Before the Open (Oct 28)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Japan gained 2.2%, Australia, South Korea and Taiwan also did well. Europe currently leans to the downside. Spain is down 1%, Italy and France 0.5%. There are no noticeable up markets. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is up slightly. Oil is down a small amount, copper is up. Gold and silver are down.
I don’t have anything to add to the comments I made over the weekend in the Weekly Report. The trend on all time frames is up. All the indexes (except for the Dow) hit new highs last week. The market looks very good.
Beneath the surface there are a few notable developments. Semis and banks have started to lag while utilities have started to lead. Also, gold, silver and industrial metals – groups that have been beaten up and have trended down for many months – are getting bid up. It’s worth noting money is flowing into the relative safety of dividend-paying utilities and groups that have been very weak for a long time. The leaders aren’t leading. The laggards are now leading.
There are hundreds of earnings reports out this week and many economic numbers to be released, including the first FOMC meeting since September when the Fed decided not to taper.
The market could benefit from some sideways movement. There aren’t many good set ups to be had.
That’s it for now. There are some cross-currents…things are less clear now than they’ve been the last couple weeks.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Apple (AAPL -1.12%) is up +0.6% in European trading ahead of today’s after-market earnings report.
Burger King (BKW +0.05%) this morning reported Q3 adjusted EPS at 23 cents, slightly above the consensus of 21 cents.
Merck (MRK +0.69%) this morning reported Q3 adjusted EPS at 92 cents, above the consensus of 88 cents.
McDonald’s (MCD +0.11%) forward P/E ratio could continue to fall, according to a weekend article by Barron’s.
Walgreens (WAG -0.10%) could rally to $70-80 in the next few years if the company’s earnings forecasts are met, according to an article in Barron’s.
Kohl’s (KSS -0.33%) could rise 20% as merchandising improvements and inventory levels pay off, according to an article in Barron’s.
Williams Partners (WPZ +0.78%) raised its quarterly cash distribution by 8.7% to 87.75 cents per unit.
JPMorgan (JPM +0.55%) late Friday announced $5.1 billion in settlements with Federal Housing Financing Authority, which is acting as the conservator for Fannie Mae (FNMA +13.40%) and Freddie Mac (FMCC +11.89%)
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
9:15 Industrial Production
10:00 Pending Home Sales
10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook
Notable earnings before today’s open: ARLP, AWI, BIIB, BKW, BOH, BWP, CNA, CYOU, EDR, EW, KEX, L, MCY, MRK, ROP, SOHU, STNG, TEN
Notable earnings after today’s close: AAPL, ACGL, AGNC, AMKR, ARE, CGNX, CMP, CR, DATA, DENN, ECOL, ECOM, EXR, FMC, GGP, HIG, HLF, HLIT, HLS, IDTI, JLL, MAC, MAS, NCLH, NEU,NTRI, OII, OLN, PCL, PEI, PMCS, PRE, PSMI, RBC, RGA, RVBD, SANM, STX, TXRH
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers