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phil
January 12th, 2018 at 11:35 am

KODK/Albo – LOL, that's the way to play it!  

Well the good news is my average on /TF shorts is now 1,590, the bad news is it's at 1,600 and I have 16 shorts for an $8K loss.  I can't, in good conscience, take a loss on this one – it's too silly.



Still, everyone is upgrading and there's M&A rumors and BlockChain announcements and such – very hard market to short.

Business inventories rise more than expected in Nov.

• November business inventories: +0.4% at $1,895.4B vs. +0.3% consensus and -0.1% prior.
• Sales +7.9% to $1,420.1B (Y/Y).
• Inventory/Sales ratio of 1.33 vs. 1.40 (Y/Y).

Holiday retail sales smash NRF expectations

• The National Retail Federation reports U.S. retail holiday sales increased 5.5% Y/Y to $692B to top by a wide margin the forecast for a 3.6% to 4.0% gain.
• Online and other nonstore sales were up 11.5% to $138.4B to account for 20% of the tally.
• Holiday sales by category (Y/Y): Building materials and supplies stores +8.1%, furniture and home furnishings stores +7.5%, electronics/appliance stores +6.7%, general merchandise stores +4.3%, clothing and accessories stores +2.7%, health and personal care stores +2.2%, sporting goods stores -0.5%.
• Restaurants, automobile dealers and gasoline stations weren't included in the total referenced by the NRF.
• National Retail Federation press release

Morgan Stanley points to some tax rate winners

• Morgan Stanley crunches some numbers on the impact of the cut in the U.S. corporate tax rate to 21% in the U.S. and a minimum 10% international rate.
• Analyst Dara Mohsenian forecasts a +10% EPS benefit average across the food/beverage and household products industries (ETFs to watch: PBJ, FTXG, IYK).
• Mohsenian and team think the best positioned names in the sector are e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) +34% EPS growth upside, Blue Buffalo Pet Products (NASDAQ:BUFF) at +20%, Estee Lauder (NYSE:EL) at +16%, Dr Pepper Snapple (NYSE:DPS) at +14% and Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) at +14%.

Motorola Solutions +3.5% to new high alongside Deutsche Bank upgrade

• Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) has tagged a new 10-year high today, currently up 3.5% after an upgrade at Deutsche Bank.
• The firm has boosted its rating to Buy and set a price target of $110, implying near-14% upside form tcurrent pricing.
• That means Buy sentiment is held by nearly a dozen analysts vs. a handful at Hold.
• Shares have gained 9.3% over the past six months and 17.9% over the past 12 months.

FuelCell Energy has turned a corner, B. Riley FBR says in upgrade to Buy

• FuelCell Energy (FCEL -1%) is upgraded to Buy from Neutral with a $3.50 price target, raised from $2.50, at B. Riley FBR a day after announcing better than expected Q4 results.
• The firm believes FCEL has turned a corner after a difficult H1 2017 with an improving revenue mix, margin profile and record backlog, and thinks the company should be able to nearly triple its operating portfolio in 2018 to a portfolio of 30-plus MW from 11.2 MW.
• Riley also thinks FCEL should be able to garner another multi-MW equipment sale and long-term service agreement with a second Korean power producer.

Nordstrom family expected to make private push again

• The Nordstrom family is expected to rekindle efforts to take the department store chain private, sources tell CNBC.
• The family group holds a 31.2% block of shares.
• Some of the same financing hurdles that got in the way on a takeover deal last year are expected to crop up again.
• Shares of Nordtrom (NYSE:JWN) are up 3.25% to $51.72.

Evercore sees 'multi-year outperformance' out of Coca-Cola

• Evercore issues a timely upgrade on Coca-Cola (KO +0.2%) as it sees most of the "bad news" baked into the beverage company's share price.
• Analyst Robert Ottenstein expects "multi-year outperformance" out of Coca-Cola, but posts low odds for an Anheuser-Busch InBev takeover.
• Evercore's rating on Coca-Cola goes to Outperform from In-line and the new price target is $55.

Baidu launches blockchain platform

• Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) launches Baidu Trust, a blockchain as a service (BaaS) open platform.
• Trust uses Baidu’s tech to conduct and trace transactions through use cases ranging from digital currency and billing to insurance management financial auditing.
• The platform touts “openness” and “customizability” with registration open to the public and blockchain nodes available to customize and deploy.
• Competition: Tencent launched its enterprise-grade BaaS platform last April, but the platform remains in closed beta.  
• Baidu shares are up 1.2%. 
• Previously: Venture capital deals of the week (Jan. 6)

GameStop falls sharply after update

• GameStop (GME -9.3%) slides after reporting on holiday sales.
• The company says total global sales for the holiday period increased 10.6% to $2.77B.
• Comparable store sales increased 11.8%, led by a 13.7% jump in the U.S. Strong demand for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One X led the way.
• Worldwide omnichannel sales increased 21.5% Y/Y..
• New hardware sales increased 38.3%, while sales of new video game software increased 7.3%.
• GameStop says it now sees full-year EPS of $3.10 to $3.40 vs. $3.34 consensus.
• GameStop also disclosed that it expects to record non-cash impairment charges in the range of $350M to $400M, primarily related to its Technology Brands business.
• Source: Press Release

Iridium sticks up for SpaceX, blames Northrop in satellite loss

• In the mysterious disappearance of a classified military satellite, SpaceX (Private:SPACE) is getting a defense from one of its biggest commercial satellite customers.
• Iridium (IRDM +1.4%) CEO Matt Desch says the loss of the satellite (code-named Zuma) is likely the fault of defense contractor Northrop Grumman (NOC +1.2%).
• "This is a typical industry smear job on the 'upstart' trying to disrupt the launch industry," he tweeted. "SpaceX didn't have a failure, Northrop Grumman did."
• He told Bloomberg that while he didn't know for sure what caused the disappearance of the satellite, he speculated a dispenser failed to release it — and that would have been Northrop's responsibility.
• Previously: SpaceX and Northrop Grumman at center of space mystery (Jan. 09 2018)

NASA safety panel raises questions about Boeing, SpaceX spacecraft

• New concerns have emerged over NASA's plan to routinely ferry astronauts into orbit using private spacecraft, as a report from the agency's top outside safety panel raises red flags about persistent dangers including unconventional rocket fuel systems and anticipated bombardment of spacecraft by tiny meteor fragments.
• Boeing (BA +1.6%) and SpaceX are developing separate fleets of capsules but neither is likely to meet longstanding safety standards, despite years of testing, re-engineering and high-level government concern about micrometeoroids, according to the report.
• Boeing has told NASA it expects to launch its first crewed test flight in November, although the date could slip to 2019; shortly before the safety report was issued, NASA revealed that SpaceX’s initial manned flight had been pushed back to December from this coming summer.