Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China, Indonesia and Malaysia dropped; India, Australia and South Korea rallied. Europe is currently mostly up. Austria and the Czech Republic are up more than 1%; Belgium, Germany, Amsterdam and London are also doing well. Greece is down. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
The dollar is flat. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down.
Yesterday was a “coffee day.” Very little happened. Early weakness got bought, and the indexes closed mixed but little moved from their unchanged levels. The Nas and small caps led. A day off after a huge up week is no big deal. My bias remains to the upside, but I still don’t think the risk/reward for initiating new longs is as good as it was a week ago. I’m hoping the market rests for a few more days to allow the charts to re-set.
Finance ministers from the EU along with reps from the IMF reached an agreement that will enable Greece to receive $40.8B immediately and three additional payments in 2013.
ConAgra (CAG) is acquiring Ralcorp (RAH) for $90 per share.
Brown-Forman (BF.A, BF.B), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Dillard’s (DDS), SL Industries (SLI) have all declared special dividends.
Dollar General (DG) is being added to the S&P 500.
In my opinion the market has some proving to do. The first move off a low is the easy move. But after the initial surge, the price and volume action must remain constructive to prove the rally is not just a dead-cat bounce within a downtrend but instead the beginning of a move up. This is what I’m looking for right now. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers