Before the Open (Dec 29)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
Here we go – last day of the week, month, quarter and year.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed nearly up across-the-board. Hong Kong, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand led the way; Australia posted a loss. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are split. The UK, the UAE, South Africa, Hungary and Israel are up; Poland, Germany, Italy, Austria and Sweden are down. Futures in the States point towards a relatively big gap up open for the cash market.
The dollar is down. Bitcoin is down. Oil is up; copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Renren (RENN +2.82%) gained nearly 4% in pre-market trading after it announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Trucker Path, a provider of a social platform for the U.S. trucking industry.
Syntel (SYNT -0.98%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Wells Fargo Securities with a 12-month target price of $21.
Eaton Corp PLC (ETN +0.96%) said it sees a one-time Q4 tax expense of between $90 million and $110 million because of the newly signed U.S. tax legislation.
SandRidge Energy (SD +1.65%) rose nearly 2% in after-hours trading after it backed out of plans to acquire Bonanza Creek Energy due to pressure from activist shareholder Carl Icahn. Bonanza Creek Energy (BCEI -1.10%) slid over 1% in after-hours trading on the news.
Raytheon (RTN +0.54%) received a $634.2 million contract from the U.S. Defense Department for production of the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) and other AMRAMM items.
Celgene (CELG +0.28%) said it will record a Q4 net pretax charge of $411 million related to the halt of two clinical trials of its GED-0301 phase II REVOLVE trial for treatment of Crohn’s disease.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII +0.78%) will replace CR Bard BCR in the S&P 500 prior to the open of trading on Wednesday, January 3.
Scientific Games (SGMS -0.10%) will replace Huntington Ingalls Industries in the S&P MidCap 400 prior to the open of trading on Wednesday, January 3.
Ultra Clean Holdings (UCTT -0.98%) will replace Scientific Games in the S&P SmallCap 600 prior to the open of trading on Wednesday, January 3.
Kimbell Royalty Partners LP (KRP -0.31%) may move higher this morning after Rivercrest Capital LLP reported a 5.6% stake in the company.
The chief legal officer of Prologis (PLD +0.75%) , Edward Nekritz, sold $1.02 million of company shares at an average price of $64.51 on Dec 28.
Alcentra Capital (ABDC -5.35%) may move higher this morning after Stillwell Value Partners reported a 7.2% stake in the company.
Today’s Economic Calendar
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
SIFMA close 2:00 PM
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY