Before the Open (Jan 11)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a bearish slant. China dropped 1.8%; Hong Kong, Malaysia and South Korea also lost ground. Japan rallied 1.4%. Europe is currently mixed. Austria and Belgium are leading to the downside; Switzerland and the Czech Republic are leading to the upside. Futures here in the States suggest a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.
Wells Fargo (WFC) is out with earnings…the stock is down 1.4% premarket.
Infosys (INFY) is up 15%…the company lifted its outlook and annual revenue projections during its earnings call.
Ford (F) is up premarket…they’re hiring 2,200 workers this year to help support the introduction of new products.
Best Buy (BBY) is up almost 7%…a key revenue metric declined during the holiday season, but online revenue showed strong growth and their flat overall performance was better than the last few quarters.
Apple CEO Tim Cooks says China will be its biggest market. We’ll see. They need to come out with a much cheaper phone.
With one day of trading left, here are the weeklies. The Russell is at an all-time high but is also at a potential resistance level. The S&P is near a multi-year high. The Dow and Nas are lagging. The Dow, Nas and S&P have room to move before hitting resistance created by a trendline drawn through the previous tops. The overall trend off the 2011 bottom is up, and the near term trend off the November 2012 is also up. But we’ve had some wide swings, so getting married to a stance has not been wise.

Within an uptrend, you are either long or on the sidelines. Within a downtrend, you are either short or on the sidelines. Right now, I see no reason to be anything but long. I don’t fight trends, and I don’t guess top unless the technicals tell me a top is likely in place. Get rid of your ego and strong attitude if you want to make money.
More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers