Before the Open (Apr 4)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
Of the the Asian/Pacific markets that were open today, they closed mixed. Japan dropped; Indonesia rallied. Europe is currently mostly down. Russia, Poland, Denmark and the UK moved up; Norway, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic moved down. S&P futures in the States point towards a 10-point gap down for the cash market.
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The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
Yesterday the market was weak early and strong late and ended up the day with across-the-board losses. The large-cap indexes dropped fractionally while the small caps fell > 1%. Today will start with a sizable gap down.
As I stated yesterday…
Overall the market is getting less and less interesting…and then you look at the indexes realize they’ve been range bound for a while. And the ranges aren’t very big, so we’re not getting smooth up and down movement. Instead we’re getting herky jerky grinding movement where mini trends either don’t exit or don’t last. Of course the market is uninteresting.
Financials, which did great after the election, are unchanged going back to mid-December.
Healthcare, which broke out and ran hard in February, is unchanged over the last month.
Gold is unchanged since early-January…and since mid-November…and since early-October.
Energy is almost unchanged since the early-February lows…and since mid-November…and since mid-October…and since early-September and mid-August.
Mean reversion traders are in heavan. The market is trending overall but mean reverting in the near term.
Don’t force things. Despite the overall trend, not much looks very interesting.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Nvidia (NVDA -0.50%) fell nearly 3% in pre-market trading after it was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Sector Weight’ at Pacific Crest Securities.
Alphabet (GOOGL +1.06%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at BMO Capital Markets who lowered their target price on the stock to $880 from $1,005.
Nike (NKE -0.31%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Argus Research.
Pure Storage (PSTG +3.56%) was upgraded to ‘Positive’ from ‘Neutral’ at Susquehanna with a 12-month target price of $15.
Teradyne (TER -0.71%) was rated a new ‘Outperform’ at Baird with a 12-month target price of $37.
Acadia Healthcare (ACHC -1.70%) rose over 4% in after-hours trading when it was announced that it will replace Joy Global in the S&P MidCap 400 effective before the open of trading on Thursday, April 6.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA +0.31%) gained almost 1% in after-hours trading after the FDA approved its Austedo tablets for treatment for chorea associated with Huntington’s disease.
Urban Outfitters (URBN -2.36%) fell nearly 7% in after-hours trading after it said Q1 retail comparable sales thus far are down mid-single-digit negative.
Paratek Pharmaceuticals (PRTK -3.38%) surged over 30% in after-hours trading after the company said its Omadacycline met all FDA and EMA goals in a Phase 3 study in patients with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia.
Kate Spade (KATE -1.85%) slid 8% in after-hours trading after Reuters reported the company is seeking more time to negotiate a potential sale of the company after receiving an offer from Coach last week.
New Mountain Finance Corp (NMFC +0.34%) slipped nearly 4% in after-hours trading after it announced that it had commenced an underwritten offering of 5.0 million shares of its common stock.
Therapeutics MD (TXMD +3.06%) climbed nearly 4% in after-hours trading after a Phase 3 study after its drug TX-001HR met all co-primary efficacy endpoints in treatment for women suffering from symptoms of menopause.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 International Trade
8:30 Gallup US ECI
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
10:00 Factory Orders
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY