Replies

KCG: THE LOOK…April 20th, 2014

U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index posted its
biggest weekly gain since July, amid corporate-earnings reports.

Halliburton Co. climbed 1 percent in early New York trading after forecasting profit growth for the second quarter. Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. advanced after people with the knowledge of the matter said talks to merge the two companies could be revived. Athenahealth Inc. fell 1.8 percent
after reporting quarterly earnings that missed projections.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in June rose 0.2 percent to 1,861.2 at 7:43 a.m. in New York today. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts added 29 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,372.

“I suspect most companies are going to raise guidance for the upcoming quarters thanks to the pumped up demand and the spring thrall,” Patrick Spencer, who helps oversee more than $100 billion as head of equity sales at Robert W. Baird & Co. in London, said in a phone interview. “The economy remains in a
sweet spot. I’m very optimistic for this year.”

The S&P 500 jumped 2.7 percent last week, rebounding from the previous week’s technology-led selloff, as corporate earnings from Morgan Stanley to Citigroup Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. surpassed estimates. The gauge is 1.4 percent away from its record high reached April 2. U.S. equity markets were closed on
April 18 for the Good Friday holiday.

European stocks posted a weekly gain as better-than-estimated U.S. data bolstered investor
confidence the economic recovery is on course, outweighing an escalation in the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

UniCredit SpA rose 4 percent and Banco Popolare SC advanced 6.6 percent after Berenberg Bank said Italian lenders will benefit the most if the rebound in the European economy continues. Tesco Plc added 3.1 percent after reporting trading profit that beat estimates. Afren Plc helped a gauge of oil-and-gas companies post the best performance among industry groups. ASML Holding NV tumbled 7 percent after forecasting second-quarter sales that trailed analysts’ projections.

The Europe Stoxx 600 Index added 1.1 percent to 332.43 in the holiday-shortened week. The benchmark gauge has climbed in four of the last five weeks and increased 1.3 percent in 2014.

• Support:1857, 1850, 1837
• Resistance:1870, 1876, 1889

It’s becoming much harder for companies to close initial public offerings.

Moelis & Co. and Weibo Corp. were among six issuers seeking $100 million or more in the U.S. that had to accept less than they had anticipated, data compiled by Bloomberg Show. Only two companies last week raised an amount that was within the range they expected.
On average, the eight companies priced their offerings at 12 percent below the mid-point of their marketed range, the CHART OF THE DAY shows. That’s the biggest discount since the third week of October, after the U.S. government shut down following a budget impasse, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Almost $18 billion of newly issued shares have flooded the U.S. market in 2014 — from midpriced-hotel chain La Quinta Holdings Inc. to King Digital Entertainment Plc, the maker of Candy Crush. This 60 percent jump in supply from the same time last year, coupled with a selloff in risky assets, explains the difficulty late-comers have had, according to Larry Haverty of Gamco Investors Inc.
“Investors have said more or less ‘enough’,” said Haverty, whose firm in Rye, New York oversees $46 billion in assets. “If you look at IPOs over the last three or four months, they’ve been very richly priced. It’s not necessarily closing the IPO window, but it’s a brief pause.”
While 167 companies are still on tap to raise $12 billion through U.S. IPOs, the calendar for the rest of April looks bare with only two issuers seeking less than $100 million combined, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
That doesn’t include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which could file a prospectus for its IPO as soon as this month, people familiar with the matter have said. The share sale by China’s largest e-commerce company could be the biggest in over two years.