Before the Open (Jul 12)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, and the Phillipines posted gains while Japan, New Zealand and Australia posted losses. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are mostly up. Poland, Finland, Russia, Norway, Italy, Austria and Sweden are up more than 1%; numerous other markets are up solidly too. Futures in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.
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Podcast – with Chat With Traders
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The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
Janet Yellen is in Washington to deliver the first part of her semiannual congressional testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. Her comments won’t matter overall but could move prices around in the very near term.
Otherwise the market is kind of stuck in a range. The indexes are unchanged going back several weeks or months depending on which you key on. Many big-cap tech stocks dropped below their 50-day MAs but most have recovered. It’s business as usual right now. Leadership groups are changing, but the overall market remains steady and in good shape.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Nvidia (NVDA +1.42%) is up over 1% in pre-market trading after it was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey with a price target of $177.
JBG Smith Properties ({=JBGS-W=}) may move to the upside today after it was announced that it will replace Chico’s Fas in the S&P MidCap 400 before the open on Wednesday, July 19.
AAR Corp. (AIR +3.94%) climbed 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 sales of $492.3 million, above consensus of $487.0 million.
Casey’s General Stores (CASY +0.56%) was initiated with a recommendation of ‘Outperform’ at William Blair & Co. with a price target of $119.55.
SeaWorld (SEAS -2.82%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at GARP Research with a price target of $19.89.
United Continental Holdings (UAL -1.71%) rose almost 1% in after-hours trading after it said June traffic was up +3.4%, capacity was up 5%, and preliminary Q2 consolidated passenger unit revenue was up about 2% y/y, the midpoint of its original 1%-3% guidance range.
Healthcare Services Group (HCSG +1.11%) gained 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 revenue of $470.9 million, higher than consensus of $424.0 million.
Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA +41.38%) slipped 2% in after-hours trading after it announced that it intends to offer $150 million of its common stock in an underwritten public offering.
Cohu (COHU +2.39%) jumped over 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 preliminary sales were $93 million, above prior guidance of $86 million and better than consensus of $86.2 million.
Alder Biopharmaceuticals (ALDR +3.39%) sold-off over 8% in after-hours trading after it announced that it intends to offer $12.5 million shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering.
Kindred Biosciences (KIN -7.65%) dropped 3% in after-hours trading after it announced a proposed public offering of its common stock, although no size was given.
Ocular Therapeutix (OCUL +17.10%) plunged 30% in after-hours trading after the FDA denied Ocular’s Dextenza’s NDA eye pain drug in its current form.
Tuesday’s Key Earnings
PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) -0.5% despite beating Q2 expectations.
Today’s Economic Calendar
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
10:00 Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations
10:00 Yellen delivers semi-annual monetary policy testimony
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
1:00 PM Results of $20B, 10-Year Note Auction
2:00 PM Fed’s Beige Book
2:15 PM Fed’s George speech
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY