest shareholders holding over 71 million shares The firm believes thatBlackRock’s recentpartnershipwith Coinbase is a “strong signal” thatBitcoinCRYPTOBTC deserves a place in well diversified portfolios “Based on daily returns across asset classes during the past ten years our analysis suggests that an allocation to bitcoin in well diversified portfolios should range from 255 when minimizing volatility to 655 when maximizing returns per unit of risk”statedArk in its weekly newsletter Price ActionCoinbase shares traded 0082 higher after hours according todata from Benzinga Pro Photo courtesy Ark Invest