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Ebix CFO, New Fortress 1Q23 schedule and more -4

08:50 10-Apr-23

I supposed I should also explicitly mention Friday's jobs reports, but I don't really see any surprise there.  People are being forced back to work overall, with the Participation Rate & Employment/Population Ratio both edging up, but there's a lot churn +236K headline, bringing pundits around to my views on the likelihood of recession.  That said, slowing weekly wages actually look disinflationary.  We'll see what the rest of the week brings.

The CFO of Ebix gave two weeks notice on April 4th in order to pursue other opportunities, according to an 8-K filing just released this morning.  Ebix has promoted from within to fill the post, probably because it can't afford lost time at this juncture.  EBIX shares are back down another 8% in the pre-market response to trade just above $12.

For more actionable trade, I'll be watching Himax today, as the U.S. Navy has now completed its latest FONOP in the South China Sea, in the midst of the Chinese military drills which followed the visit of Taiwan's President to America.  I see this as the peak of this round of tensions and speculate that it could be the last before the next Himax dividend.  While most tech investors focus on AI, fab stimulus, or vehicles, I see Himax gradually positioning its second generation sensors at the nexus of those longer term trends.

I'll also be looking forward to the next quarterly update from New Fortress, which has been scheduled for the morning of May 4th.  The average of 9 analyst estimates is for 94 cents of EPS from $656M of revenue, increasing to $675M this quarter.  Confirmation that Mexico deployment is on schedule will be as important as the numbers.

Beyond that the market should be waiting on CPI on Wednesday morning, followed by Fed minutes in the afternoon.  I will then look to PPI the next morning.

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