Before the Open (Mar 29)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China, South Korea, Indonesia and Singapore did well; India, New Zealand, Thailand and the Philippines were weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mostly up. Poland, France, Turkey, Germany, the UAE, Denmark, South Africa, Hungary, Spain, Portugal and Sweden are leading. Futures in the States point towards a moderate 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 is down; copper is up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are up.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Northrop Grumman (NOC -1.31%) was rated a new ‘Overweight’ at Barclays with a price target of $400.
PVH Corp (PVH +0.60%) rose nearly 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.58, above consensus of $1.47, and then said it sees full-year adjusted EPS of $9.00 to $9.10, higher than consensus of $8.96.
Boeing (BA -0.34%) was rated a new ‘Overweight’ at Barclays with a price target of $388.
Starbucks (SBUX +0.77%) fell over 1% in pre-market trading after it was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Wedbush with a price target of $56.
Realty Income (O +2.86%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at D.A. Davidson with a price target of $57.
General Dynamics (GD -1.71%) was rated a new ‘Overweight’ at Barclays with a price target of $282.
Duke Energy (DUK +0.42%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Verint Systems (VRNT -0.66%) jumped 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.05 higher, than consensus of $1.00, and forecast fiscal year 2019 adjusted EPS of $3.09 at the midpoint, above consensus of $3.06.
Progress Software (PRGS -0.29%) climbed over 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 54 cents, better than consensus of 47 cents, and said it sees full-year adjusted EPS of $2.36-$2.41, higher than consensus of $2.35.
GameStop (GME +1.95%) gained almost 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 comparable sales up +12.2%, better than consensus of +10.6%.
Heron Therapeutics (HRTX +0.36%) dropped 6% in after-hours trading after it announced it intends to off $125 million of its common stock in an underwritten registered public offering.
Global Medical REIT (GMRE +5.31%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at D.A. Davidson with a price target of $8.
Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings (SPWH +8.66%) rose nearly 4% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q1 sales of $173 million to $180 million, above consensus of $166.8 million, and then forecast full-year sales of $830 million-$860 million, better than consensus of $808.4 million.
Cloud Peak Energy (CLD +2.23%) fell over 5% in after-hours trading after JPMorgan Chase downgraded it to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Neutral.’
Wednesday’s Key Earnings
BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) -1.6% amid a tech rout.
Walgreens (NASDAQ:WBA) +2.5% raising guidance.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
9:45 Chicago PMI
10:00 Consumer Sentiment
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
1:00 PM Fed’s Harker: Economic Outlook
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
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