Before the Open (Jan 17)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Japan dropped 1.5%, and Australia fell 0.8%. Hong Kong and Taiwan did well. Europe currently leans to the downside, but losses aren’t too extreme. The UK, Austria, Finland and Russia are down. Italy and Portugal are up. Futures in the States point towards a gap down open for the cash market.
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The dollar is down. Oil is up; copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
The big stories coming out of the weekend are:
NBL is acquiring CWEI. I’ve said for a long time all the Permian Basin companies are takeover targets…once oil stabilizes. With this news, I’m wondering if it’ll get the ball rolling. Has oil stabilized enough for the Boards of large companies to approve M&A activity.
The dollar finished last week just above its 50-day MA, a level it hasn’t closed below since late-September. Today’s open will be below the moving average but still above the $100 level. This should temper some fears the dollar was going to run up and act as a tax on big multinationals.
Gold and silver are posting solid gains in premarket trading. Many of the stocks are setting up in little consolidation patterns. If they can bust out, we should get a second leg up. The first, of course, being the move off the low.
Earnings season picks up this week.
The inauguration is this Friday.
The next FOMC meeting is Feb 1.
The biggest of these is the inauguration. If Trump can follow through on some of his desires (bring manufacturing jobs back, lower the corporate tax rate, work out a repatriation agreement with companies storing money overseas, and others), the market’s uptrend will continue for a while. The first 100 days of all presidential terms are closely watched – this 100 days will be even more important.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG +0.34%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase with a price target of $375.
Everest Re Group Ltd (RE -0.24%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Macquarie Research with a 12-month target price of $186.
Morgan Stanley (MS +0.41%) is up nearly 2% in pre-market trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 81 cents, higher than consensus of 65 cents.
AmerisourceBegen (ABC +0.91%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Leerink Partners with a 12-month target price of $95.
Twitter (TWTR -0.75%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at UBS with a 12-month target price of $18.
HCA Holdings (HCA +0.35%) was upgraded to ‘Market Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Avondale Partners LLC with a 12-month target price of $96.
The Container Store Group (TCS -1.06%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Equal-weight’ at Morgan Stanley.
Disney (DIS +0.49%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs who cited Disney’s fiscal year 2018 film slate as its “best ever” as they raised their price target on the stock to $134 from $109.
Concho Resources (CXO +0.28%) filed a 2.2 million share shelf registration for stock holder Endurance Resources.
Citigroup estimates that Coherus Biosciences (CHRS +0.56%) could add $7 a share if the U.S. Supreme Court decides that biosimilars don’t need to issue a 180-day marketing notice and Coherus can launch its low-cost alternative to Amgen’s Neulasta 6 months earlier.
Delphi Automotive PLC (DLPH +0.80%) says it sees a $300 million pretax charge in Q4 related to ongoing litigation from unsecured claims against DPH Holdings resulting from a 2005 bankruptcy filing.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
8:45 Fed’s Dudley Speech
10:00 Fed’s Reserve Gov. Lael Bralnard speech
6:00 PM Fed’s Williams Speech
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY