Before the Open (Jan 23)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. Taiwan rallied 1%; Malaysia, China and Singapore also did well. Japan dropped more than 1%; Australia was also weak. Europe is currently mostly down. The UK, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Portugal and Russia are posting the biggest losses. Futures in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: There’s a Bull Market Somewhere
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The dollar is down. Oil is down; copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
We enter this new week with the market in resting mode. The indexes have been mostly flat the last month, and many breadth indicators have pulled back.
Overall the market is doing just fine. I’m confident it’ll leg up again into new high territory, even if there is a dip first.
The wild card is the inauguration, which of course took place Friday. Like a delayed reaction to a FOMC meeting, you never know if a new presidency will act as an inflection point, regardless of what the charts look like.
I like the market, but the short term is harder to call.
Earnings ramps up this week, and then next Wednesday (Feb 1) is a Fed meeting.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Qualcomm (QCOM -2.42%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Nomura with a 12-month target price of $70.
Verizon (VZ +0.69%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform at Wells Fargo Securities.
SunTrust Banks (STI +1.86%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Sandler O’Neill with a 12-month target price of $62.
FMC Corp. (FMC +1.63%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Accumulate’ at Seaport Global with a price target of $60.
Schlumberger Ltd (SLB -0.81%) was downgraded to ‘Equal-Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ at Stephens.
Rockwell Collins (COL +2.45%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Seaport Global with a price target of $100.
Dish Network (DISH -2.50%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal-Weight’ at Morgan Stanley with a price target of $75.
MetLife (MET +0.57%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Deutsche Bank.
BB&T (BBT +0.29%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Hilliard Lyons with a 12-month target price of $51.
Merck (MRK +3.65%) will pay $625 million to settle patent-infringement litigation against Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ono Pharmaceutical for infringing on both companies’ patents covering use of PD-1 antibodies to treat cancer.
Winnebago Industries (WGO +0.32%) fell over 4% in after-hours trading after it registered 4.56 million shares for holders.
Today’s Economic Calendar
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Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY