MON, JUL 24, 2023

Tomorrow's Top CNBC Stories Tonight

PacWest's big month

PacWest Bancorp led the outperformance in regional banks today, with bigger names like Truist, M&T Bank and Regions Financial also firmly in positive territory. But PacWest is currently tracking for its best month on record and has been one of the top performers on the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) in July. We’ll see if those gains hold following the company’s quarterly results on Tuesday

F5 rises on earnings beat

F5 is higher in the extended session, following a beat on earnings and revenue. The cybersecurity firm’s guidance was roughly in line with estimates. F5 has been a laggard among cyber stocks this year, with a 4.6% gain year-to-date as of today’s close. The First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR), by comparison, is up more than 18% since the start of the year. Palo Alto Networks, Cloudflare and Fortinet have been some of the best performers there, while Okta and SentinelOne lag alongside F5.

Crown Castle's cost-cutting plan

Crown Castle said after the bell that it plans to cut 15% of its workforce and consolidate office space as the cell tower company restructures to cut costs. From a stock perspective, the cell tower REITs have been among the worst performers in 2023. SBA Communications and Crown Castle are down about 19% and 18%, respectively. American Tower, the largest of the three, is down around 10% year to date.

Chinese stocks jump

Chinese tech stocks had a strong day, with Bilibili up about 11% and other notable gains from names like iQIYI, Baidu, JD.com, NetEase and Alibaba. The gains today followed an analysis from Bloomberg indicating China’s crackdown on its tech giants may be easing. The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB) posted its best day since May, though it remains almost 20% off its January 52-week high.

Really big earnings on Tuesday

GE will report. The stock is up 6% in a month and just off the 52-week high. GE’s stock is up 10% in the past three months.
GM is also slated to report. CEO Mary Barra will be on in the 9 a.m. hour Eastern time. The stock picked up 2% today. It is 10% from a 52-week high, and up 14.6% over the past three months.
Verizon reports also. The stock is down 8.4% over the past three months, and it remains 27% from the August 2022 52-week high.
In the afternoon, Alphabet reports. The stock is up 14.7% in the past three months. It is 6% from the 52-week high.
Microsoft reports after the bell, also. The stock is 6% from a 52-week high, and it's up 22.5% over the past three months.

The shorts rise

Yun Li wrote a story for CNBC Pro about the big jump in short activity. Subscribers can read it here.
The report quotes Trivariate Research, showing that the number of stocks of the 3,000 largest companies with 20% of outstanding shares sold short has surpassed the amount seen during the meme craze of early 2021 that saw extreme volatility in stocks like AMC and GameStop.
One stock with a big short covering surge today was Tupperware, up 75%. The stock is only worth about $1.60 a share and is down 87% from the 52-week high amid worries about the company’s viability. The market cap is at a mere $70 million dollars.

Jack in the Box

There was a surge in options activity in this fast-food stock today: 13 times higher than any day in the last ten.
The stock finished down 0.5%, but it was in a big trading range between $93.65 and $96.88.
The stock is 4% from a 52-week high and up 5% in a month.

Options and eggs

Cal-Maine was also caught up in heavy options activity today: 9 times higher than the ten-day average.
The company reports tomorrow afternoon. If you didn’t know: It's the biggest egg producer in the U.S.A.
The stock was up 2.3% today, and 31% from a 52-week high.

The Dow's streak

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 11 straight days, and it's gained 5% in that time period.
It hit a 52-week high today.
The Financial and Energy sectors are the top performers in those 11 days. Both are up 6%.
S&P Health Care is up 5.4% in that time period.
The Utilities sector is up 4.5% in those 11 days.
The S&P Consumer Staples are up 3.5% in those 11 days.
The S&P Industrials are up 3.4% in 11 days.
The S&P Materials are up 3.3% in 11 days.
S&P Real Estate is up 3.1% in 11 days.
S&P Tech is up 3.1% in 11 days.
Consumer Discretionary is up 1.7% in 11 days.
S&P Communications is up 1.1% in 11 days.