WED, JUN 28, 2023

Tomorrow's Top CNBC Stories Tonight

Housing stocks rise as mortgage demand grows

Amid a flurry of strong housing data, including higher mortgage demand today, some of the publicly-traded players in home sales are benefiting. Home-flipping company Opendoor gained 17%, adding to an incredible 240%+ run this year. It’s still almost 40% off its August 52-week high. Redfin, which is also up over 200% in 2023, was up 15% today and hit its highest level since April 2022. Larger rival Zillow had more modest gains, up just 2.7% Wednesday, but it also notched a 52-week high.

Office REITs take a step back

On the other hand, office REITs pulled back a bit today. SL Green had its worst day since March, but that followed a nearly 9% gain yesterday and it remains up over 20% this month. Vornado and Kilroy fell more than 3% but remain firmly in positive territory for this month. A gain in June would be a welcome break for the group as each of these names are still down 15% or more this year.

Staples suffer, dragged by General Mills

General Mills weighed on food staples today. The stock had its worst day since May 2022 after its lackluster forecast and weaker-than-expected organic sales. Peers like Hershey, J.M. Smucker and Conagra fell more than 3%. Campbell Soup was off by nearly 2%, hitting its lowest level in a year and heading for its worst month since December 2018. Keurig Dr. Pepper is less than 1% away from a 52-week low.

Virgin Galactic jumps on spaceflight excitement

Virgin Galactic gained 9% ahead of its first commercial spaceflight on Thursday. The stock fell late last week and early this week on plans to raise funds through a stock offering. But excitement over the launch still has SPCE up over 35% month to date, which would be its first monthly gain since February.

Joby Aviation's best day ever

Another high-flier was Joby Aviation, which gained 40% for its best day ever. The move followed two big pieces of news for the air-taxi company: the Federal Aviation Administration is allowing it to test a prototype without passengers, and the company is appointing Toyota North America CEO Tetsuo Ogawa to its board. Today’s move brought it to its highest level since November 2021, though it remains more than 30% off the all-time high it notched on the day of its SPAC merger in August 2021.

Space

Virgin Galactic, which Ethan Kraft wrote about above, traded at more than $55 a share two years ago. Today it is under $5.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is also on the move tomorrow as the Cargo Dragon Vehicle leaves the International Space Station, coming back to earth with more than 3,600 pounds of stuff: experiments and equipment.
The Procure Space ETF (UFO) hasn't blasted off yet; it is down 2% this year.
Rocket Lab is the best component, up 55% in 2023. BlackSky Technology is up 36% year to date. Leonardo and ViaSat are both up about 30%.
On the bottom, Sidus Space is down 82% in 2023, and Arqit Quantum is down 64.5%. DISH is off 53% this year.

Bank stress tests

All 23 of the banks the Federal Reserve monitors for its annual stress test passed. This means they were able to keep up minimum capital levels.
CNBC’s Hugh Son reported that JPMorgan and Wells Fargo will soon have updated plans for buybacks and dividends.
Bank of America, JPM, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo are all up more than 1% after hours.
Bank of America is 27% from the 52-week high.
Goldman Sachs is 19.5% from the 52-week high.
Morgan Stanley is 16% from the 52-week high.
Wells Fargo and Citigroup are 15% from the 52-week high.
JPMorgan is just 4% from the 52-week high.

Nike

The shoe company reports tomorrow.
The stock is up 7.4% in June and 14% from a 52-week high.
Nike is part of the S&P Consumer Discretionary sector, which is up almost 30% in 2023. Nike is down 3.4% in that time period.
The top performers are Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Tesla, all up more than 100% in 2023.
Home Depot, Ulta and AutoZone are at the bottom. All three are slightly negative year to date.

McCormick

The Maryland-based spice company, and maker of Old Bay reports Thursday morning.
The stock is near a 52-week high, just 2.7% off the high mark set last Friday.
McCormick is up about 11% so far in 2023.

Micron

Shares of Micron are up about 3% after hours. The semiconductor company posted better-than-expected results this evening.
This company is also part of the new artificial-intelligence optimism boom.
In the last three months, the stock is in the middle of the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH). Micron is up 13% in that time period.
Nvidia, Marvell and Broadcom are at the top of the list. All three are up at least 35% in three months.
Universal Display, Skyworks and Qualcomm are at the bottom. They are negative over the past three months.