Before the Open (Jun 16)

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Options Expiration Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan did well; Indonesia and the Philippines did poorly. Europe is currently mostly up. Greece is up more than 1%; the UK, Poland, France, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Switzerland and Sweden are also doing well. Turkey and Austria are weak. Futures in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
The dollar is down a small amount. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
We entered this week wondering if last Friday’s big-cap tech selling pressure was a just a one-day event or a hint of what’s to come. After four more days of trading, we don’t have an answer. Tech stocks have shown signs of strength and weakness this week, and I’m not sure the additional data points helps us determine what’s next. The only major notable is the divergence between the stocks. Some have bounced nicely; others have been weakish. They’re not moving together.
Overall the market is doing just fine. In the near term there are questions. I’ll of course have more to say over the weekend in the weekly report.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Planet Fitness (PLNT +0.67%) was added to the U.S. ‘Focus List’ at William O’Neil.
Square (SQ +2.22%) lost over 1% in pre-market trading after it was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Credit Suisse.
Celgene (CELG -0.36%) was upgraded to “Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Leerink Partners LLC.
Stanley Black & Decker (SWK -0.44%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ rating at Seaport Global Securities with a 12-month target price of $160.
Cal-Maine (CALM -1.39%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $31.
Shire PLC (SHPG -0.81%) was initiated with a recommendation of ‘Overweight’ at Wolfe Research with a 12-month target price of $222.
Aclaris Therapeutics (ACRS -1.95%) was initiated with an ‘Overweight’ rating at Cantor Fitzgerald with a 12-month target price of $50.
Microchip (MCHP -0.89%) was initiated with an “Outperform’ rating at Raymond James with a 12-month target price of $95.
Booz Allen Hamilton Holdings (BAH -0.51%) sank over 10% in pre-market trading after the company said the U.S. Justice Department is investigating its cost accounting and charging practices.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (VRX -2.73%) rose over 1% in after-hours trading after it was initiated with an ‘Overweight’ rating at Cantor Fitzgerald with a 12-month target price of $18.
Finisar (FNSR +1.50%) bounced back from a 10% loss in after-hours trading and rose over 5% after management said on an earnings call that they remain optimistic about fiscal 2018 and expect revenue growth to resume in Q2 driven by sales of 100-gigabit transceivers for hyper-scale data centers and arrays for 3D sensing. Finisar had fallen 10% after it reported Q4 revenue of $357.5 million, less than consensus of $359.6 million, and said it sees Q1 revenue of $330 million-$350 million, below consensus of $366.2 million.
Horizon Pharma Plc (HZNP -5.12%) gained almost 2% in after-hours trading after it was initiated with an ‘Overweight’ rating at Cantor Fitzgerald with a 12-month target price of $13.
Adamis Pharmaceuticals (ADMP +53.33%) rose over 2% in after-hours trading, after it surged over 50% in Thursday’s session, when it received approval from the FDA for its epinephrine pre-filled syringe for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions.
Thursday’s Key Earnings
Kroger (NYSE:KR) -18.9% after cutting guidance.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Housing Starts
10:00 Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations
10:00 Consumer Sentiment
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY