Daily Brief United States: The Walt Disney Co, Soybean Active Contract, BV Financial Inc, KLA-Tencor Corp, American International Group, New York Community Bank, Southwest Airlines Co, Intel Corp, L3Harris Technologies , Frontier Group Holdings and more

• Not so long ago, Disney’s share price was nearing the $200 mark, despite the pandemic’s severe impact on its Parks and Resorts business.
• Fast forward to the present, and even with the parks posting record results, Disney’s share price has fallen to levels not seen in a decade, raising the question: what happened?
• Several factors are at play, including challenges within the studio arm, ongoing decline of its legacy media operations, and Big Tech’s incursion into sports media.

• Depressed Soybean crush margin to deal a further blow to Soybean demand.
• The outlook for Soy Meal and Soy Oil is better than the outlook for Soybean.
• Important production guidance updates from CONAB and USDA this week. Expectations point to lower production and lower consumption. 

Key points (machine generated)

• BV Financial recently completed its conversion from a mutual holding company to a full-converted stock company.
• The bank has consistently achieved a return on equity of 10-11% in recent years.
• Despite its significant growth, BV Financial’s securities represent only 5% of its total assets of $933 million.

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• KLA Corporation saw a revenue of nearly $9.7 billion in 2023, marking a decrease of 8% compared to the previous year.
• Despite less leading-edge investment in both logic and memory, legacy node customers and the semiconductor infrastructure assisted in exceeding the initially projected revenue.
• Business segments such as automotive, specialty semiconductor process equipment, and infrastructure for wafer and mass manufactures experienced growth in 2023.

• The American Airlines Group reported adjusted pretax profit of $257 million for the fourth quarter and approximately $2.5 billion for the full year 2023.
• This result was driven by the strength of the network, demand for products, and execution by the team.
• Positive indications from the group include historically strong operation with the production of record free cash flow and a strengthened balance sheet through debt reduction.

• March 2023 was a noteworthy month for US stock market investors. It was one of only two significant corrections in an otherwise stellar year.
• The other one was in October driven by an interest rate scare.
• Usually a cocktail of several reasons is needed to create a correction. These typically involve technical, seasonal and fundamental/macro factors.

• Southwest Airlines Co.’s fourth-quarter 2023 earnings underscored some significant strides the company has taken over the past year, balanced by the ongoing challenges that the airline industry continues to face.
• In terms of the positive highlights, CEO Bob Jordan commended the company for its impressive resilience, noting that they had successfully implemented a comprehensive winter weather action plan, fully staffed their operation, and restored their network following a disruptive winter storm in 2022.
• Furthermore, the company saw improvement in almost every operational metric, maintained a 99% completion factor across the year, and secured nine labor agreements in a year.

• In the fourth quarter of 2023, Intel managed to display consistent progress towards its Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM) 2.0 transformation.
• This implied effective execution of its strategy to reestablish process leadership and fostering product execution.
• Revenue exceeded expectations for the fourth consecutive quarter due to the company’s focus on driving operating leverage and managing expenses, thereby meeting the cost savings commitment for fiscal year 2023.

• Through the fourth quarter 2023, earnings call at L3Harris Technologies showed healthy financial results accompanied by strong performance in its various portfolios.
• The company reported a significant $23 billion in orders, marking a record increase, and a doubling of its backlog to $33 billion since the merger.
• This growth trajectory was propelled by key U.S. Army awards and notable progress in satellite awards.

• Frontier Airlines, having suffered a highly challenged 2023, is set to see a significant inflection point for pricing and margins in 2Q24.
• Management aims to deliver 3-6% PBT margins in 2024 building to 10-14% in 2025, representing a reversion to pre-pandemic levels. Read across for LCCs globally.
• We now expect a small positive FCF in 2024, building to >$200m in 2025, which should help inspire confidence in the ULCC’s ability to thrive with higher costs.