Before the Open (Nov 12)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down, but only Japan (down 0.9%) moved much from its unchanged level. Europe is currently mostly up, but there are no big movers. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is flat. Oil is down slightly; copper is up. Gold is up; silver is down.
Japan’s Q3 GDP indicates a 3.5% contraction – the fastest pace of contraction since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Loans issued buy Chinese banks fell 14% in October, but the country reported accelerated export growth and its biggest trade surplus in almost four years.
Spain’s Banking Association says it will halt evictions of indebted home owners for two years.
Here in the States, banks and the bond market are closed for Veteran’s Day; the stock market will be open as usual.
Annaly (NLY) has offered to buy the shares of CreXus (CXS) it doesn’t already own.
D.R. Horton (DHI) is up about 3% after releasing earnings.
Beazer (BZH) is also out with earnings. Revenue increased, but they posted a wider-than-expect loss. The stock has not traded premarket.
Leucadia (LUK) is buying Jefferies (JEF).
Target (TGT) and Toys ‘R’ Us are joining Walmart (WMT) in opening on Thanksgiving night instead of waiting until midnight or the following day.
Celgene’s (CELG) price target has been raised. The stock is up 8.5%.
The trend has been down for about two months; last week it accelerated. The market can turn here, but I’d rather see more weakness that forces the breadth indicators to hit extreme levels. Then a bounce can last long and go further. A bounce right now is likely to get sold into unless it comes with extremely good news.
So my bias remains to the downside. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers