Before the Open (Jan 11)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets leaned to the downside. China and Thailand moved up. The Philippines and New Zealand dropped more than 1%; Austria and Malaysia were also weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East currently lean to the upside. Poland, Greece, Russia, Spain, Italy, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Czech Republic are up; Denmark and South Africa are down. Futures in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
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Podcast: with Chat With Traders
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The dollar is down. Bitcoin is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are flat. Bonds are down.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Union Pacific (UNP -0.92%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Daiwa Securities with a price target of $158.
VMware (VMW -0.04%) was upgraded to ‘Ourperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Cowen.
KB Home (KBH +0.44%) rose almost 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 revenue of $1.40 billion, higher than consensus of $1.35 billion.
Progress Software (PRGS -0.11%) jumped 7% in after-hours trading after it said it sees full-year adjusted EPS of $2.29 to $2.35, well above consensus of $1.88.
Duke Energy (DUK -1.39%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
Expedia (EXPE -0.08%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after it was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal-Weight’ at Morgan Stanley with a price target of $160.
Zillow Group (ZG +0.55%) rose nearly 2% in after-hours trading after it was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal-Weight’ at Morgan Stanley with a price target of $50.
Advanced Energy (AEIS -1.06%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at D.A. Davidson.
Dollar Tree (DLTR -0.05%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Guggenheim Securities with a 12-month target price of $125.
NiSource (NI -2.31%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Southern Co (SO -1.39%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Avangrid (AGR -1.88%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
Coupa Software (COUP -0.47%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Needham & Co with a 12-month target price of $39.
Lipocene (LPCN +1.17%) plummeted over 50% in after-hours trading after a FDA advisory panel voted 13-6 that the benefit/risk of Lipocene’s Tlando isn’t acceptable as a testosterone replacement therapy.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Producer Price Index
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
1:00 PM Results of $12B, 30-Year Note Auction
2:00 PM Treasury Budget
3:30 PM Fed’s Dudley: Economic Outlook
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