Before the Open (Dec 14)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore were all weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mostly down. France, Turkey, Russia, Greece, South Africa, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy are all down at least 1%. Futures in the States point towards a relatively big gap down open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: How the AD Line Progresses at Market Bottoms
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The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are up.
Overnight Stock Movers from barchart.com…
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA -0.15%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $68.
Universal Health Services (UHS +0.53%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $125.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN +0.15%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $472.
Adobe (ADBE +1.03%) gained 0.5% in after0hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.90, better than consensus of $1.88.
Costco Wholesale (COST -0.57%) slid 2% in afterhours trading after it reported an unexpected $43 million charge related to its co-branded credit card program
Procter & Gamble (PG +2.62%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal-Weight’ at Morgan Stanley with a price target of $106.
Autoliv (ALV -2.46%) was rate a new ‘Sell’ at Deutsche Bank with a price target of $61.
Starbucks (SBUX +1.18%) fell nearly 3% in after-hours trading after CFO Grismer forecast 1% to 3% growth in China over the long-term, slower than the 3% to 4% growth seen for the U.S. and the rest of the world.
BorgWarner (BWA -1.94%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Deutsche Bank with a price target of $47.
Veoneer (VNE -3.99%) was rated a new ‘Sell’ at Deutsche Bank with a price target of $21.
Alliant Energy (LNT +0.50%) lost more than 2% in after-hours trading after it announced that it plans to sell $326 million of its common stock in an underwritten public offering.
CytomX Therapeutics (CTMX -1.00%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $21.
Ford Motor (F -1.62%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Deutsche Bank with a price target of $12.
Civitas (CIVI -4.10%) may move higher initially this morning after it reported Q4 adjusted Ebitda of $43.5 million, higher than consensus of $40.1 million.
Thursday’s Key Earnings
Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) -1.2% AH posting weak guidance.
Costco (NASDAQ:COST) -2.7% AH falling short of expectations.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Retail Sales
9:15 Industrial Production
9:45 PMI Composite Flash
10:00 Business Inventories
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY