Before the Open (Sep 20)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. Hong Kong, South Korea and Indonesia moved up while India and the Philippines moved down. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mostly up. France, Germany, Russia, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Israel, Austria and Sweden are leading; Turkey, Greece and Kenya are weak. Futures in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
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BLOG: MACD – Everything You Need to Know
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The dollar is down. Oil is down; copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are mixed.
Overnight Stock Movers from barchart.com…
Caterpillar (CAT +2.48%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Baird with a price target of $191.
Darden Restaurants (DRI -0.85%) may open higher initially this morning after the company reported Q1 comparable slaes rose +3.3%, stronger than expectationsof +2.1%, and after it raised guidance on full-year EPS from continuing operations to $5.52 to $5.65 from a prior view of $5.40 to $5.56, better than consensus of $5.54.
Red Hat (RHT +0.32%) slid 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 revenue of $822.7 million, weaker than consensus of $828.1 million, and then forecast full-year revenue of $3.36 billion to $3.40 billion, the midpoint below consensus of $3.40 billion.
CRISPR Therapeutics AG (CRSP -2.43%) dropped more than 4% in after-hours trading after it announced that it had commenced an underwritten public offering of $200 million of its common stock.
Herman Miller (MLHR +0.54%) jumped almost 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 net sales of $624.6 million, better than consensus of $623.3 million, and then forecast Q2 sales of $635 million to $655 million, the midpoint above consensus of $639 million.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD -2.25%) may move higher initially this morning after Stifel raised its target price on the stock to $38 from $21.
Skyline Champion (SKY +1.59%) may move lower initially this morning after it announced that it intends to offer 6 million shares of its common stock in a secondary offering.
Viking Therapeutics (VKTX +0.98%) announced after the close of trading Wednesday that it intends to sell shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering, although no amount was given.
Kosmos Energy Ltd (KOS +0.54%) fell nearly 3% in after-hours trading after it announced more than 10 holders of the company’s stock will sell 9 million shares.
Molecular Templates (MTEM +52.44%) tumbled more than 10% in after-hours trading after it announced that it intends to sell $30 million of its shares of common stock in an underwritten public offering.
DryShips (DRYS +10.02%) may move higher initially this morning after Economou George reported a 76.2% stake in the company.
Avon Products (AVP +1.31%) gained more than 2% in after-hours trading after it said it will consolidate its U.S. operations into existing facilities and reduce its workforce by about 100 jobs.
Wednesday’s Key Earnings
Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) -4.5% AH posting soft Q3 guidance.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Philly Fed Business Outlook
10:00 Existing Home Sales
10:00 Leading Indicators
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
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