Before the Open (Sep 4)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed and with a bearish bias. Indonesia dropped 2.2%, Singapore 1.3% and Australia 0.6%. India rallied 1.8%. Europe is currently down across-the-board. Italy is down almost 2%, France almost 1% and Germany 0.7%. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.
The market gapped up yesterday and then dropped to give everything back. The indexes closed much closer to their lows than their highs. This has been a recurring theme. The S&P has been mostly range bound the last four sessions, but the closes have been in the lower half of the intraday ranges.
If anything yesterday reminds us that anything goes in the near term until the US involvement in Syria is known. A lack of activity over the weekend led to yesterday’s big opening gap. But in the last week, word the US was going to strike Syria led to immediate selling pressure.
Some indicators improved yesterday and would be supportive of a move up if the market chose to bounce. Others haven’t yet moved to extreme levels and would not support a rally.
I continue to favor the downside in the near term. If left alone, the technicals tell me more downside is needed before a sustained rally can begin. Syria is of course a big wild card. News from Washington can quickly move prices in either direction. Factor this into what trades you take and the size of your positions.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Prudential (PRU +1.39%) was upgraded to “Overweight” from “Equal Weight” at Barclays who also raised their price target on the stock to $95 from $83.
Best Buy (BBY +2.75%) was upgraded to “Neutral” from “Underperform” at BofA/Merrill.
Loews (L +0.16%) was initiated with a “Buy” at Deutsche Bank with a target of $52.
Dollar General (DG -0.17%) reported Q2 EPS of 77 cents, better than consensus of 74 cents.
SAIC (SAI +0.53%) reported Q2 EPS of 13 cents, well below consensus of 21 cents, and lowered guidance on fscal 2014 EPS view to 95 cents-$1.03, below consensus of $1.13.
ZOLL Medical (ZOLL) was awarded a $210 million government contract for defibrillators, monitors, warmers, and infusers.
Hain Celestial (HAIN +0.12%) fell over 3% in after-hours trading after Carl Icahn filed to sell 3.65 million shares of the company.
Cedar Fair Entertainment (FUN +0.33%) raised its fiscal 2013 revenue estimate to $1.10 billion-$1.25 billion, from $1.09 billion-$1.115 billion.
Glenview Capital reported a 9.1% passive stake in J. C. Penney (JCP +1.92%) .
Consolidated Press International Holdings reported a 9.35% passive stake and Cavalane Holdings reported a 9.35% passive stake in Zillow (Z +2.74%) .
Matrix Service (MTRX +1.80%) reported Q4 EPS of 28 cents, better than consensus of 26 cents.
H&R Block (HRB -0.11%) is down 4% in after-hours trading after it reported a Q1 EPS loss of -40 cents, a wider loss than consensus of -37 cents.
Bank of America (BAC +0.92%) sold its remaining stake in China Construction Bank, approxiamtely 2 billion shares, and said it sees a pretax gain of approximately $750 million from the sale.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
Auto sales
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales
8:30 International Trade
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
10:00 Quarterly Services Report
2:00 PM Fed’s Beige Book
Notable earnings before today’s open: CIEN, DG, FRAN, NAV, SAI, VRNT
Notable earnings after today’s close: BV, DDC, FCEL, MIND
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers