Before the Open (May 24)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Australia and New Zealand dropped more than 1%; China, Indonesia and Japan did well. Europe is trading mixed; there are no standout winners or losers. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down slightly. Oil is down, copper up. Gold is up slightly, silver down.
Barring a big rally today, the S&P’s 4 week winning streak will come to an end. The last time the market put in back to back down weeks was the end of November, so we’ll look for that next week to see if the character of the market is changing..
From here, my guess is we have more downside, but the weakness will be a trap. The bears will get excited again (are there any bears left), and then out of nowhere the market will go vertical and make new highs.
I’d invite this too. An up and down market is easier to trade than a straight up market. When the market just goes up and up, everything rallies, but when you get ups and downs, the strong separate from the weak, and from a stock picking standpoint, I find this easier to deal with.
It’s Friday. We have a 3-day weekend ahead. Considering the circumstances, this isn’t a time to take big chances. Manage positions wisely.
Stock-specific stories from barchart.com…
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF +0.48%) reported a Q1 EPS loss of -9 cents, weaker than consensus of a -5 cent loss, and lowered guidance on fiscal 2013 to EPS of $3.15-$3.25, lower than consensus of $3.49.
Foot Locker (FL -0.42%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 91 cents, better than consensus of 88 cents.
Sherwin-Williams (SHW -0.56%) was upgraded to “Outperform” from “Neutral” at RW Baird who rasied their price target on the stock to $205 from $180.
Procter & Gamble (PG -0.15%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Neutral” at UBS who raised their price target on the stock to $95 from $75.
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG +1.74%) climbed 5% in after-hours trading after Bloomberg reported that it won a jury verdict in a trial that alleged the company was negligent in training a doctor who performed robot-assisted surgery on a patient that died.
The WSJ said that AT&T’s (T +0.33%) new 61 cent per month administrative fee to the bills of all of its contract wireless lines may add a half-billion dollars in yearly revenue.
Bunge (BG -0.88%) raised its quarterly dividend to 30 cents from 27 cents per share.
Sears Holdings (SHLD -0.34%) slumped over 11% in after-hours trading after it reported a Q1 adjusted EPS loss of -$1.29, much wider than consensus of a -60 cent losss, and said Q1 same-store-sales were down -3.6%.
Williams-Sonoma (WSM +3.03%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 41 cents, better than consensus of 37 cents, and raised guidance on fiscal 2013 adjusted EPS to $2.67-$2.77 from $2.65-$2.75.
Marvell (MRVL -0.44%) climbed over 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 19 cents, stronger than consensus of 14 cents.
Salesforce.com (CRM -0.20%) reported Q1 EPS of 10 cents, right on consensus, although Q1 revenue of $893 million was better than consensus of $887.08 million.
Aeropostale (ARO -1.02%) reported a Q1 EPS loss of -16 cents, smaller than consensus of a -17 cent loss, with Q1 revenue of $452.3 million, better than consensus of $444.26 million.
Ross Stores (ROST -0.18%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.07, right on consensus, although Q1 revenue of $2.54 billion was slightly better than consensus of $2.52 billion.
Gap (GPS +0.78%) reported Q1 EPS of 71 cents, better than consensus of 69 cents.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers