Before the Open (Feb 1)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday. Happy Fed Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. India rallied 1.8%; Japan, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and South Korea also did well. Europe is currently up across-the-board. Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Sweden are up more than 1%. Futures in the States point towards a moderate gap up 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 up; copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
The Fed is finally front and center. I doubt they raise rates today. They want to raise a couple times this year, but I bet uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration will keep them on the sidelines. They’ll say the same stuff about moderate economic improvement but will somehow communicate their desire to sit tight and see what happens instead of moving too quickly.
Wall Street should breathe a sigh of relief that despite the Fed’s hawkish intentions, they’ll move slowly.
Once the “approval” that rates won’t be raised subsides, it’ll be back to reality – reality being there isn’t a lot of support for higher prices. Several breadth indicators have diverged from the underlying price action, and a few other divergences (highlighted in yesterday’s LB Daily) are forming.
Long term I like the market. Shorter term I’m less optimistic.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Apple (AAPL -0.23%) rose 3% in pre-market trading after it reported Q1 EPS of $3.36, higher than consensus of $3.22, and said it sold 78.3 million iPhone units, above consensus of 76.3 million.
Marathon Oil (MRO +1.33%) was upgraded to ‘Sector Outperform’ from ‘Sector Perform’ at Scotia Howard Weil with a target price of $25.
Illumina (ILMN +0.51%) lost 1% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q1 revenue of $580 million to $595 million, below consensus of $615.3 million.
U.S. Steel (X -0.88%) lost almost 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 net sales of $2.65 billion, below consensus of $2.66 billion.
Align Technology (ALGN +1.90%) gained 2% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q1 net revenue of $295 million to $298 million, above consensus of $293.5 million.
Manhattan Associates (MANH +0.06%) fell 5% in after-hours trading after it said it sees fiscal 2017 adjusted EPS of $1.89 to $1.93, below consensus of $2.02.
Carbonite (CARB +2.37%) rose nearly 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 preliminary non-GAAP EPS of 10 cents-13 cents, higher than consensus of 10 cents. It also purchased Double-Take for $65.3 million in cash and stock.
Under Armour (UAA -25.74%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Credit Suisse.
Overstock.com (OSTK unch) surged over 13% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 12 cents versus zero y/y and Q4 revenue of $526.2 million versus $480.3 million y/y.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD -2.26%) climbed nearly 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 revenue of $1.11 billion, better than consensus of $1.07 billion.
Match Group (MTCH -0.52%) dropped nearly 8% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q1 revenue of $287 million-$297 million, well below consensus of $330.2 billion.
Sanchez Energy (SN -1.49%) slid 3% in after-hours trading after it announced a public offering of 10 million shares of common stock.
Boot Barn Holdings (BOOT +3.43%) sank nearly 10% in after-hours trading after it cut its fiscal 2017 EPS estimate to 60 cents-63 cents from an Oct 26 projection of 66 cents-73 cents, below consensus of 68 cents.
Synergy Pharmaceuticals (SGYP +8.10%) sank over 10% in after-hours trading after it announced a public offering of $125 million of common stock.
Catabasis Pharmaceuticals (CATB +2.80%) plunged over 60% in after-hours trading after part B of the MoveDMD trial of its edasalonexent (CAT-1004) for treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy failed to meet its primary endpoint.
Tuesday’s Key Earnings
Aetna (NYSE:AET) +1.6% beating quarterly profit estimates.
Apple (AAPL) +3% AH with a revival in iPhone sales.
AMD (NYSE:AMD) +4.9% AH after topping expectations.
Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) flat AH on mixed results.
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) -1.1% AH amid mixed guidance.
Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) +3.1% boosted by new drugs.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) -2.1% as profits halved in 2016.
MasterCard (NYSE:MA) -2.7% hurt by rebates, stronger dollar.
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) +1.3% hiking its view for 2017.
Sprint (NYSE:S) +1.3% on successful cost trimming.
U.S. Steel (NYSE:X) volatile AH following 2017 guidance.
UPS (NYSE:UPS) -6.8% issuing a cautious outlook.
Under Armour (NYSE:UAA) -25.7% after a flat-footed performance.
Valero (NYSE:VLO) -3.6% hit by ethanol fuel blending costs.
Today’s Economic Calendar
Auto Sales
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:15 ADP Jobs Report
8:30 Gallup U.S. Job Creation Index
8:30 Treasury Refunding Quarterly Announcement
9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index
10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
10:00 Construction Spending
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
2:00 PM FOMC Announcement
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY