Before the Open (Oct 20)

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Options Expiration Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. Hong Kong rallied more than 1%; China, South Korea and Thailand also did well. India and the Philippines were weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mostly up. Turkey, Denmark, South Africa, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia are doing well; Kenya and Israel are weak. Futures in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
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The dollar is down. Oil is down; copper is up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Harley-Davidson (HOG +0.15%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Argus Research with a 12-month target price of $53.
JB Hunt Transport Services (JBHT +0.33%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Buckingham Research Group with a 12-month target price of $124.
General Electric (GE +1.99%) tumbled 5% in pre-market trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 29 cents, well below consensus of 50 cents
Pinnacle Financial Partners (PNFP +0.07%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Hilliard Lyons.
Skechers (SKX -4.22%) surged over 20% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 net sales of $1.09 billion, stronger than consensus of $1.07 billion.
Resolute Energy (REN -1.73%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Celgene (CELG -0.88%) dropped 6% in after-hours trading after it said it will end a final-stage trial of a Crohn’s disease drug after it said there were no meaningful safety imbalances identified in the analysis of its drug mongersen on patients.
PayPal Holdings (PYPL -0.01%) climbed 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 46 cents, better than consensus of 44 cents, and then raised guidance on full-year adjusted EPS to $1.86-$1.88 from a prior view of $1.80-$1.84.
NCR Corp (NCR -0.70%) sank over 10% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 revenue of $1.66 billion, weaker than consensus of $1.69 billion, and then cut its full-year revenue forecast to $6.475 billion-$6.525 billion from a prior forecast of $6.63 billion-$6.75 billion, well below consensus of $6.7 billion.
athenaHealth (ATHN -3.62%) slipped almost 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 revenue of $304.6 million, weaker than consensus of $310.8 million, and then said it sees full-year revenue of $1.20 billion-$1.22 billion, the midpoint below consensus of $1.22 billion.
Allassiam Corp PLC (TEAM +1.11%) jumped nearly 12% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 revenue of $193.8 million, better than consensus of $185.8 million, and then gave guidance for full-year revenue of $841 million-$847 million, higher than consensus of $831 million.
Imperva (IMPV +0.97%) rose 4% in after-hours trading after it reported preliminary Q3 adjusted EPS of 29 cents-32 cents, above a prior estimate of 22 cents-26 cents.
Werner Enterprises (WERN +0.56%) dropped over 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 operating revenue of $528.6 million, below consensus of $533 million.
CAI International (CAI -0.16%) rallied 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 90 cents, well above consensus of 71 cents.
Immune Design (IMDZ -16.03%) climbed nearly 5% in after-hours trading after it said its G100 drug for treatment of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma had received Orphan Drug Designation by the European Medicines Agency.
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Thursday’s Key Earnings
Blackstone (NYSE:BX) +1.6% benefiting from strong markets.
PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) +3.9% AH with strong mobile growth.
Philip Morris (NYSE:PM) -3.9% after missing estimates.
Verizon (NYSE:VZ) +1.2% winning wireless subscribers.
Today’s Economic Calendar
10:00 Existing Home Sales
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
2:00 PM Treasury Budget
12:30 PM Janet Yellen: “The Future of Global Finance: Populism, Technology and Regulation” speech
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY