Before the Open (Dec 28)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. China, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Austria and Thailand did well; Japan lost ground. Most of Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently posting big gains. The UK, Denmark, France, Poland, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Finland, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Austria and Sweden are up big. Futures in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.
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List of Indexes and ETFs – here
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The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are mixed and little changed. Bonds are mixed.
Overnight Stock Movers from barchart.com…
Adobe (ADBE +0.98%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at DZ Bank AG with a price target of $260.
Wingstop (WING -0.35%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Wedbush with a price target of $69.
Casella Waste Systems (CWST +0.34%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel with a price target of $32.
First Republic Bank (FRC -0.55%) climbed more than 2% in after-hours trading when it was announced it will replace Scana in the S&P 500 effective prior to the open of trading on Wednesday, Jan 2.
Oxford Industries (OXM +1.61%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at CL King with a price target of $80.
Aphria (APHA -4.30%) surged 30% in after-hours trading after Green Growth Brands Ltd was said to plan a hostile takeover of Aphria and purchase the company for about $2.1 billion.
OPKO Health (OPK -0.39%) jumped 9% in after-hours trading after the CEO said the company will pay $5.5 million to settle SEC claims the company generated millions of dollars from unlawful stock sales in long-running pump-and-dump schemes.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 International trade in goods
8:30 Retail Inventories (Advance)
8:30 Wholesale Inventories (Advance)
9:45 Chicago PMI
10:00 Pending Home Sales
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
11:00 EIA Petroleum 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