DAILY MORNING BREFING

The S&P 500 futures trade 12 points, or 0.4%, below fair value to retrace some of yesterday's 2.0% rebound in the benchmark index. Futures are trading with no news catalyst again, while investors try to decipher if there's still more selling ahead given the increased volatility or if yesterday's bounce was the start of a new run to record highs. Likewise, there was little reaction to the European Central Bank making no changes to its policy stance, as widely expected. The latest weekly Initial Claims report (Briefing consensus 813,000) will surely draw some attention when it's released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Producer Price Index for August (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%) will be released alongside the unemployment data, followed by Wholesale Inventories for July (Briefing consensus -0.1%) at 10:00 a.m. ET. U.S. Treasuries trade near their flat lines ahead of today's economic data. The 2-yr yield is up one basis point to 0.14%, and the 10-yr yield is flat at 0.70%. The U.S. Dollar Index is down 0.2% to 93.08. WTI crude futures are down 1.5%, or $0.55, to $37.50/bbl. U.S. equity index futures are pausing for breath, with the Nasdaq nominally higher and the Dow and S&P 500 inching lower, after Wall Street snapped its tech losing streak on Wednesday. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares rebounded nearly 11% after suffering their biggest one-day percentage drop in history, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained 4% to bring its market cap back to $2T. On the economic calendar today is the release of U.S. weekly jobless claims as Congress remains deadlocked over a fresh coronavirus stimulus package. While Senate Republicans have united around a "skinny" bill, Democrats oppose the measure, and it isn't expected to clear its first procedural hurdle in the Senate today. In U.S. Corporate news: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Covid How many planes are needed to deliver a coronavirus vaccine? Dubbing it the "largest single transport challenge ever," the International Air Transport Association called on governments to start "careful planning with industry stakeholders" for the large-scale delivery of a coronavirus vaccine. "Just providing a single dose to 7.8B people would fill 8,000 (Boeing) 747 cargo aircraft," according to the air transport body. The IATA also cautioned that "while there are still many unknowns (number of doses, temperature sensitivities, manufacturing locations, etc.), it is clear that the scale of activity will be vast, that cold chain facilities will be required and that delivery to every corner of the planet will be needed." __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Consumer Walmart takes another page from the Amazon playbook Partnering with end-to-end delivery firm Flytrex, Walmart (NYSE:WMT) launched a pilot program this week to test using drones to deliver groceries and household essentials in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Even though it is expected to be a long time before drones are widely used for deliveries, the company hopes to gain insight by using the technology. Besides mirroring Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Prime Air program, Walmart also announced its Walmart+ membership program last week that will take on Amazon Prime. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Energy BP takes first step into offshore wind BP (NYSE:BP) is continuing its seismic strategy shift in abandoning the oil major business model, making its first venture into offshore wind power with a $1.1B purchase of U.S. assets from Norway's Equinor (NYSE:EQNR). The British firm will receive a 50% stake in the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind developments off New York and Massachusetts, respectively, while Equinor will retain 50% in both, and continue to act as the operator. Just six months after taking the helm, BP CEO Bernard Looney said in August he'd shrink oil and gas output by 40% over the next decade and spend as much as $5B a year building one of the world's largest renewable power businesses. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ RH (RH 375.00, +53.92): +16.8% after exceeding top and bottom-line estimates and saying business trends have continued to build month over month. Spotify (SPOT 256.45, +11.52): +4.7% after the stock was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse. Zscaler (ZS 131.21, -2.87): -2.1% despite beating top and bottom-line estimates and issuing upside _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ today's Economic Calendar 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims 8:30 Producer Price Index 10:00 Wholesale Inventories (Preliminary) 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory 11:00 EIA Petroleum Inventories 1:00 PM Results of $23B, 30-Year Note Auction 4:30 PM Money Supply 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet ________________________________________________________________________ Gapping up In reaction to earnings/guidance: RH +17%, SLQT +13.2%, VRNT +10%, AGX +9.8%, NCNO +5.1%, AAN +4.3%, LAKE +3.8%, DGX +3.2% (raises FY20 EPS and revs guidance) TSM +1.1% (Aug sales), LSTR +0.9%, ENR +0.9% Other news: VRTU +23.3% (to be acquired by Baring Private Equity Asia for $51.35/share in cash) CBD +14.7% (approved initiating a study to segregate its cash and carry unit through a partial spin-off of the Company) IMTX +11.4% (provided an update on its fourth ACTengine cell therapy program, IMA204) INVA +6.7% (Innoviva and GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) receive FDA approval for Trelegy Ellipta) MD +5.8% (announces agreement to sell MEDNAX Radiology Solutions to Radiology Partners) TXMD +3% (announced patent update for ANNOVERA) PTON +2.9% (reports earnings after hours tonight) NNOX +2.7% (submitted official response to accredited Review Organization under the FDA Third Party Review Program) FBRX +2.2% (announced publication of Phase 1/2a data for FB-401), SSL +1.8% (sells air separation units business to Air Liquide) CGC +1.5% (announced the launch of Martha Stewart CBD-- a new line of hemp-derived wellness supplements) AZN +1.1% (reportedly denied COVID-19 vaccine trial patient suffered from transverse myelitis) Analyst comments: BBCP +7.6% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at B. Riley FBR) SPOT +4.1% (upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse) HWM +2.3% (upgraded to Overweight from Underweight at Barclays) SAFM +2% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman) NVS +1% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS)______ ___________________________________________________________________________________ Gapping down In reaction to earnings/guidance: GME -10.2%, BIGC -4.9%, ZS -1.6% Other news: TRQ -17.7% (provides update on engagement with the company's controlling shareholder, Rio Tinto plc, concerning the long-term funding of Oyu Tolgoi LLC) QTNT -8.3% (announced $60 mln public offering of ordinary shares) ATNX -7.1% (prices public offering of 10,000,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $11.00 per share) CSIQ -5.6% (announced offering of US$200 mln aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2025) PRPL -5.4% (prices secondary public offering of 11,826,087 shares of its Class A common stock to be sold by selling shareholders at $18.50 per share), YUMC -4.3% (officially listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong) ZNH -4% (intends to carry out mixed ownership reform) MXL -3.2% (acquired NanoSemi for $10 mln in cash and 804,163 common shares) ITCI -2.2% (announced public offering of $350 mln of its common shares) RPAY -2% (prices 13 mln (upsized from 10 mln) common shares at $24.00/share) ALKS -1.9% (filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceuticals USA (TEVA)) IIIV -1.8% (provided potential investors additional disclosures concerning recent developments in connection with a proposed underwritten public offering), SPRO -1.5% (commenced public offering of 8.0 mln common shares) ICE -1.4% (prices secondary offering by selling stockholder Thoma Bravo of 9,180,568 shares of ICE's common stock at $100.20/share) Analyst comments: HDS -3% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at Truist) SO -0.9% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Mizuho)