Before the Open (Apr 17)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
A few of the Asian/Pacific markets were closed today. Of the ones that were open, they closed with a lean to the downside. Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia were weak; South Korea did well. Europe is closed today. Russia and Turkey are doing well. Futures in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.
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The dollar is down. Oil is down; copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
Last week ended on a weak note, but per comments made in the weekly report published over the weekend, there’s some evidence a local bottom could be put in place soon. I’d be surprised if it was THE bottom; I’m just looking for A bottom. After that, considering we haven’t gotten much panic, we’re likely to get a lower low that causes some real fear.
Overall the market remains in good shape and is more likely to continue up than reverse down. But in the very near term I’m maintaining my conservative stance. This isn’t a time to place big bets.
With Europe and a portion of Asia being closed today, we may not get much action in the States.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Eli Lilly (LLY -0.43%) dropped 5% in pre-market trading after it was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital Markets.
JB Hunt Transport Services (JBHT -1.13%) reported Q1 EPS of 92 cents, better than consensus of 85 cents.
US Foods Holding Corp (USFD -0.73%) reported preliminary Q1 sales of $5.8 billion, stronger than consensus of $5.63 billion.
McDonald’s (MCD -0.38%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Wells Fargo.
Knight Transportation (KNX -1.12%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from “Neutral’ at Baird with a price target of $36.
Valmont Industries (VMI -1.12%) was upgrade to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel with a price target of $167.
Patrick Industries (PATK -1.47%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch with a price target of $80.
Sabre Corp (SABR -1.08%) rallied 5% in after-hours trading after it was announced that it will replace B/E/ Aerospace in the S&P MidCap 400 at the open of trading on Wednesday, April 19.
Ichor Holdings Ltd (ICHR -4.88%) filed to sell $100 million or ordinary shares for holders.
ViewRay (VRAY +3.80%) rose 2% in after-hours trading after it said it got 2 new orders for MRIdian Linac Systems totaling $12.3 million in Q1, versus 2 orders totaling $11.2 million y/y.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
4:00 PM Treasury International Capital
5:00 PM Stanley Fischer speech
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY