Before the Open (Jan 30)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
Half the Asian/Pacific markets were closed today. Japan, Australia and New Zealand were weak. Europe is down across-the-board. Greece is down more than 3%; Austria, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Russia are down more than 1%; The UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland and Spain are also weak. Turkey is doing well. Futures in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: There’s a Bull Market Somewhere
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The dollar is up. Oil is flat; copper is down. Gold and silver are flat. Bonds are down.
As is typically the case I don’t have anything to add to LB Weekly, published Sunday morning.
Overall the market is doing well, but in the near term there are concerns. Despite several indexes hitting new all-time highs last week, the small caps did not and several breadth indicators failed to match previous highs. The AD line, AD volume line, new highs and percentage of stocks trading above certain moving averages are all forming negative divergences. These don’t tell us the multi-year bull market is over. They just tell us the participation rate in the near term isn’t great, so we need to be more careful with long trades.
The Fed is on deck. Last year they did a one-and-done. Wednesday’s meeting and announcement is important because we’ll find out if it’ll be another one-and-done year or if they’re serious about raising a few times this year. It’s entirely possible they come out and say: “The new administration is unpredictable, so we’re going hold off raising rates until we have more clarity.” Wall Street, no doubt, would breathe a sigh of relief.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
MB Financial (MBFI -1.09%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at KBW with a price target of $46.
NetApp (NTAP +0.43%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a 12-month target price of $43.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL -1.13%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Argus with a price target of $116.
Temper Sealy International (TPX -2.89%) is indicated to open down 6% after it was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Raymond James.
Colgate-Palmolive (CL -5.22%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Citigroup.
American Express (AXP -0.10%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at KBQ with a price target of $91.
Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS -2.01%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a 12-month target price of $62.
Regulus Therapeutics (RGLS unch) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Needham & Co.
Array BioPharma (ARRY +1.27%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Leerink Partners with a 12-month target price of $11.
Lowe’s (LOW +0.03%) gained almost 1% in after-hours trading after it announced a new $5 billion share repurchase program.
Cannell Capital reported a 5% stake in Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW +2.95%) .
Arctic Cat (ACAT +2.56%) was upgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Underperform’ at BMO Capital Markets with a price target of $18.50.
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VIDEO: LeavittBrothers.net Overview – Overview of Leavitt Brothers research
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Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
10:00 Pending Home Sales
10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY