Economic highlights of the day:
There are no major releases on the Western markets today. Japan announced earlier this morning that its producer prices rose by 5.1% year-on-year, which is high but below expectations (5.6%). Full agenda here.
The dollar is trading at EUR 0.9278 and GBP 0.7947. The ounce of gold remains stable at USD 1965. Oil is recovering from its contraction, with North Sea Brent at USD 73.17 a barrel and US light crude WTI at USD 68.57. The yield on 10-year US debt is little changed at 3.67%. Bitcoin is trading at USD 26,000.
In corporate news:
- Illumina - The CEO of genetic sequencing machine maker, Francis deSouza, resigned on Sunday, handing a victory to activist investor Carl Icahn and reinforcing expectations that the controversial Grail acquisition would be canceled in 2021.
- VMware, Broadcom - The European Commission is set to approve, subject to conditions, the proposed $61 billion acquisition of cloud computing company VMware by US chipmaker Broadcom.
- Microsoft - Sam Altman, CEO of Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI and owner of ChatGPT, said Monday that his recent world tour had made him "quite optimistic" about the prospects for global coordination in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
- Chinook Therapeutics is up in pre-market trading after Swiss drugmaker Novartis said that it had agreed to acquire it for up to $3.5 billion.
- Google - Twitter refused to pay its bills to Google Cloud when its contract with the two groups is up for renewal in June, potentially crippling the social network's trust and security teams.
- Trinet Group - The online payroll services provider is considering a sale of the company and is working with investment bank Morgan Stanley to make contact with potential buyers.
- American Airlines and JetBlue Airways asked a U.S. judge on Friday to allow them to continue their mutual frequent flyer recognition and codeshare agreements after Judge Leo Sorokin ruled on May 19 that the two airlines must terminate their NEA alliance, which covers air routes in the northeastern U.S.
Analyst recommendations:
- Amazon: Phillip Securities downgrades to neutral from accumulate. PT set to $120
- Ameren: KeyBanc Capital Markets raised to overweight from sector weight. Price target upgrades 8% to $90.
- Ameriprise Financial: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods maintains its price target to $350.
- CenterPoint Energy: Guggenheim Securities raised the recommendation to buy from neutral. PT up 11% to $32.
- DocuSign: Wedbush maintains its neutral opinion on the case. PT adjusted from $60 to $67.
- Moderna: Jefferies maintains its opinion on the stock. Price target set to $275.
- Netflix: Phillip Securities cut the recommendation to neutral from accumulate. PT down 7.6% to $388
- Old Dominion Freight Line: Jefferies initiated coverage with a recommendation of hold. PT increases 14% to $350.
- Oracle: Wolfe Research raised the recommendation to outperform from peerperform. Price target up 18% set to $130.
- PagSeguro Digital: JPMorgan Chase maintains its recommendation. PT up to $11.50 from $10