Before the Open (May 30)

Posted on by Jason Leavitt

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan dropped 5.2%; Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia dropped more than 0.8%. Europe is currently mostly up. France and Germany are leading the way. Futures here in the States point towards a gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is flat. Oil is down, copper up. Gold and silver is up.
Last night, trying to follow the Blackhawks game from Costa Rica, I had flashbacks to when I started trading. The game wasn’t on here…I couldn’t even get it streamed, so I was left refreshing my screen to get updates…just like when I would refresh my screen to get updated stock quotes. Times have certainly changed. Now you can be anywhere in the world and get any piece of financial data from anywhere streaming in real time.
The market has been a little fidgety lately. There have been more ups and downs, more gap opens and more closes off extreme levels so there have been more tails on the daily candles. Compared to the smooth action that took place during late April/early May rally, traders feel a bit on edge. It could be nothing, or it could be a sign of a character shift. For now I’m saying it’s nothing. I don’t think it’s wise to over-analyze every little nuance. Instead, backing up and seeing the big picture while ignoring the short term noise is a better plan for swing traders.
Given this, there are still less good set ups than normal, and many of the set ups come from lower-volume, lower-cap stocks. This is a warning to me. When money flows down to the bottom of the market and starts propping up bottom-of-the barrel stocks, it’s a sign of too much fluff. Trade conservatively right now.
Here are stock-specific headlines from barchart.com…
RBC Capital raised its price target on Ford (F +2.29%) to $18 from $15 and kept its “Outperform” rating on the stock.
Northrop Grumman (NOC -0.28%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Neutral” and Raytheon (RTN -0.96%) was upgraded to “Neutral” from “Sell” at Goldman.
Lockheed Martin (LMT -0.41%) was upgraded to “Conviction Buy” from “Neutral” at Goldman.
Express (EXPR -0.58%) reported Q1 EPS of 38 cents, better than consensus of 36 cents, and raised guidance on fiscal 2013 EPS to $1.48-$1.58, stronger than consensus of $1.52.
Joy Global (JOY +0.53%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.73, well ahead of consensus of $1.56.
Costco Wholeasale (COST -1.64%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.04, better than consensus of $1.03.
NV Energy (NVE -2.38%) rallied over 20% in after-hours trading when it announced it will be acquired by MidAmerican, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. for $23.75 per share.
Royal Caribbean (RCL -1.71%) sees the impact from the fire aboard the Grandeur of the Seas at about 10 cents per share. The company has taken the ship out of service for repairs and it is expected to return to service for its July 12 sailing date.
O’Reilly Automotive (ORLY -0.29%) announceed an additional $500 million share repurchase authorization, which raises the total authorization under the program to $3.5 billion.
Avago (AVGO -0.03%) rose over 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 61 cents, well ahead of consensus of 52 cents.
Alcoa (AA -0.12%) fell nearly 2% in after-hours trading after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its senior unsecured debt ratings of to Ba1 from Baa3 with a stable outlook.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers

0 thoughts on “Before the Open (May 30)”

  2. First time claims up 10K, GDP a little less than expected, but imports v. exports are a yellow light. Gov’t spending was down still, they wanted it up. Overall it hangs on housing numbers yet to come. The markets? Nervous yesterday, but they want to test the highs one more time and hope they stick on new volume. No chance the correction is near, but the technical say no correct yet. But interest rates are up for the summer months. The dollar will surge, and gold is resting for the fall. That is not good news to a weak economy. Then come Obama care taxes and fees which will hit like a tornado this summer. I think being cautions, checking the stops, and strong coffee is the order of the days to come. New sails flying and the rain in the Pacific is getting old, but we race.
    Cheers.

  3. I live a lot closer to Chicago than Detroit. Still living in Michigan I am a Red Wings fan. The better team lost but good luck to the Black Hawks. It was a great series. Seriously the goal by the hawks called off late in the third period should have counted.
    Maybe the Tigers can start winning again. There is no hope for the Lions. Go Packers!

  6. You guys are incorrect, and really should not be so really hard around the author. This website would seem to become dedicated to stating their own impression, which the majority of us have. I detest when persons strive to speak poor about somebody because their viewpoint differs from others. Check out on your own previously you try to speak about someone else.

Leave a Reply