Before the Open (Sep 18)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines did very well. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mostly up. Poland, Denmark, South Africa, Finland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Israel and Austria are doing the best; Greece is down more than 1%. Futures in States point towards a positive open for the cash market.
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The dollar is up a small amount. Oil is down; copper is up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
I don’t have additional comments to the ones made in LB Weekly, which was published over the weekend.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Orbital ATK (OA +1.52%) surged 20% in pre-market trading after the company was acquired by Northrop Grumman for $7.8 billion, or $134.50 a share.
Tech Data (TECD +1.09%) was initiated a new ‘Buy’ at Needham & Co. with a 12-month target price of $100.
Caterpillar (CAT +0.74%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS with a price target of $140.
Resolute Energy (REN +9.21%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at BMO Capital Markets.
Finish Line (FINL +2.84%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Neutral’ with a 12-month target price of $8.
Applied Materials (AMAT +0.19%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Sector Perform’ at RBC Capital Markets with a target price of $55.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP (BIP +0.07%) rose over 2% in after-hours trading after Exame reported that it is weighing a possible bid for JBS SA, the world’s largest meat producer
Weibo (WB -0.81%) lost -0.3% in after-hours trading after Chief Financial Officer Herman Yu resigned to “pursue other opportunities.”
Horizon Pharma (HZNP -1.46%) gained almost 1% in after-hours trading after Reuters reported that people familiar with the situation said the company was working with Morgan Stanley to review strategic options for its primary care unit, including a potential sale.
Equifax (EFX -3.81%) said its Chief Information Officer David Webb and Chief Security Officer Susan Mauldin are retiring effective immediately.
Neos Therapeutics (NEOS +2.22%) rose over 3% but then reversed course and dropped 6% in after-hours trading. The stock rallied initially after it received FDA approval for its Adzenys ER drug for treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in patients 6 years and older. However, the stock erased its gains and headed lower after a BMO Capital Markets analyst said there may be some “financing overhang” on the stock as the company may need additional funding in the future to get to breakeven.
Today’s Economic Calendar
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
4:00 PM Treasury International Capital
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY