Before the Open (Mar 27)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across-the-board. Japan dropped more than 1%; India, Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore were also weak. Europe is currently mostly down. Austria, Norway, Poland and Russia are down more than 1%; the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and Italy are also weak. Greece is up more than 2%. S&P 500 Futures in the States are down 20.
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The dollar is down. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
Donald Trump came into office with sky-high pro-business expectations, and with Congress’s failure to pass his healthcare changes last Friday, people on Wall Street are starting to seriously question if he’ll be able to get stuff done. Even with Republicans controlling Congress, they couldn’t muster enough votes. And if healthcare fails, what about tax cuts and other campaign talking points? If the gains off the pre-election lows are at least partially due to expectations of certain promises being made good on (BTW, I don’t entirely agree with this), then the gains over the last few months could be unwound.
The market has been under pressure for a couple weeks. I’ve been very clear the near term was unknown and the trading environment was not very good.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Cal-Maine (CALM +0.13%) reported Q3 EPS of 9 cents, weaker than consensus of 19 cents.
KB Home (KBH +1.50%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at JMP Securities.
Snap (SNAP -1.69%) jumped 5% in pre-market trading after it was initiated with an ‘Overweight’ at Morgan Stanley with a price target of $28.
Best Buy (BBY +0.52%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Piper Jaffray with a price target of $55.
Edwards Lifesciences (EW +1.37%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Evercore ISI with a price target of $110.
Sanderson Farms (SAFM +1.24%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Sector Weight’ at KeyBanc Capital Markets with a price target of $120.
Illinois Tool Works (ITW -0.50%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Stifel who cut their price target on the stock to $104 from $135.
PrivateBancorp (PVTB -0.50%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods with a target price of $63.
DSW Inc (DSW +0.68%) rose over 2% in after-hours trading after it was announced that it will replace Texas Capital Bancshares in the S&P MidCap 400 before the opening of trade on Wednesday, March 29.
Michaels Cos (MIK +0.78%) gained nearly 3% in after-hours trading after it was announced that it will replace Wisdomtree in the S&P MidCap 400 before the opening of trade on Wednesday, March 29.
Weatherford International (WFT +0.34%) rallied over 5% in after-hours trading after it formed a joint-venture with Schlumberger to deliver completions products and services for unconventional resource plays in U.S. and Canadian land markets.
Today’s Economic Calendar
10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey
1:00 PM Results of $26B, 2-Year Note Auction
1:15 PM Fed’s Evans speech
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY