Before the Open (Sep 22)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the downside. Australia posted a gain, but Hong Kong, South Korea, India and Taiwan posted moderate losses. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mostly quiet, but there are a few notable losers. Turkey, the UAE, Finland and Kuwait are down moderately; Greece is up. Futures in the States point to a gap down open for the cash market.
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The dollar is down. Oil and copper are down. Gold is up; silver is down slightly. Bonds are up.
This week is among the weakest of the year. But despite this, the S&P and Dow hit new highs and are currently posting gains. Even if they were to drop and give the gains back, it’s still a pretty good showing.
Overall the market is strong and healthy and trending up. In the near term cracks are starting to form, so we need to be more mindful of initiating positions.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
US Steel (X -4.38%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Cowen with a price target of $20.
Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT -24.89%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Wells Fargo Securities.
Cubic (CUB +1.30%) was upgraded to ‘Strong Buy’ from ‘Outperform’ at Raymond James with a price target of $60.
McDonald’s (MCD -0.53%) boosted its quarterly dividend to $1.01 a share from 94 cents, better than consensus of 99 cents.
Aecom (ACM -0.17%) announced that its board had authorized a new $1billion stock repurchase program.
CommerceHub (CHUBA -0.26%) was initiated a ‘Buy’ at D.A. Davidson with a 12-month target price of $27.
LivePerson (LPSN +0.37%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Needham & Co with an 18-month target price of $16.
Carvana (CVNA -4.43%) was initiated a ‘Sell’ at B Riley & Co with a 12-month target price of $12.
Yelp (YELP -1.27%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at D.A. Davidson with an 18-month target price of $51.
Texas Instruments (TXN +0.26%) gained almost 1% in after-hours trading after it raised its quarterly cash dividend to 62 cents a share from 50 cents, and said its board authorized an additional $6 billion in share buybacks.
Aaron’s (AAN -0.99%) lost 1% in after-hours trading after it said it is “difficult” to predict when operations will be back to normal in its Florida stores due to the business interruptions from Hurricane Irma.
Versartis (VSAR -1.14%) plummeted 80% in after-hours trading after its Phase 3 trial of somavaratan in pediatric growth hormone deficiency did not meet its primary endpoint of non-inferiority.
Presidio (PSDO -0.43%) dropped nearly 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 revenue of $729.3 million, below consensus of $736.6 million.
Thursday’s Key Earnings
Presidio (NASDAQ:PSDO) -5.4% AH on Q4 revenue miss.
Today’s Economic Calendar
6:00 Fed’s Williams Speech
9:45 PMI Composite Flash
10:00 Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations
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