Before the Open (Oct 18)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China, South Korea and India lost more than 1%; Japan, Indonesia and Thailand were also weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East currently lean to the downside. Denmark, the UAE and Switzerland are up, but Poland, Turkey, Russia, South Africa, Norway and Spain are down. Futures in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.
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List of Indexes and ETFs – here
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The dollar is up slightly. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are mixed and little changed. Bonds are down.
Overnight Stock Movers from barchart.com…
The Gap (GPS -0.44%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at JPMorgan Chase with a price target of $24.
Constellation Brands (STZ +0.11%) lost almost 2% in after-hours trading after CEO Rob Stands said he will step down as CEO on March 1, 2019.
Kaiser Aluminum (KALU +1.55%) gained almost 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 net sales of $393 million, better than consensus of $382 million.
Fluor (FLR -0.28%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $59.
Texas Capital Bancshares (TCBI +1.21%) tumbled nearly 10% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of $1.65, below consensus of $1.70.
CH Robinson Worldwide (CHRW -0.55%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Loop Capital Markets with a price target of $107.
ForeScout Technologies (FSCT -0.99%) was rated a new ‘Outperform’ at Baird with a price target of $42.
Zillow Group (ZG +0.68%) slid more than 3% in after-hours trading after COO Amy Bohutinsky said she will step away from her role as COO in January 2019.
Alcoa (AA +1.41%) climbed almost 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted Ebitda of $795 million, well above consensus of $649.8 million.
Sealed Air (SEE -0.34%) dropped more than 6% in after-hours trading after it cut its outlook for full-year EPS to $2.40 to $2.45 from a prior estimate of $2.45 to $2.55, below consensus of $2.51.
Krystal Biotech (KRYS -13.42%) fell 4% in after-hours trading after it announced that it had commenced an underwritten public offering of $60 million of its common stock.
Aclaris Therapeutics (ACRS -2.33%) dropped nearly 7% in after-hours trading after it announced that it will offer $75 million of its common stock in an underwritten public offering.
OncoMed Pharmaceuticals (OMED +20.52%) fell more than 7% in after-hours trading after Celgene said it will not exercise its option to license Rosmantuzumab and said it will subsequently terminate its collaboration with OncoMed with respect to Rosmantuzumab effective February 12,2019.
Proteostasis Therapeutics (PTI -1.05%) surged almost 30% in after-hours trading after its combination of PTI-801 and PTI-808 for treatment in patients with cystic fibrosis met its primary goal in a Phase 1 study.
Wednesday’s Key Earnings
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) -1% posting in-line EPS figures.
Alcoa (NYSE:AA) +4.9% AH amid rising prices, stock buyback.
Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) -0.6% AH following in-line earnings.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) +3.8% on higher rates, mortgage growth.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Philly Fed Business Outlook
9:00 Fed’s Bullard: U.S. Monetary and Economic Policy
10:00 Leading Indicators
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
00:15 PM Randal Quarles: 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