^{_{Welcome to the TraderTV Live Morning Research Note. Here's what's making major moves in the market today.}}

0945 - Chicago PMI for December: Expected 43; Prior 40.2
1000 - Pending home sales m/m for November: Expected 0.8%; Prior 2%
1000 - Pending home sales y/y for November: Expected 5.8%; Prior 5.4%
1000 - Dallas Fed manufacturing index for December: Expected -3; Prior -2.7

The Boeing Company (BA)

-2.92%

Trading sharply lower premarket after a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 crashed in South Korea. The incident resulted in 179 fatalities, marking the country’s deadliest aviation disaster. The tragedy compounds Boeing's ongoing challenges, including a 30% stock decline in 2024. South Korea is reportedly conducting safety checks on all B737-800 aircraft and investigating the crash.

EV Companies

-0.95%

On watch as a group as investors await the release of vehicle delivery numbers for Q4 2024, expected on Thursday, January 2, 2024. On Saturday, Tesla announced plans to reduce benefits under its North American referral program starting January 1, 2025, with current benefits remaining valid through December 31, 2024; the move appears aimed at boosting year-end sales to surpass 2023 delivery numbers. Analysts are expecting Tesla to report the delivery of 1.81 million vehicles in 2024, in line with their 2023 deliveries.

TSLA, RIVN, XPEV, NIO, LI, ZK

NVIDIA Corp (NVDA)

-0.72%

On watch after the Financial Times reported that the company is furthering its work in robotics, with plans to launch its next-generation Jetson Thor computer for humanoid robots in early 2025. Deepu Talla, Nvidia’s vice-president of robotics, was interviewed for the report. This move comes amid growing competition in AI chips from rivals like AMD and cloud giants Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.

Semiconductors

-0.49%

On watch as key chip supplier Ibiden Co. considers accelerating its production capacity expansion amid increased demand, according to CEO Koji Kawashima. Ibiden serves as a supplier for companies like Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Intel. This outlook follows pessimistic comments from the CEO of fellow chip supplier Advantest, which suggested that AI spending from big tech companies could slow down next year.

AMD, INTC, MRVL, SMCI, MU, AVGO, ARM, QCOM

Crypto Stocks

-1.23%

Trading lower as a group following a two-week red streak for Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency is approaching a key support level near $90,500 and making lower highs below $100,000. As of Monday morning, Bitcoin is trading around $93,800. Ethereum, meanwhile, made gains during the previous week of trading and is poised for another green week thus far, holding up around the $3,400 level.

COIN, MSTR, MARA, RIOT, IBIT, ETHE, HUT, CLSK, IREN, CAN, HIVE

Alphabet Inc and Walmart Inc

-0.32%

Trading marginally lower as a pair ahead of an expected decision from India’s payments regulator which would result in a 30% market share cap for UPI payments. This cap could impact the dominance of Walmart’s PhonePe (47.8% share) and Google Pay (37.1% share) in the $200 billion digital payments market. The decision, critical for PhonePe’s $12 billion IPO plans, comes amid calls to address the duopoly and boost domestic fintech players like BHIM UPI, whose market share remains under 1%.

GOOGL, WMT

Quantum Stocks

-4.57%

Trading sharply lower with volume as a group. The stocks began to rally in November and received increased attention after Google announced its Willow chip for quantum computing earlier this month. Trading in the group has become increasingly volatile as more traders have gotten involved in this space. Many of these tickers are heavily shorted; Rigetti (RGTI), D-Wave Quantum (QBTS), and Quantum Computing (QUBT) all have short floats of greater than 10%.

RGTI, QUBT, QBTS, QSI, IONQ, ARQQ

Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc (FFIE)

+27.84%

Gapping up after announcing that entrepreneur Luke Hans will receive the first FF 91 2.0 Futurist Alliance EV in January and join as an FF Developer Co-Creation Officer. Hans' expertise in international markets and extensive network is expected to bolster the company’s business development efforts. On December 22, the company announced that it has secured $30 million financing to advance its FX prototypes targeting the mainstream U.S. EV market. Roughly 26.8% of the stock’s float is sold short.

Low-Float Runners

+87.43%

Several tickers with floats of under 10 million shares are gapping up on no apparent new catalysts. These include NLS Pharmaceuticals (NLSP) and Polyrizon (PLRZ), both of which have floats of under 1 million shares. Several of these stocks - including Polyrizon, Intrusion (INTZ), and MicroCloud Hologram (HOLO) - began rallying late last week.

NLSP, PLRZ, INTZ, WATT, OCTO, HOLO