March 29 is clearly a good day for acquisitions by executives with a good instinct about the future. In fact, if Elon Musk had bought Twitter on March 29, he might have avoided paying two or three times the price. The proof? Google bought YouTube on March 29, 2006 for $1.65bn, and in shares. On March 29, 2012 Meta Platforms, which was then called Facebook, bought Instagram for $1bn. We'll talk a little further on about another major operation in the technology sector, but this time a spin-off, that of Alibaba.

Investors seem a little lost in the jungle of contradictory signals. This is the impression that emerges from the previous day's session, during which Western indices hovered around the equilibrium. Wall Street lost a bit of ground, without closing at the session's lowest point.

The banking panic seems to be subsiding. The benchmark, First Republic, lost some ground yesterday, but it's a far cry from the recent plunges. On the European side, the benchmark is Deutsche Bank, since speculators can no longer play with Credit Suisse. The German bank did not extend the rebound that began on Monday, as it lost 1.6%. It had plunged 8.5% last Friday after a run on products designed to protect itself against the volatility of its debt.

Investors are still cautious, wondering what the future will hold. We still have resilient inflation, a potential pivot in monetary policy, a weakened financial system, often strong macroeconomic statistics, a looming recession, some geopolitical tensions and a couple of other uncertain things. It's hard to imagine what might come out of this. Yesterday, the March US consumer confidence index compiled by the Conference Board added to mixed signals: despite a series of bank failures, morale improved far more than expected.

In other news, it was announced that Chinese giant Alibaba will be split into six pieces. In the future there will be cloud intelligence, Chinese marketplaces, local services, global brands, logistics and entertainment. The stock is up 14% as investors believe this will better realize the value of the group, whose stock has been sinking in recent years. Today in premarket trading, the Dow Jones was up by 0.7%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 both gained 0.8%.

 

Economic highlights of the day:

US Pending home sales in February and crude oil inventories are the main indicators today. All the agenda is here.

The dollar is flat against the euro and the pound at EUR 0.9216 and GBP 0.8114. The ounce of gold is stabilizing around 1966 dollars. Oil continues to rebound, with North Sea Brent at USD 78.77 a barrel and US WTI light crude at USD 74.03. The yield on US 10-year debt stands at 3.56%. Bitcoin is trading around USD 28,000.

 

In corporate news:

  • Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta are up 0.8% to 1.5% in premarket trading, with the leading technology and growth stocks benefiting from a renewed appetite for risk as concerns about the banks ease.
  • Micron Technology rose 2.4 percent in premarket trading after the chipmaker said it expects sales to increase by 2025 thanks in part to the rise of artificial intelligence. The company also raised its target for a 15% reduction in the number of employees by 2023, up from 10% previously.
  • JPMorgan - The chief executive of the US bank Jamie Dimon will be questioned about the group's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the US financier and former client accused of trafficking and abusing minors who committed suicide in August 2019 in his cell, a lawyer involved in the dispute said on Tuesday.
  • Goldman Sachs - Michael Marsh will become head of the bank's Europe, Middle East and Africa financing group, according to an internal memo dated March 22 and seen by Reuters, as the group merged its investment banking and trading businesses into one division
  • Lululemon Athletica is up about 15% in premarket trading as the sportswear specialist forecast higher-than-expected annual revenue and profit on resilient demand.
  • Lucid Group, which said on Tuesday it expects to license about 18% of its workforce, rose 1.6% in premarket trading.
  • CVS Health will improve data privacy disclosures following a proposal from shareholder Arjuna Capital, which asked the pharmacy chain to address concerns about threats to customers' reproductive health data.
  • Macy's announced Wednesday that its chief executive Jeff Gennette will retire in February 2024 after serving the company for 40 years and will be replaced by Tony Spring, the president and chief executive of its Bloomingdale's subsidiary.
  • Blackbaud- Clearlake Capital on Wednesday reiterated its $71-a-share offer for cloud software company Blackbaud, which it had rejected the day before as significantly undervaluing the group.

Analyst recommendations:

  • AvalonBay: Wells Fargo Securities reinstated coverage with a recommendation of overweight. PT set to $184.
  • Camden Property: Wells Fargo Securities reinstated coverage with a recommendation of underweight. PT set to $102.
  • Ciena: Morgan Stanley downgrades to equal-weight from overweight. PT up 12% to $57.
  • Deere & Co: Daiwa Securities initiated coverage with a recommendation of outperform. PT set to $440.
  • DS Smith: Exane BNP Paribas reiterates its Neutral stance, targeting GBp 310.
  • Equity Lifestyle: Wells Fargo Securities reinstated coverage with a recommendation of overweight. PT set to $75.50.
  • Essex Property: Wells Fargo Securities reinstated coverage with a recommendation of underweight. PT set to $208.
  • Hershey: Wells Fargo Securities upgrades to equal-weight from underweight. PT up 0.8% to $255.
  • Interpublic Group: BNP Paribas Exane downgrades to neutral from outperform. PT up 14% to $40.
  • ITM Power: Berenberg upgrades from sell to hold, targeting GBp 95.
  • Marathon Petroleum: Goldman Sachs upgrades to buy from neutral. PT up 14% to $150.
  • Mid-America: Wells Fargo Securities initiated coverage with a recommendation of equal-weight. PT set to $156.50.
  • Mondi: Exane BNP Paribas resumes its underperform rating, targeting GBp 1,200.
  • Omnicom: BNP Paribas Exane upgrades to neutral from underperform. PT up 8.2% to $96.
  • Roper: Baptista Research initiated coverage with a recommendation of hold. PT set to $471.
  • Sun Communities: Wells Fargo Securities reinstated coverage with a recommendation of equal-weight. PT set to $151.
  • Tesco: Morgan Stanley upgrades from Equal-Weight to overweight targeting GBp 296.