Before the Open (Mar 21)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday. Happy Fed Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the downside. India, New Zealand and Indonesia did well while Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and the Philippines were weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently quiet and little changed. Turkey, the UAE, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the Czech Republic are doing well; the UK and Switzerland are down. Futures in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
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ESSAY: Three Steps to Epiphany
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The dollar is down. Bitcoin is up. Oil is up; copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Wellcare Health Plans (WCG -0.04%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Wells Fargo Securities with a price target of $220.
Cboe (CBOE +1.16%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at JPMorgan Chase with a price target of $106.
FedEx (FDX +0.95%) rallied 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $3.72, well above consensus of $3.11.
Whiting Petroleum (WLL +3.93%) was rated anew ‘Buy’ at Johnson Rice & Co with a price target of $58.
Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA +28.68%) lost 1% in after-hours trading after it said it will offer 7.5 million shares of its common stock via Citigroup, Leerink Partners, Cantor Fitzgerald, Credit Suisse, RBC Capital Markets, Guggenheim Capital and JMP Group.
MuleSoft (MULE +27.16%) gained almost 5% in after-hours trading after Salesforce.com agreed to buy the company for $6.5 billion.
AAR Corp (AIR +0.30%) dropped over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 sales of $456.3 million, weaker than consensus of $477.2 million.
Prothena Corp PLC (PRTA +2.05%) surged 15% in after-hours trading after it signed a R&D pact with Celgene where it received $100 million upfront and a $50 million equity investment from Celgene under an agreement to develop new therapies for a number of neurodegenerative diseases.
Arcadia Biosciences (RKDA -15.50%) rose 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 revenue of $1.4 million versus $540,000 in the year-earlier period.
DBV Technologies SA (DBVT -2.65%) slid 2% in after-hours trading after it announced it will offer $150 million in a global offering of new ordinary shares, in the form of American Depository Shares (ADS).
Steelcase (SCS -0.70%) lost over 3% in after-hours trading after it forecast Q1 adjusted EPS of 12 cents to 16 cents, below consensus of 19 cents.
TPG Specialty Lending (TSLX -0.17%) fell almost 4% in after-hours trading after it announced it launched a public offering of 3.75 million shares of common stock.
Laureate Education (LAUR -1.16%) rallied 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted Ebitda of $354.7 million, higher than consensus of $309.3 million.
Tuesday’s Key Earnings
FedEx (NYSE:FDX) +2.6% AH on double-digit revenue growth.
Today’s Economic Calendar
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Current Account
10:00 Existing Home Sales
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
2:00 PM FOMC Announcement
2:00 PM FOMC Forecast
2:00 PM Chairman Press Conference
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY