Before the Open (Jan 18)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Hong Kong rallied more than 1%; Japan and Indonesia also did well. Singapore and Australia led to the downside. Europe is currently mixed and little changed. The UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Greece are up; France, Russia, Denmark and Portugal are down. Futures in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.
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The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down small amounts. Bonds are down.
Lots of things happened yesterday.
The dollar closed below its 50-day MA for the first time since September. The British pound posted its biggest single-day gain in many years, and Donald Trump said the dollar was too strong. I also believe the Fed is going to sit tight with interest rates at the Feb 1 meeting.

The weak dollar contributed to the financials taking big hits. XLF closed at a 1-month low on heavy volume.

The dollar weakness helped push gold up. It’s at an 8-week high, and the stocks continue to establish themselves above their 50-day MAs.

But the dollar drop didn’t help oil much. Crude was strong early but then dropped to close in the bottom-half of its range. I like oil overall, but for the last two weeks I’ve lost my bullish near term bias. Most stocks are not set up to run right now.

On a closing basis, the Dow has traded in its tightest range in history the last month. The index rallied up to 20K and just stopped – a heck of a development considering the post-election rally was one of the biggest in history. Perhaps the market will wake up after Friday’s inauguration?
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Goldman Sachs (GS -3.50%) fell 2% in pre-market trading after it reported Q4 EPS of $5.08, higher than consensus of $4.84, but said Q4 equities and trading revenue was $1.59 billion, below consensus of $1.61 billion.
Wells Fargo (WFC -2.77%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Argus.
McKesson (MCK +0.85%) was upgraded to ‘Market Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Avondale Partners LLC with a 12-month target price of $193.
Hancock Holding (HBHC -3.46%) reported Q4 EPS of 64 cents, stronger than consensus of 61 cents.
Linear Technology (LLTC -0.05%) reported Q2 revenue of $375.8 million, higher than consensus of $373.8 million.
HP Enterprise (HPE -1.09%) bought Simplivity for $650 million in cash.
Toys R Us (TOY) reported that same-store comparable sales for the 9-week period ended December 31, fell =3.4%.
San Francisco Fed President Williams (non-voter) said more gradual interest rate increases will likely be needed, given a “strong” U.S. economy that’s reached full employment with inflation approaching 2%.
United Continental Holdings (UAL -0.78%) lost over 1% in after-hours trading after it forecast Q1 Prasm growth of down -1% to up +1%, weaker than consensus of up +0.5% to +1.5%.
CSX Corp. (CSX -1.83%) dropped 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 49 cents, below consensus of 50 cents.
Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX -4.92%) fell nearly 5% in after-hours trading after it said a Phase II clinical study of its Ingrezza to treat adults with Tourette syndrome did not meet its pre-specified primary endpoint.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ -1.47%) slid 4% in after-hours trading after the U.S. FDA said it approved the first generic version of Jazz’s Xyrem drug to treat patients with narcolepsy.
Teladoc (TDOC -5.18%) dropped 5% in after-hours trading after certain stock holders are reportedly offering to sell 7.25 million shares of stock.
Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR -1.96%) fell over 2% in after-hours trading after it reported an unexpected Q4 comprehensive loss of -5 cents a share, much weaker than consensus for Q4 adjusted EPS to climb 35 cents.
Shiloh Industries (SHLO -3.23%) jumped 11% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 50 cents, well above consensus of 18 cents.
Almost Family (AFAM +1.48%) sank 9% in after-hours trading after it announced a proposed underwritten public offering of 2.5 million shares of common stock.
Gigamon (GIMO -2.87%) plunged over 20% in after-hours trading after it reported preliminary Q4 revenue of $84.5 million-$85 million, below consensus of $92.2 million.
Tuesday’s Key Earnings
CSX Corp. (NYSE:CSX) -4% AH on a set of in-line earnings.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) -3.8% despite an impressive quarter.
United Continental (NYSE:UAL) -1.7% AH predicting flat Q1 revenues.
UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) -0.7% amid Obamacare uncertainty.
Today’s Economic Calendar
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Consumer Price Index
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
9:15 Industrial Production
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
10:00 Fed’s Kashkari speech
2:00 PM Fed’s Beige Book
3:00 PM Janet Yellen speech
4:00 PM Treasury International Capital
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY