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Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Brunch,

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our Sunday look-ahead to this week's market-moving

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events, along with the weekend's top news

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and analysis. Hello,

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today is Sunday, April 7th, and I'm your

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host, Kim Khan. The top story is to look

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out for. Macro focus will be on

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the March consumer price index, which hits on Wednesday.

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Economists expect that the headline number was 0.3% on

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the month, pushing the annual rate up to 3.4% from 3.2%. The

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core CPI, which excludes food and energy, is forecast

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to have risen 0.3% as well, with the

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annual rate ticking down to 3.7%. The

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last time we got CPI figures, FedFund's futures were pricing

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in a 70% chance of a rate

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cut in June. Those odds are

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now down to 50-50, following the stronger-than-expected

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rise in March non-farm payrolls. Whilst

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Fargo economists say that while their base case

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is for 100 basis points of cuts this

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year, risks are skewed towards less

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easing rather than more, and the

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CPI and the employment cost index at the

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end of the month will provide evidence that

1:04

a healthier balance between supply and demand in

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the labor market is translating to lower inflationary

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pressures. Returning inflation back to

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2% for the long haul remains the Fed's

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primary concern, and it will take at least

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a little more progress on the inflation front

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before the first rate cut occurs, they add.

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But based on what we know now, the strength of

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the labor market suggests the FOMC can continue

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to await further improvement on the inflation

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front before easing policy. Meanwhile,

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the big banks kick off earnings season at the tail

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end of the week. Friday will

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see JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, BlackRock,

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and Citigroup all issue results pre-market.

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Analysts have noted that investment banking came

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back strong in Q1, with high yield

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issuance, leveraged loan syndications, and equity underwriting

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volumes all at their highest level since

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Q4 of 2021. But

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corporate loan demand has been weak. Speaking

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off, analysts' Kavanaugh research has a strong

1:56

buy on Citi, saying shares are deeply

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undervalued. of

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rate cuts are fostering optimism for a

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better credit landscape, supporting potential loan growth

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as well as a sharp uptick in

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investment banking activity," Kavanaugh adds. Among

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other notable earnings this week, NeoGen,

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Pricemart and Tilray Brands weigh in

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on Tuesday. Wednesday brings numbers

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from Delta Airlines, Applied Digital and Rent the

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Runway, and Constellation Brands, Carmax

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and Fastenal report Friday. Looking

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to the news of the weekend, Elon Musk's

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XA-RAs and talks with investors to raise

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$3 billion in a funding round that

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would value the artificial intelligence startup at

2:33

about $18 billion. That's according

2:35

to the Wall Street Journal. Venture

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capital firm Gigafund and investor Steve

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Jervitsen are among the backers considering

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investing in XAI's funding round. Gigafund

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was co-founded in July 2017 by

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Steven Oskui and Luke Nussek, who

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previously co-founded PayPal. Jervitsen

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is the co-founder of his own venture capital

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firm Future Ventures. With

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Gigafund and Jervitsen are longtime backers

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of Musk's companies, with stakes across

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SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company and

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Neuralink. National

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Amusements, which controls Paramount Global through a voting

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stake and owns a movie theater chain, is

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an exclusive talk to sell itself to Skydance

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Media. Under the terms

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of the deal being discussed between Sherry Redstone's

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National Amusements and Skydance, Redstone's firm would receive

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more than $2 billion in cash as part

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of the first step of the transaction, according

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to a Wall Street Journal report. After

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that, Paramount would acquire Skydance in an

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all-stock deal valued at about $5 billion.

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Skydance could provide a substantial cash infusion to

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Paramount to help its balance sheet and pay

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down debt. Under the

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terms being discussed, Redstone would receive cash,

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while investors with non-voting shares would get

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shares in the combined company and wind

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up with a diluted shareholding. CNBC

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reported Thursday that under the plan being contemplated,

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there would be a need to raise as

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much as $3 billion in new equity by

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Paramount. This is David Ellison

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and his partners would step up for a good amount of

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that equity, but it was be dilutive. For

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income investors, companies going ex-dividend this week

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include MasterCard on Monday with a payout

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date of May 9th, AT&T

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and Gap go ex-dividend Tuesday with a

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payout date of May 1st, and AbbVie

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goes ex-dividend on Friday with a May

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15th payout date. And

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in the Wall Street Research Corner, city

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analysts downgraded the infotech sector to market

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weight from overweight after cutting the hardware

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and equipment subsector to underweight. Software

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and services remain overweight with high sales and

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earnings trends. Strategist Scott

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Krohnert says AI remains a big source

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of demand for chip and chip equipment

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companies, but pressures on fundamentals are growing.

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The team also surfaced their big buy

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rated and sell rated stocks within infotech.

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Among the buys are Dynatrace with an estimated total return

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of 48%, followed by Apple at 27% and Micron

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at 26%. Sales include NXP Semi with an ETR of

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negative 37% and Skyworks

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Solutions at negative 19%. Be

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sure to check out all the stocks in our story on Seeking

5:01

Alpha and screen for

5:03

your top tech picks at

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seekingalpha.com/screeners. That's all

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for today's Wall Street Brunch. Look for

5:09

links to stories in the show notes

5:11

section. Don't forget, these episodes will be

5:14

up with transcriptions at seekingalpha.com slash

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