Before the Open (Nov 28)

Good morning. Happy Monday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Australia posted a loss, but Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Singapore did well. Europe is currently mostly down. Greece is down more than 1%; Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland, Finland and Italy are also weak. Turkey and Denmark are up. Futures in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.
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LB Weekly – the indexes, the breadth indicators, a look at the big picture
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The dollar is flat. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
I don’t have anything to add to the comments made in LB Weekly, published over the weekend.
Except for the Nas 100, every major index closed at a new all-time high last Friday.
The market is in full-blown idiot mode, with the Russell 2000 moving up 15 straight days – it’s second-longest winning streak.
A rest is needed…in fact a rest would be welcomed. A pause or a dip would allow some charts to reset and restore their energy for a year-end run. A continuation would just put the charts at an even higher nose-bleed level. Most stocks are too far gone to chase.
Near term I’m not chasing, but overall I’d expect a dip or pause to get bought and new highs to be made again. That’s how I’m approaching things…with the expectation of some weakness in the next week or two and then another leg up into 2017.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
H&R Block (HRB +1.27%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at BTIG LLC with a 12-month target price of $18.
Hilton Worldwide Holdings (HLT +1.12%) and Marriott International (MAR +0.56%) were both downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Evercore ISI.
Citigroup (C +0.16%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Jeffries.
Darden Restaurants (DRI +0.62%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Maxim.
Finisar (FNSR -0.43%) was upgraded to ‘Strong Buy’ from ‘Buy’ at Needham & Co with a 12-month target price of $42.
ConocoPhillips (COP -1.19%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $54.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCAU +1.05%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Sell’ at Evercore ISI.
Mentor Graphics (MENT +0.55%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Credit Suisse
Southwestern Energy (SWN -0.26%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital Markets.
Stifel Financial (SF -0.16%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Macquarie Research with a 12-month target price of $51.
Advanced Auto Parts (AAP -0.11%) was added to the Focus List at JPMorgan Chase.
UDR Inc. (UDR +0.39%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Evercore ISI with a 12-month target price of $38.
L Brands (LB -0.37%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Underweight’ at Piper Jaffray with a 12-month target price of $67.
Today’s Economic Calendar
10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers