Money & Markets Week Ahead for the week of October 5, 2020: This week on Wall Street will be relatively quiet … at least on the data and earnings front.
Companies are winding down the most recent quarter and ramping up for the next round of earnings reports, expected to start soon.
There is one notable IPO launch this week, but even that calendar is pretty blank.
Here are some things for investors to watch on Wall Street next week:
On the IPO Front
OTR Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: OTRAU) plans to launch its initial public offering (IPO) on Monday.
Perhaps the biggest deal here is that OTR is only using one bookrunner on the deal — Maxim Group LLC. A bookrunner is the primary underwriter of new equity, according to Investopedia.
What is OTR Acquisition: OTR is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) — essentially a shell company with no operations.
According to Renaissance Capital, the company is led by Nicholas Singer, the former co-founder of Cyrus Capital Partners and Standard General.
The financial skinny: The Miami, Florida-based OTR plans to sell 25 million shares at a target price of $10 per share.
That would raise $250 million in acquisition capital.
At the proposed price, OTR Acquisition would see a market value of around $315 million.
For a little context: I recently recorded an episode of The Bull & The Bear podcast all about SPACs. Check out that video here.
They have been around since the early 2000s, but SPACs are all the rage in the IPO space lately.
In 2015, only 20 SPACs went public. That number jumped to 59 in 2019.
Now, more SPACs have gone public in 2020 than all of 2019 — and we still have four months left in the year.
Money & Markets Week Ahead: Data Dump
On Monday, IHS Markit will release its purchase manager’s index for services.
This is a survey of managers in that field to determine overall sentiment in the market.
Last time out: In September, the services index was 54.6 — showing an increase in sentiment. A reading of 50 or above indicates expansion, while 49 and below indicates contraction.
Figures for August’s U.S. trade deficit will drop on Tuesday.
Last month, the deficit fell another $63.6 billion.
More specifically, the U.S. Census Bureau reports the overall U.S. trade deficit with China — the largest importer of U.S. goods — to be around $163.3 billion for the year.
Investors will get another round of data surrounding the U.S. jobs market when the Labor Department releases the number of job openings for August.
In July, there were 6.6 million job openings across the U.S.
Last week, the Labor Department reported weekly jobless claims fell to 837,000.
Weekly jobless claims will be released on Thursday.
Earnings Reports
To finish off the Money & Markets Week Ahead, here’s a look at some of the key earnings reports due out this week:
Monday
No earnings reports are scheduled.
Tuesday
Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE: LEVI)
Paychex Inc. (Nasdaq: PAYX)
Wednesday
Lamb Weston Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LW)
RPM International Inc. (NYSE: RPM)
Thursday
Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ)
Helen of Troy Ltd. (Nasdaq: HELE)
Friday
No earnings reports are scheduled.
That’s all for this week.
Until next time…
Safe trading,
Matt Clark
Research Analyst, Money & Markets
Matt Clark is the research analyst for Money & Markets. He’s the host of our podcast, The Bull & The Bear, as well as the Marijuana Market Update. Before joining the team, he spent 25 years as an investigative journalist and editor — covering everything from politics to business.