Before the Open (Jan 17)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China and Taiwan dropped 1%, India rallied nicely. Europe is currently mostly up. Belgium, France and Switzerland are leading the way. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold is up, silver is down.
Bank of America (BAC) missed on revenue. The stock is down fractionally before the open.
K-Swiss (KSWS) is up almost 50%…it’s being acquired.
Boeing (BA) is down another 3%…related to the grounding of more planes.
Citigroup (C) is down more than 2%…earnings related.
Fastenal (FAST) is up 2%…their profit jumped 13%.
PNC Financial’s (PNC) net surged 51%…the stock is up 1.2% premarket.
Fifth Third (FITB) exceeded expectations…the stock is flat before the open.
BlackRock (BLK) posted double digit growth…the stock is up 3.5%.
BB&T (BBT) posted an encouraging report…the stock is up 1%.
UnitedHealth (UNH) posted a good report. The stock is down 1.2%.
The market has been grinding higher on less-than-average volume, and the intraday ranges have been on the small side. This isn’t a recipe for an explosive move. Perhaps it’s a wall of worry, but more likely a small crack will send prices down. We’re still getting a warning from the following TICK chart which tells us the upside is limited until the indicator can cycle down and turn up again.

Overall I still like the upside, but in the very near term, I’d say a move down is just as likely as a move up. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers