Before the Open (Apr 20)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore did well; New Zealand was weak. Europe is currently mostly up. France, Turkey, Denmark, Finland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are leading while Greece, Russia and Portugal are weakish. 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 down. Oil and copper are up. Gold is down; silver is flat. Bonds are down.
After yesterday’s close I marked today as a “do or die” day. The stage was set coming into this week for a bounce, and if it doesn’t happen within a certain time window, odds favor another leg down before the stage will be set again. We’re there. The market needs to bounce or else the S&P is likely to drop to 2300 before trying again.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
CSX Corp (CSX +0.64%) gained over 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 revenue of $2.87 billion, above consensus of $2.76 billion.
Qualcomm (QCOM -0.11%) rose over 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.34, higher than consensus of $1.19.
Foot Locker (FL +0.08%) tumbled 5% in pre-market trading after it said it sees Q1 EPS of $1.36-$1.39, below consensus of $1.48.
eBay (EBAY -0.50%) lost 2% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q2 adjusted EPS continuing operations of 43 cents-45 cents, below consensus of 47 cents.
United Rentals (URI -0.34%) fell over 4% in after-hours trading after the company reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.63, better than consensus of $1.52, but said rental rates “remained under some pressure.”
American Express (AXP -0.32%) gained more than 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 revenue of $7.90 billion, higher than consensus of $7.79 billion.
Texas Capital Bancshares (TCBI -0.06%) slid over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 80 cents, weaker than consensus of 89 cents.
Plexus (PLXS +1.22%) sold-off 10% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q3 revenue of $595 million-$625 million, well below consensus of $688.3 million.
Kaiser Aluminum (KALU -1.35%) rose nearly 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.52, well above consensus of %$1.12.
Westar Energy (WR +0.88%) tumbled over 9% in after-hours trading after Great Plains Energy’s proposed $8.6 billion takeover of Westar was rejected by Kansas utility regulators.
Select Comfort (SCSS +3.36%) surged 13% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 net sales of $393.9 million, above consensus of $370 million, and then said it sees full-year EPS of $1.25-$1.50, the midpoint above consensus of $1.31.
Datawatch (DWCH -0.70%) rallied over 10% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 revenue of $8.8 million, above consensus of $8.4 million.
TCP Capital (TCPC -0.06%) lost over 2% in after-hours trading after it announced that it has commenced a public offering of 5 million shares of its common stock.
Whitestone REIT (WSR -1.04%) dropped over 5% in after-hours trading after it announced that it has commenced a public offering of 8.1 million shares of its common stock.
SLM Corp (SLM +0.35%) jumped over 7% in after-hours trading after it said it sees full-year core EPS of 70 cents-72 cents, better than consensus of 69 cents.
Wednesday’s Key Earnings
Abbott (NYSE:ABT) +0.4% propped up by St. Jude acquisition.
American Express (NYSE:AXP) +2.3% AH sailing past estimates.
BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) -1.7% despite record ETF inflows.
CSX Corp. (NYSE:CSX) +2.5% AH boosted by coal shipments.
eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) -1.9% AH following light guidance.
Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) -0.2% AH on mixed results.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) +2% posting a strong Q1.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) +2.8% AH topping expectations.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) -0.2% as revenues met estimates.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Philly Fed Business Outlook
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:00 Leading Indicators
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY