Before the Open (Nov 4)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia dropped the most. Europe currently is mostly up. Greece is down 1.2%, but Austria, Czech Republic, London, Italy and Spain are doing well. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are down. Gold is up, silver down.
The market currently has many forces pulling it in opposite directions.
Some leadership stocks have topped and are moving down. TSLA and LNKD topped a month ago while GOOG and AMZN are near their highs.
Some indicators support further upside while others tells us the market needs a rest in the near term.
The indexes themselves are not moving together. The dividend-paying, large caps have clearly out-performed the Nas, small caps and mid caps.
Something has to give. There’s definitely a disconnect.
Long term I like the market. I think further gains will be made into the end of the year.
But in the near term I’m less optimistic. A little more weakness to cast some doubt would help set the stage for a year-end rally.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
TravelCenters (TA +2.53%) reported Q3 EPS of 53 cents, higher than consensus of 44 cents.
Salesforce.com (CRM +1.12%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Atlantic Equities.
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF -1.55%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at SunTrust.
DigiTimes reported that Samsung (SSNLF unch) plans to launch 12.2-inch tablets by the end of 2013.
Occidental Petroleum (OXY -0.45%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ at Barclays.
Gap (GPS -0.57%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman.
Kohl’s (KSS +0.09%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS.
U.S. Steel (X +3.58%) and AK Steel (AKS +4.55%) were both upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Sell’ at Goldman, who cites improved long-term steel demand prospects.
Teva (TEVA +0.08%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at JPMorgan, who cites uncertainty following the departure of the company’s CEO.
CME Group (CME +0.66%) reported Q3 EPS of 75 cents, better than consensus of 73 cents.
R.R. Donnelley (RRD unch) reported a 23.4% stake in Consolidated Graphics ({=CGX .
Billionare investor George Soros reported a 5.02% passive stake in Mercury Systems (MRCY -0.65%) .
CBOE Holdings (CBOE +1.16%) reported October trading volume for options contracts totaled 126.24 million contracts, up +15% m/m and +34% y/y.
RA Capital reported a 21.2% stake in Achillion (ACHN +0.80%) .
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
No events scheduled.
Notable earnings before today’s open: AER, CME, EXTR, K, MFA, RLGY, SE, SEP, SYY, TA, TESO, VMC
Notable earnings after today’s close: AEIS, AEL, ANAD, APC, ARI, AWR, BDE, BGC, BKH, BRE, BSFT, CENX, CF, CHMT, CLDT, CRK, CRZO, CSOD, DDR, DNB, DRYS, ED, ELNK, FST, GDP,GIMO, GSM, GST, GTAT, HK, HTZ, IPXL, JMBA, LF, LGCY, LMNX, MDR, MNKD, MR, MRO, NFX, NGLS, OMI, OTTR, PAA, PIKE, PKT, PNG, PPO, PXD,QLYS, RKT, SAAS, SB, SBAC, SGY, SNCR, STAG, TDW, THC, TPC, UNM, VNO, VOLC, WFT, WMGI
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers