Mid-Morning Look

Monday, July 21, 2025

U.S. stocks surging on pure momentum, extending the massive rally off the April “Liberation Day” lows, with investors showing no fear ahead of the August 1^st trade/tariff deadline for global trading partners and heading into the heart of earnings season the next three weeks. Gold futures and crypto assets surging of late (along with stocks) on U.S. dollar weakness and exchange traded fund interest. The precious metal has gained on a slide in the U.S. dollar, which appears to be slipping on the prospect of U.S. interest rate cuts and lower tariffs. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both hit all-time highs with the Dow Jones Industrials also close as investors upbeat on early Q2 earnings outlook. Of the 62 S&P 500 companies reported thus far (fiscal qtr ending May-Jul, per Reuters), 84% have beat vs. 16% miss with the average beat 8%, and avg miss -3%. That comes ahead of a very busy week of earnings with roughly 20% of S&P 500 index earnings are expected to report this week (per @WallStHorizon), as 112 S&P 500 companies (including 5 Dow 30 companies and 2 Mag 7 companies with TSLA, GOOGL reporting). NYSE market breadth strong again today, les by Technology (XLK) and Communications (XLC) while Energy lags. No major economic data today and no Fed speakers ahead of next week FOMC policy meeting. In Japan, while Japanese markets closed for holiday, there was no fallout from widely expected LDP and coalition partners loss of majority in the upper chamber. Japanese Premier Shigeru Ishiba vowed to remain in his post after his ruling coalition suffered a bruising defeat in upper house elections. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday on Monday, although the yen strengthened and Nikkei futures rose slightly.

• Continued negative momentum in Managed Care following ACA changes and impact on earnings and guidance thus far for many (CNC, ELV, HUM, UNH) sending shares lower. Today, CNC was downgraded to Hold from Buy at TD Cowen (tgt to $33 from $73) citing health insurance exchange uncertainty for the downgrade and ELV downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus, citing the ongoing pressures on the company’s profit margins from medical cost trends in its Medicaid and ACA marketplace businesses.
• In Housing: New listings of U.S. homes for sale fell -3.2% in June, according to Redfin. That’s the biggest month-over-month decline since February 2023. New listings fell 3.4% year over year, the first annual decline since October 2023. Active listings fell 0.3% month-over- month in June, the first decline since July 2023 on a seasonally adjusted basis. Still, active listings were up 13.3% y/y, highest level in five years.

• DJT +6%; Trump Media announces it has acquired $2 billion worth of Bitcoin.
• DLTR +2%; PT to $138 from $111, added to US analyst focus list, while Barclay’s upgraded shares to overweight and raised its tgt to $120 (while downgrading TGT to Underweight).
• DYNX +30%; after the Ether Reserve, a new crypto venture backed by crypto investors, will list on the Nasdaq through a merger with the blank-check firm and is expected to raise over $1.6B. The combined entity named The Ether Machine, aims to launch with more than 400,000 Ether on its balance sheet.
• EQIX +2%; after Bloomberg reported Elliott Investment Management has built up its stake in Equinix and is pushing the data center operator to take steps to boost its share price
• VZ +4%; Q2 revenue of $34.5B tops average est. of $33.74B; Q2 adj EPS of $1.22 also beat estimates of $1.20; posts a surprise drop of 9,000 monthly bill-paying wireless subscribers in Q2, vs. ests of an increase of 13,000 subscribers; raises FY25 adjusted EPS growth to 1%-3% from 0%-3%.
• XYZ +8%; will be added to the S&P 500 Index after the closing on Tuesday, 7/22, replacing HES
• ZIMV +121%; after announces definitive agreement to be acquired by ArchiMed for $19.00 per share in cash in proposed deal for enterprise value of approximately $730M.

• BRKR -11%; after announcing lowered prelim revenue guidance for Q2, sees it in a range of $795M-$798M, which implies approx flat reported revenue YoY and estimates that its non-GAAP organic revenue in Q225 declined approx 7% Y/Y.
• BULL -5%; after filing for up to 75.16M shares in stock offering by selling shareholder Yorkville Advisors.
• SE -7%; after Shopee Indonesia has implemented an Order Processing Fee of Rp1,250 (approximately USD 0.08) per transaction for sellers, effective on July 20.
• SRPT -2%; was downgraded to Neutral at Mizuho, to Underperform at Needham and price tgts drastically lowered by several Wall Street firms after the FDA asked the company Friday to voluntarily halt shipments of its Elevidys gene therapy after a patient who received a different, experimental treatment died.
• TGT ; Barclays downgraded TGT to Underweight from EW (with $91 PT) saying that absent a bigger strategic shift, the company’s sales will continue to underperform.