Weekend Reads

Weekend Reads

Reads:

• Time for a Huge Deal
• 40 Year Trend Break?
• Inflation?
• New From The Fat Pitch
• Bad News For AMZN NFLX TSLA?
• More All Time Highs
• Not the Death Knell?

News:

• Stocks to watch next week
• Berkshire letter: Reviewing the bet
• Tax cuts boost Berkshire book value
• Report: Trump wants harshest steel tariff
• Buffett to retire from Kraft Heinz board
• Dropbox going public
• Nordstrom narrows in on go-private deal
• Google raises YouTube TV price

Charts:

Looking Ahead to the Coming Week:

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Notable earnings reports: Fitbit (NYSE:FIT), Palo Alto Networks (NYSE:PANW), Lions Gate (LGF.A, LGF.B), Dean Foods (NYSE:DF) on Feb. 26; Booking Holdings [formely Priceline] (NASDAQ:PCLN), Express Scripts (NASDAQ:ESRX), Workday (NYSE:WDAY), Square (NYSE:SQ), IMAX (NYSE:IMAX) and Macy's (NYSE:M) on Feb. 27; (NYSE:CRM), 3D (NYSE:DDD), Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX), Lowe's (NYSE:LOW), TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX) on Feb. 28; VMware (NYSE:VMW), Ambarella (NASDAQ:AMBA), Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), Gap (NYSE:GPS), Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR), AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) on March 1; J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP), Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) and JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) on March 2. See Seeking Alpha's Earnings Calendar for the complete list.

Oh Snap: Teenagers have been beating the drum for a while now on the problems with Snapchat's redesign, but now the investing world is taking notice after a bruising couple of days of trading started off by a succinct Kylie Jenner tweet. Next week, the third of three lockups expirations for Snap (NYSE:SNAP) hits on March 2, perhaps adding a little more selling pressure with 50M shares freed up. Snap is up 20% over the last 52 weeks.

IPOs expected to price: Crescent Funding (Pending:CFUNU) on Feb. 22.

IPO lockup expiraton: ZK International (NASDAQ:ZKIN) on Feb. 28.

Analyst quiet period expirations: Hudson (NYSE:HUD), Corp America Airports (NYSE:CAAP), Sol-Gel Technologies (NASDAQ:SLGL) and VICI Properties (OTCPK:VICI) on Feb. 26; FTS International (NYSE:FTSI), One Stop Systems (NASDAQ:OSS), iPic Entertainment (NASDAQ:IPIC) and Central Puerto (NYSE:CEPU) on Feb. 27.

Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference: The absolute powerhouse schedule of presenters from Feb. 26 to March 1 includes Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Satya Nadella, Facebook's (NASDAQ:FB) Sheryl Sandberg and Disney's (NYSE:DIS) Bob Iger. Also making their way to San Franciso for the event are PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), CBS (NYSE:CBS), Viacom (NYSE:VIA), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), MuleSoft (NYSE:MULE), Sailpoint Technologies (NYSE:SAIL), Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH), Dolby Laboratories (NYSE:DLB), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA), Yext (NYSE:YEXT), Charter (NASDAQ:CHTR), FireEye (NASDAQ:FEYE), Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM), TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP), IBM (NYSE:IBM), TrueCar (NASDAQ:TRUE), Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO), Coupa Software (NASDAQ:COUP), Acxiom (NASDAQ:ACXM), Calix (NYSE:CALX), NCR(NYSE:NCR), AT&T (NYSE:T), Blue Apron (NYSE:APRN), T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA), Impinj (NASDAQ:PI), Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), Cray (NASDAQ:CRAY), TriNet (NYSE:TNET), MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU).

Wells Fargo Real Estate Securities Conference: Speakers at the commercial real estate affair in New York City on Feb. 28 include CBL & Associates (NYSE:CBL), CyrusOne (NASDAQ:CONE), CubeSmart (NYSE:CUBE), Cousins Properties (NYSE:CUZ), Healthcare Realty (NYSE:HR), JELD-WEN (NYSE:JELD), National Storage Affiliates (NYSE:NSA), Corporate Office Properties (NYSE:OFC), Sabra Healthcare REIT (NASDAQ:SBRA), Tanger Factory Outlet (NYSE:SKT) and Tier Reit (NASDAQ:TIER).

Macau: Eyes were opened wide this week after a hike in transit visa fees in Zhuhai from RMB50 ($7.88) to RMB340 ($53.55). While the total cost is still relatively low, any indications of a Beijing crackdown tend to rattle investors. The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau is due to release February revenue numbers at the end of the week. Forecasts for the month are wide-ranging, due in part to the Chinese New Year holiday from Feb. 15-21. JPMorgan expects 8% to 10% growth, while Nomura sees a 10% to 15% pop. Bernstein is more conservative with a single-digit revenue growth forecast for the month. The major players to watch are Wynn Macau (OTCPK:WYNMF, OTCPK:WYNMY, WYNN), Sands China (OTCPK:SCHYY, OTCPK:SCHYF, LVS), MGM China (OTCPK:MCHVF, OTCPK:MCHVY, MGM), Galaxy Entertainment (OTCPK:GXYEF), SJM Holdings (OTCPK:SJMHF, OTCPK:SJMHY) and Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO).

FDA watch: Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TTPH) is expected to hear if the NDA for intra-abdominal infection treatment eravacycline has been accepted for FDA review.

U.S. auto sales reports: Edmunds expects U.S. auto sales to drop 4.1% Y/Y in February to 1.273M units as the industry pullback continues. The research firm notes that automakers have backed away from the aggressive incentives level of last year. February forecast by automaker - General Motors (NYSE:GM) -3.0% to 230K, Ford (NYSE:F) -6.0% to 195K, Toyota (NYSE:TM) flat at 174K, Fiat Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU) -12.6% to 147K, Nissan (OTCPK:NSANY) -4.9% to 129K, Honda (NYSE:HMC) -3.5% to 117K, Hyundai/Kia (OTCPK:HYMLF) -5.7% to 90K, Volkswagen (OTCPK:VLKAY) +2.9% to 40K.

M&A watch: Verizon's (NYSE:VZ) acquisition of Straight Path Communications (NYSEMKT:STRP) is expected to close on Feb. 28. The tender offer from Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG) for Juno Therapeutics (NASDAQ:JUNO) expires on March 2. Cineworld's (OTC:CNWGY) deal to acquire Regal Entertainent (NYSE:RGC) is slated to close on March 2. Shareholders at both Vistra Energy (NYSE:VST) and Dynegy (NYSE:DYN) meet to vote on the planned merger of the energy companies. As for deal news, keep an eye on the General Mills (NYSE:GIS) takeover of Blue Buffalo Pet Products (NASDAQ:BUFF). Susquehanna's Pablo Zuanic thinks J.M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM) or Nestle (OTCPK:NSRGY) could make a counter bid. He also suggests that a consumer packaged goods giant not in pet food at the moment could enter the fray. Any ideas which company that could be?

Analyst/investor day meetings: CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW) on Feb. 26; JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and Laboratory Corp of America (NYSE:LH) on Feb. 27; Heat Biologics (NASDAQ:HTBX), Moody's (NYSE:MCO) and Recro Pharma (NASDAQ:REPH) on Feb. 28, iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) on March 1.

Non-deal roadshow meetings for marketing purposes: Ansys (NASDAQ:ANSS) and Belden (NYSE:BDC) on Feb. 26, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) on Feb. 27; Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) on Feb. 28; Zynga (ZNGA) and ON Semiconductor (NASDAQ:ON) on March 2.

Box office: Disney's (DIS) Black Panther is expected to bring in another $110M over the weekend to dominate the U.S. box office once again. Only three other films in history have topped $100M in their second weekend. Cinemark Holdings (NYSE:CNK) is looking to extend of last week's 8% rally, while AMC Entertainment (AMC) was only able to poke out a 3% gain.

SpaceX: A Falcon 9 rocket is due to lift off on Sunday to launch a another telecommunication satellite. The first stage of the rocket will attempt to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Reports out earlier this week indicated that SpaceX, Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) are considering launching rockets from Brazil due to the fuel cost-savings benefits of being closer to the equator.

Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin was down 10% over the last week as it actually dropped less than the other multi-billion dollar market cap currencies. Ethereum (-14%), Ripple (-19%), Bitcoin Cash (-23), Litecoin (-13%), EOS (-20%) and Cardano (-22%) all fell sharply off the 7-day period.

Barron's mentions: Energy stocks and the potential for higher crude oil prices are the subject of the cover story. The roundtable of panelists mentions Genesis Energy (NYSE:GEL), Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC), Concho Resources (NYSE:CXO), Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP), Shell Midstream Parners (NYSE:SHLX), Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), EOG Resources (NYSE:NBL) and Noble Energy (NBL) as attractive plays. The spotlight also falls on China, with Ping An Insurance (OTCPK:PIAIF) and Haier Electronics (OTCPK:HRELF) called out as intriguing.