Before the Open (Apr 8)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan rallied 2.8%; Taiwan (down 2.4%), China (down 0.6%), Indonesia (down 0.6%) and New Zealand (down 0.8%) led to the downside. Europe is currently mostly up. Austria, France, Norway and Switzerland are leading to the upside. Futures here in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.

The dollar is up slightly. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down.
I don’t have anything significant to add to the report posted over the weekend. Overall the market is in good shape, but Warning signs are mounting. Last week the Dow traded flat; the S&P dropped 1%, the Nasdaq 2% and the Russell 3%. This is not how strong markets act. When money rotates from more speculative small cap and tech stocks into larger more established companies, a vote of distrust is cast. Plus volume has generally been heavier on down days than up days. Many indicators have also diverged from the price action. When the S&P hit a new high last week, the AD line, AD volume line, new highs and others weren’t close to their own cycle highs. The overall trend is up, but in the intermediate term, aggressively entering new positions has not been wise.
Now earnings season kicks off. AA announces today; JPM and WFC announce Friday.
There’s more chatter about Cyprus leaving the EU, and now Portugal is headline news regarding bailout money they need. Their Supreme Court rejected austerity demands, so it’s back to the drawing board with creditors.
Trading is not hard when the environment is right and you “get good pitches to swing at.” I don’t think either are in place right now. Weekend research revealed very few good set ups, and the near term is not clear. Don’t push it right now. Let the market trade a little and show a few more cards. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers