Before the Open (Jun 3)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across the board. Japan dropped almost 4%; Indonesia lost almost 2%. Europe is currently mixed. Belgium and London are down more than 1%; there are no big winners to the upside. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up.
I don’t have much to add to my weekend comments posted in the Index Report or video.. Last week finished with lots of selling pressure, and several of the breadth charts are at levels they haven’t visited since the November bottom. So, by some measures, the current mini correction is already acting a little different than the previous couple this year.
The market could just melt down here. If you find yourself negotiating with the market for higher prices so you can exit underwater positions, you’re best off just getting out. It’s the kiss of death for a trader to allow a small loss to turn into a big loss, and that’s what happens more times than not when you hope for one more bounce.
There are reasons to be bearish…some breadth indicators acting different than they have, talk of Fed winding down QE, bonds rallying.
There are reasons to be bullish…long term trend is still solidly up, tapering QE doesn’t mean shutting it off cold turkey, so there’ll still be accommodation going forward, there was lots of bearish talk this weekend, too much bearish talk.
I could argue for a melt down right now…I can also argue for a move down that traps the bears and then a spring board up.
Be on your toes.
Even if a top is forming, they take time…weeks or months. Unless something totally unexpected happens (unemployment jumps to 9%), the market isn’t going to just fall apart over night.
Here are some stories from individual companies from barcharts.com…
Cracker Barrel (CBRL -0.01%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.02, better than consensus of 94 cents and raised guidance on fiscal 2013 EPS to $4.75-$4.85, above consensus of $4.79.
The NY Post reported that Apple (AAPL -0.41%) and Warner Music reached a streaming music deal.
SunTrust upgraded Best Buy (BBY -0.68%) to “Buy” and named it a new “Top Pick.”
Plum Creek Timber (PCL -0.15%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Neutral” at BofA/Merrill.
F5 Networks (FFIV -1.08%) was downgraded to “Equal Weight” from “Overweight” at Morgan Stanley.
MetLife (MET -0.29%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Hold” at Deutsche Bank who rasied their price target on the stock to $51 from $46.
Reuters reported that Samsung picks the Intel (INTC +0.29%) “CLover Trail” processor for its upcoming Galaxy 3 Tablet.
United Technologies’ (UTX -1.10%) Sikorsky Aircraft is awarded a $435 million government contract modification to procure four CH-53K System Demonstration Test Article aircraft.
CEMEX (CX -0.35%) announced that it plans to expand the production capacity at its Odessa, Texas cement plant by 345,000 metric tons to nearly 900,000 metric tons per year in order to keep pace with rapidly growing demand in its West Texas market led mainly by the oil and gas industry.
Deutsche Bank upgraded Morgan Stanley (MS +0.31%) to “Buy” from “Hold” and raised its price target for the stock to $30 from $20.
OmniVision (OVTI +19.24%) spiked nearly 16% higher in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 31 cents, well ahead of consensus of 21 cents.
Krispy Kreme (KKD +21.46%) climbed nearly 10% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 20 cents, better than consensus of 17 cents, and said same-store-sales were up 11% in the first 3 weeks of May.
Orange County of California awards SAIC (SAI -4.92%) a $102 million IT services contract.
Guess (GES +8.28%) rose over 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 14 cents, better than consensus of 8 cents.
Lionsgate (LGF +2.75%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 66 cents, better than consensus of 44 cents.
Esterline (ESL -0.42%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.12, lower than consensus of $1.25, and lowered guidance on fiscal 2013 EPS to $5.30 to $5.50, weaker than consensus of $5.58.
Again, be on your toes.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers