Before the Open (Dec 22)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, India, New Zealand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are up. Europe, Africa and the Middle East currently lean to the downside. Greece, Russia and Israel are up. Spain is down more than 1%; Poland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria and Sweden are also down. Futures in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
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The dollar is up. Bitcoin is getting crushed and now has a 12 handle. Oil is down; copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Capital One Financial (COF +0.94%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC with a price target of $122.
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (RRGB -0.75%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Jeffries with a price target of $63.
Cintas (CTAS +0.35%) rose 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS from continuing operations of $1.31, higher than consensus of $1.27, and then said it sees full-year adjusted EPS from continuing operations $5.39 to $5.46, better than consensus of $5.37.
Autodesk (ADSK -0.57%) was rated a new ‘Outperform’ at Oppenheimer with an 18-month target price of $135.
La Jolla Pharmaceutical (LJPC +4.51%) rose nearly 4% in after-hours trading after the FDA approved its Giapreza injection for adults with low blood pressure due to septic of other distributive shock.
Celgene (CELG -0.36%) fell nearly 5% in after-hours trading after it said its drug regimen in a Phase 3 follicular lymphoma study failed to meet its endpoints.
Smart Global Holdings (SGH -1.71%) climbed almost 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.05, better than consensus of 92 cents, and then said it sees Q2 adjusted EPS of $130-$1.36, well above consensus of 91 cents.
AAR Corp (AIR +2.14%) dropped nearly 9% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 35 cents, below consensus of 37 cents.
Nike (NKE +1.86%) rose +0.5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 46 cents, above consensus of 40 cents.
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE -0.62%) slid over 3% in after-hours trading after the CEO, Vince McMahon, sold 3.34 million shares of WWE to fund Alpha Entertainment LLC.
CalAmp (CAMP +1.54%) fell 4% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q4 adjusted Ebitda of $12 million to $15 million, the mid-point below consensus of $14.4 million.
NXT-ID (NXTD +38.36%) rose 9% in after-hours trading on top of Thursday’s 38% gain and Wednesday’s 74% surge after it announced that its Fit Pay unit would jointly develop a platform with Cascade FinTech that would allow consumers to use cryptocurrencies to pay for goods “at millions of retail locations worldwide.”
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VIDEO: LeavittBrothers.net Overview
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Thursday’s Key Earnings
Nike (NYSE:NKE) -1.5% AH on weakness in North America.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Durable Goods
8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
10:00 New Home Sales
10:00 Consumer Sentiment
11:00 Kansas City Fed Mfg Survey
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