Before the Open (May 17)

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Options Expiration Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. China, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan did the best. New Zealand pulled up the rear. Europe currently leans to the upside. Austria is up 0.8%; Greece is down 0.9%; otherwise the net changes are small. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down.
The S&P is up 16.8 on the week, so barring a sell-off that doubles yesterday’s drop, a forth consecutive up week will be recorded. Heck, just registering a down day would market the first time in a month the S&P dropped on consecutive days.
My stance remains the same. The uptrend is solid and strong, but I’m not interested in initiating new positions. The market needs to rest. It’s come too far too fast, and the risk/rewards are not very favorable. Plus there aren’t many good set ups anyways. I’ve looked at hundreds of charts the last two days and don’t see much worth playing. That’s just the way it goes.
Right now I’m just playing good defense with the positions I have. Otherwise it’s waiting time…waiting for the market to re-set.
Here is some company specific news from barchart.com…
Verizon (VZ -0.75%) was initiated with an “Overweight” at Barclays with a price target of $59.
Disney (DIS -1.77%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Overweight” at Atlantic Equities because of valuation.
Williams-Sonoma (WSM -1.50%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at BofA/Merrill due to valuation and lack of catalysts.
The Economic Times reported that Standard & Poor’s has warned India that it may downgrade its sovereign rating to junk grade if the government fails to pursue reforms.
Donaldson (DCI -1.27%) reported Q3 EPS of 46 cents, weaker than consensus of 49 cents, and lowered guidance on fiscal 2013 EPS to $1.57-$1.65 from $1.61-$1.81.
Paulson & Co. raised its stake in Dex Media (DXM +10.83%) to 13.0% from 10.9%.
Northrop Grumman (NOC -0.52%) announced an additional $4 billion share repurchase authorization that will raise the company’s total share repurchase authorizations to approximately $5 billion.
J.C. Penney (JCP -0.95%) fell 3% in after-hours trading after it reported a Q1 adjusted EPS loss of -$1.31, wider than consensus of a -86 cent loss, and said Q1 traffic in its stores fell -6% from a year ago.
SAC Capital reported a 5.0% passive stake in Tessera (TSRA -0.68%) .
Brocade (BRCD +2.14%) fell nearly 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 17 cents, better than consensus of 15 cents, but said it expects Q3 adjusted EPS of 11 cents-13 cents, weaker than consensus of 15 cents.
Nordstrom (JWM) fell over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 73 cents, weaker than consensus of 76 cents, and cut its fiscal 2013 total sales view to up 4%-6% from 4.5%-6.5%.
Autodesk (ADSK +0.89%) slumped over 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 42 cents, weaker than consensus of 45 cents, and lowered guidance on Q2 EPS to 39 cents-44 cents, below consensus of 51 cents.
Dell (DELL -0.15%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 21 cents, well below consensus of 35 cents, and said it continues to expect ‘relatively weak’ demand in end-user PC business.
Applied Materials (AMAT -0.95%) reported Q2 EPS of 16 cents, stronger than consensus of 13 cents.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers