Before the Open (Nov 24)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore did the best; Thailand was weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mostly up. France, Germany, the UAE, Greece, Russia, Israel, Austria, Saudi Arabia and the Czech Republic are leading; Poland is 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 and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ -0.76%) may move higher this morning after China announced that it will remove the tariff on diapers and some baby formula imports as of Dec 1.
Bank of America (BAC -0.26%) was raised to A- from BBB+ by S&P with a stable outlook.
Marriott International (MAR -0.96%) was reinstated with a ‘Buy’ at Canaccord Genuity.
Kosmos Energy (KOS +1.52%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at Exane BNP Paribas.
Frontline Ltd (FRO -2.39%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at ABG Sundal Collier.
Vipshop Holdings ADRs ({=VIPS =}) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘buy’ at ICBC Research.
SandRidge (SD +5.29%) climbed over 5% in after-hours trading after DJ reported that Carl Icahn bought a 13% stake in the company.
DaVita (DVA +0.40%) gained over 2% in after-hours trading after Reuters reported the company is exploring the sale of its physician network business for as much as $4 billion.
Variety reported that 21st Century Fox (FOXA -0.87%) is continuing to engage in preliminary discussions with Comcast, Disney and other potential suitors for the sale of some of its assets.
Today’s Economic Calendar
9:45 PMI Composite Flash
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY