Before the Open (Mar 26)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and India posted gains while China, New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines posted losses. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mostly up. France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Hungary, Spain, Israel, Austria and the Czech Republic are leading the way. South Africa is down. Futures in the States point towards a huge gap up open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: State of the Market
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The dollar is down. Bitcoin is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold is down; silver is up. Bonds are down.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Microsoft (MSFT -2.91%) jumped 4% in pre-market trading after Morgan Stanley named the stock a “Top Pick” and raised their price target on it to $130 from $110.
Dollar Tree (DLTR -1.70%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Piper Jaffray with a price target of $112.
MetLife (MET -3.57%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Atlantic Equities LLP with a price target of $60.
Marathon Oil (MRO -0.51%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at JPMorgan Chase with a price target of $20.
Jack in the Box (JACK -0.39%) was downgraded to ‘Equal-Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ at Morgan Stanley.
Adobe Systems (ADBE -2.49%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Market Outperform’ at JMP securities.
Gaia (GAIA -3.42%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at B Riley FBR with a price target of $23.
Dover (DOV -0.64%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.
United Technologies (UTX -1.42%) won a $239.7 million contract from the U.S. Navy for production of 137 F135 propulsion systems.
Redmile Group, the largest holder of Alder Biopharmaceuticals (ALDR -0.88%) stock, said it may consider possible changes to ALDR’s board and or management, or other alternatives to increase stockholder value.
Dynavax (DVAX unch) received approval from the FDA for manufacturing changes to its HEPLISAV-B pre-filled syringe and the FDA also approved Dynavax’s new manufacturing site for the HEPLISAV-B pre-filled syringe.
Plx Pharma (PLXP -16.94%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Chicago Fed National Activity Index
10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey
12:30 PM Fed’s Dudley Speech
1:00 PM Results of $30B, 2-Year Note Auction
4:30 PM Fed’s Mester: Monetary Policy and Economic Outlook
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY