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AMC doubles after hours, APEs slide as settlement is rejected. (00:28) ‘Barbie’ (WBD) and ‘Oppenheimer’ (CMCSA) give jolt to summer box office. (01:16) U.S. Senate OKs legislation banning Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales to China. (02:06)
This is an abridged transcript of the podcast.
One of the biggest stock movers for the day is AMC entertainment. And yes Barbienheimer was this weekend (we’ll get to that in a moment) but the rise in AMC has nothing to do with the two movies.
AMC is up more than 60 percent premarket and was up as much as 100 percent Friday after hours.
This happening after a surprising win for the company’s “Ape army” of meme-stock holders.
The Delaware Court of Chancery halted the conversion of APEs into AMC common stock.
But according to an open letter to investors from AMC’s CEO, posted to Twitter, The company has since submitted a revised proposal to convert APEs into AMC common stock.
AMC hopes the court will approve the revision and they’ll be able to implement as soon as possible.
“Barbenheimer” weekend was great for the box office, with two blockbuster films that resulted in the strongest weekend of 2023 for theaters in North America.
It also led to the fourth-biggest weekend ever in the U.S., according to Comscore, as well as the only weekend in the top 10 of all-time that didn’t include a movie from the Jurassic Park, Marvel or Star Wars franchises.
Warner Bros. Pictures’ (NASDAQ:WBD) Barbie grossed $155M in the U.S. and Canada, while Universal Pictures’ (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Oppenheimer brought in $80.5M domestically between Friday and Sunday.
It’s also a big cause of celebration for Hollywood, which is experiencing a double strike by both actors and writers, as well as theater stocks like AMC (NYSE:AMC), Cinemark (NYSE:CNK), Cineplex (OTCPK:CPXGF) and IMAX (IMAX).
The U.S. Senate votes to block China from purchasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which stands at a 40-year-low following the Biden administration’s 180M barrel drawdown last year.
The legislation – an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act – would ban the sale of U.S. oil to any company under control of the Chinese Communist Party, or to Russia, Iran, North Korea or any country sanctioned by the U.S.
Fewer than 2M barrels of the 180M pulled from the SPR last year were purchased by a Chinese company; U.S. companies sold 83M barrels of crude to China last year, which would be unaffected by the bill.
Meanwhile, The Biden administration also moved to increase royalties and other fees for companies drilling for oil on public lands.
A rule proposed by the U.S. Interior Department would hike the minimum royalty rate for federal drilling rights by more than a third to 16.67% from the previous 12.5% rate that had been paid by oil and gas companies for a century.
Bonding requirements would rise for the first time since 1960, to $150K per lease from $10K.
The new fees would codify increases made in the Inflation Reduction Act climate law after they expire.
Other headlines to look out for on Seeking Alpha:
GM, Ford revving up for solid results: Earnings preview
Restaurant earnings are coming – watch these stocks
Social media monetization? Elon Musk rebrands Twitter to ‘X’
On our catalyst watch for the week – The negotiations between United Parcel Service (UPS) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on a new labor contract that covers about 340,000 workers will be closely watched ahead of the expiration date of July 31. The strike potential has broad economic implications, with UPS handling roughly 28% of the 75 million packages delivered in the U.S. on a typical day, roughly split equally between businesses and homes.
Wall Street’s major averages ended largely unchanged Friday.
The Nasdaq (COMP.IND) fell 0.22% while the S&P 500 (SP500) marginally advanced 0.03%.
The Dow (DJI) ended flat, up less than 3 points, with the blue-chip index just managing to post a ten-day win-streak.
On a weekly basis, the Dow rose 2.08% while the S&P gained ground by 0.68%. The Nasdaq slipped 0.57%.
Of the 11 S&P sectors, six ended trading in the green, led by Utilities and Health Care. Communication Services and Industrials topped the losers.
The 10-year yield (US10Y) was down 1 basis point to 3.84%, while the 2-year yield (US2Y) was up 1 basis point to 4.85%.
Now let’s take a look at the markets as of 6 am. Ahead of the opening bell today, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. The Dow is up 0.2%, the S&P 500 is up 0.3% and the Nasdaq is up 0.4%. Crude oil is up 0.9% at more than $77 a barrel. Bitcoin is down 2.3%.
In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is up 0.2% and the DAX is up 0.2%.
On today’s economic calendar, at 830 am the Chicago Fed National Activity index.
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