Before the Open (Mar 1)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. Japan, Singapore and Indonesia did well; Taiwan was weak. Europe is currently up across-the-board. Germany, France, the UK, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Russia, Greece, Poland, Turkey, Hungary, Spain and Italy are all strong. Futures in the States point towards a big gap up open for the cash market.
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The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
The market will open with a huge gap up today. All the indexes will be at or near all-time highs. News trumps the charts. Beneath the surface there’s been some deterioration that has caused me to be more conservative lately, but Trumps address last night got Wall Street excited. It’ll be a good test. What wins? The softness brewing beneath the surface or the strong open which will reset the charts?
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Micron (MU -1.35%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $29.
Allstate (ALL +1.01%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods with a 12-month target price of $81.
William Lyon Homes (WLH -2.28%) rose 3% in after-hours trading after it was announced that it will replace Arctic Cat in the S&P SmallCap 600 at the opening of trade on Monday, March 6.
Intel (INTC -0.85%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Bernstein with a 12-month target price of $30
salesforce.com (CRM -0.23%) slid over 1% in after-hours trading after it said it sees full-year revenue of $10.15 billion-$10.20 billion, below consensus of $10.20 billion.
Tesaro (TSRO +0.51%) lost 1% in after-hours trading after it reported a Q4 loss of -$2.60 a share, wider than consensus of -$1.95.
Palo Alto Networks (PANW -1.33%) slumped nearly 20% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q3 revenue of $406 million-$416 million, below consensus of $454.6 million.
Weight Watchers International (WTW +9.93%) jumped over 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 20 cents, better than consensus of 19 cents, and said it sees full-year EPS of $1.30-$1.40, above consensus of $1.17.
Darling Ingredients (DAR +1.64%) rallied over 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 25 cents, above consensus of 19 cents.
Veeva Systems (VEEV -1.02%) fell nearly 2% in after-hours trading after it forecast fiscal 2018 EPS of 78 cents-80 cents, below consensus of 80 cents.
TASER International (TASR -1.57%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 12 cents, better than consensus of 10 cents.
CyberOptics (CYBE -1.01%) sank over 10% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 revenue of $13.50 million, less than consensus of $14.21 million.
Builders FirstSource (BLDR +0.94%) climbed nearly 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 net sales of $1.55 billion, higher than consensus of $1.50 billion.
Chuy’s Holdings (CHUY +0.88%) fell over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 14 cents, below consensus of 17 cents, and said it sees full-year EPS of $1.11 to $1.15, weaker than consensus of $1.19.
Big 5 Sporting Goods (BGFV -2.89%) jumped over 13% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q1 EPS of 12 cents-18 cents, well above consensus of 6 cents.
Dynavax (DVAX +2.27%) surged over 20% in after-hours trading after it announced the FDA will review Dynavax’s responses to the Complete Response Letter issued by the FDA in Nov 2016 for the Biologics License Application for HEPLISAV-B, Dynavax’s vaccine for immunization against hepatitis B infection in adults 18 years and older.
Tuesday’s Key Earnings
Cheniere Energy (NYSEMKT:LNG) -1.8% missing earnings estimates.
Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) -4.4% AH following a Q4 loss.
Palo Alto Networks (NYSE:PANW) -20.4% on weak guidance.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) -1.4% AH giving a soft outlook.
Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) -14.2% after a Chapter 11 warning.
Target (NYSE:TGT) -12.2% plagued by its brick-and-mortar model.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX) -13.9% cutting guidance.
Today’s Economic Calendar
Auto Sales
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
8:30 Gallup U.S. Job Creation Index
9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index
10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
10:00 Construction Spending
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
2:00 PM Fed’s Beige Book
6:00 PM Fed’s Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard speech
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY