RKLB - Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: April CPI Report Due

2023-05-10 06:51:35 ET

Listen on the go! Subscribe to Wall Street Breakfast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify April CPI report may show little, if any, progress in slowing inflation. Paramount ( PARA ) to cut 25% of workforce across entertainment divisions. Rocket Lab ( RKLB ) to l aunch four Starling satellites for NASA from New Zealand in Q3. Learn more about these stocks with Seeking Alpha Premium .

This is an abridged transcript of the podcast.

• April’s CPI will be released today. The report is expected to show little, if any, progress in slowing inflation.

• Today is stock of the week Wednesday. Julian Lin the investing group leader of Best of Breed Growth Stocks on Seeking Alpha is sharing his thoughts on Roblox, ticker symbol RLBX *audio from Julian Lin* Roblox reports earnings today.

• Paramount is laying off workers. The media company is cutting 25% of its workforce.

OUR TOP STORY

April's consumer price index that will be released today, will give economists and policymakers fresh data on whether the Federal Reserve is succeeding in bringing down the rate of inflation toward its 2% goal.

With core CPI rising 5.6% Y/Y in March, inflation has ebbed from its peak of 9.1% last summer, but remains well above the Fed's 2% goal. And the April number is expected to show little if any progress. Economists expect the headline CPI number to rise 0.4% in April, up from the 0.1% increase in March; on a Y/Y basis, that comes to a 5.0% rate, unchanged from the March rate.

Core CPI, which excludes the volatile food and energy sectors, is also expected to increase 0.4%, unchanged from the March M/M increase; it's expects to rise 5.5% Y/Y vs. the March print of 5.6%.

Michael Kramer is the investing group leader of Reading the Markets on Seeking Alpha.

His most recent article is entitled " This week’s CPI Report could ignite massive volatility. ”

In the article he says “hot data will drive more rate hikes.” In another article Kramer says the fed’s may rate hike will likely not be the last.

I’ll leave a link to Michael Kramer’s author page in show notes.

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President Biden met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders Tuesday to discuss the debt ceiling.

However, it didn’t appear that much movement had been made.

The staff on both sides will continue to work on the deadlock.

The leaders will meet again on Friday.

NOW MORE ON THE MARKET

Ongoing uncertainty about the macro picture continued to feed a mood of caution on Wall Street, as the major U.S. equity averages finished the session lower.

Trading took place ahead of key inflation statistics due out today. Meanwhile, investors also worried about the prospects of a U.S. default amid ongoing negotiations about the federal debt ceiling.

The Nasdaq ( COMP.IND ) finished -0.6%, the S&P 500 ( SP500 ) ended -0.5% and the Dow ( DJI ) closed -0.2%.

Eight of the 11 S&P sectors finished lower, although most of the market segments held near the unchanged mark. None of the spaces moved more than 1% in any direction. Materials, Tech and Health Care posted moderate declines. Industrials managed to eke out a slight gain.

Andrew Hect is a market expert. He tells Seeking Alpha "It's May, and many market participants could be concerned that selling in May and going away will take on new meaning in 2023."

Trading in the fixed income market was muted. The 10-year yield ( US10Y ) ticked up a basis point 3.53%. The 2-year yield ( US2Y ) also edged up a basis point to 4.03%.

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MORE OF OUR TOP STORIES

Tucker Carlson is back.

The former Fox News host tweeted late Tuesday afternoon that he’s taking his talents to Twitter.

He said, “There aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world, the only one is Twitter.”

He went on to say that he’s bringing a version of his show to the platform and teased “some other things” to be released at a later time.

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Hedge fund investor Stan Druckenmiller said he sees the potential for a 2008-like recession or worse, though he's not predicting one. He says he sees a hard landing coming.

A hard landing for Druckenmiller likely includes a 20%+ decline in corporate profits, unemployment going to above 5% and a rise in bankruptcies.

He said “It’s naïve not to be open-minded to something really, really bad happening."

Druckenmiller also said, he’s “not positive on the stock market” and if he liked the stock market, he would be exposed to it.

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Rocket Lab USA (NASDAQ: RKLB ) said on Tuesday it has signed a deal to launch NASA’s Starling mission.

The four Starling small satellites have been scheduled for lift-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand in Q3 this year, the company said.

Rocket Lab will deliver the satellites to space within three months of the contract signing.

When you look at the ratings summary on Seeking Alpha. SA analysts and Wall Street agree RKLB is buy. The Quant rating says the stock is a sell.

There’s also a warning on the stock that was posted on March 7th of this year.

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MVB Financial (NASDAQ: MVBF ) said Tuesday its ~$98M acquisition of Integrated Financial ( OTCQX:IFHI ) has been terminated by mutual agreement.

The reason is changing market conditions that have pressured bank stocks and delays in regulatory processes.

The termination of the all-stock merger does not result in fees to either company.

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Today is stock of the week Wednesday.

Recently Kirk Spano, the investing group leader of Margin of Safety Investing on Seeking Alpha interviewed Julian Lin for the Investing Experts podcast. Julian Lin is the investing group leader of Best of Breed Growth Stocks on Seeking Alpha.

They talked about Roblox versus Unity.

*audio from Investing Experts podcast*

Roblox reports earnings today premarket. Unity reports today postmarket.

I’ll leave a link to this episode of the Investing Experts podcast in show notes. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. The show features in-depth conversations about todays market.

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More layoffs are coming to Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA ) as the media giant looks to cut costs and realign its streaming video strategy.

According to Variety , Paramount Media Networks, Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios will cut 25% of their workforce.

The moves come as Paramount prepares to rebrand its Showtime premium TV network as Paramount+ With Showtime.

The job cuts also include shutting down MTV News.

Reports of Paramount's ( PARA ) latest job cuts came days after the company's shares plunged almost 30% following a disappointing quarterly earnings report.

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If you’d like to see a transcript of the podcast. You can always find an abridged transcript of the podcast on Seeking Alpha.com . There’s a link in show notes that says Wall Street Breakfast. Just click on the podcast for today and that’s where you’ll find the transcript.

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Now let’s take a look at the markets as of 6:20 am. Ahead of the opening bell today, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the red. The Dow is down 0.1%. The S&P 500 is down 0.1% and the Nasdaq is down 0.1%. Crude oil is down 1.3% at less than $73 a barrel. Bitcoin is down 0.2% at less than $28,000.

In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is down 0.2% The DAX is down 0.3%.

On today’s economic calendar, at 830am CPI and at 10am Atlanta Fed Business Inflation Expectations.

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