Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Hong Kong moved up, but South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan and Australia were weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mostly down. France, Greece and Hungary are down more than 1%; Poland, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, South Africa, Finland, the Netherands and Israel are also weak. Futures in the States point towards a relatively big gap down open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: The Decennial Pattern – With a Focus on Years Ending in 7, 8 and 9
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The dollar is down. Bitcoin is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Hersey (HSY -0.25%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Equal-Weight’ at Morgan Stanley with a price target of $105.
Deere & Co (DE +2.79%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Sector Perform’ at RBC Capital Markets with a price target of $190.
Legg Mason (LM +1.04%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Jeffries.
Acuity Brands (AYI -14.96%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Williams Capital who cut their target price on the stock to $175 from $204.
United Continental Holdings (UAL -0.04%) gained 2% in after-hours trading after it said it saw Q4 consolidated PRASM unchanged, better than a prior view of down -1% to -3%, and it reported Q4 preliminary pre-tax margin as adjusted of 6%-7%, higher than prior view of 3%-5%.
WD-40 Co (WDFC -0.88%) rose 4% in after-hours trading after it said it sees full-year 2018 net income of $54.4 million to $55.3 million, better than consensus of $54 million.
Domino’s Pizza (DPZ +1.52%) fell 2% in after-hours trading after CEO Patrick Doyle said he plans to leave the company in June and Richard Allison will take over as CEO effective July 1.
Ocean Rig UDW (ORIG -1.39%) rallied nearly 9% in after-hours trading after people familiar with the matter said the company was working with Credit Suisse Group AG to explore strategic options including a sale of the company.
Nordstrom (JWN -0.79%) lost 1% in after-hours trading after it said it sees 2017 full-year EPS of $2.90-$2.95, the mid-point below consensus of $2.94.
Patterson-UTI (PTEN -3.00%) was rated a new ‘Overweight’ at Stephens with a 12-month target price of $25.
Tivity Health (TVTY unch) jumped 10% in after-hours trading after Humana extended an existing partnership with the company through Dec 31, 2022.
Helios & Matheson Analytics (HMNY +3.47%) spiked over 7% in after-hours trading after CEO Ted Farnsworth said it would consider an initial coin offering as he commented with MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe at the end of a Yahoo Finance interview.
AmTrust Financial Services (AFSI +0.10%) jumped over 20% in after-hours trading after Stone Point Capital Partners said it will buy the AmTrust shares not controlled by the Karfunkel-Zyskind family for $12.25 a share in cash.
Eastman Kodak (KODK +119.35%) soared over 30% in after-hours trading on top of the +119% surge in Tuesday’s session after the company said it will launch some new blockchain-based rights-management service in which it will use a blockchain to track the online use of photographs licensed through its system.
Today’s Economic Calendar
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Import/Export Prices
9:00 Fed’s Evans: Monetary Policy
10:00 Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations
10:00 Wholesale Trade
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
1:00 PM Results of $20B, 10-Year Note Auction
1:30 PM Fed’s Bullard: U.S. Monetary and Economic Policy
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY