Before the Open (Nov 5)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. India, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong dropped the most. Australia rallied the most. Europe is currently down across-the-board. Italy, Spain and Greece are down more than 1%. France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, London and Czech Republic are down more than 0.5%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.

The dollar is flat. Oil is down, copper up. Gold is down, silver flat.
Nothing happened yesterday that changed my view of the market.
The indexes continue to walk to the beat of their own drummers. The breadth indicators are not singing the same song. A pretty good bull and bear case can be made for the markets next move, and a bottom-up approach, which looks at charts of individual stocks instead of the indexes, doesn’t reveal a strong bias in either direction.
Here’s the Charlie Munger quote I posted yesterday…
“At Berkshire we have three buckets: yes, no and too hard. We just throw some decisions into the ‘too hard’ file and go onto the others.”
Right now I think the entire market belongs in the “too hard” file, so it’s best to sit tight, rest up and not force trades. Don’t over-analyze.
The long term looks great, but the short term is a muddled mess.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Host Hotels & Resorts (HST +1.33%) reported Q3 EPS of 25 cents, weaker than consensus of 26 cents.
DirectTV (DTV +1.10%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.28, higher than consensus of $1.02.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN -1.43%) reported Q3 EPS of $2.40, much better than consensus of $1.90.
IntercontinentalExchange (ICE -0.77%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.97, well ahead of consensus of $1.83.
CVS Caremark (CVS -0.97%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.09, better than consensus of $1.02.
NYSE Euronext (NYX -0.63%) reported Q3 EPS of 53 cents, below consensus of 55 cents.
CF Industries (CF +1.25%) reported Q3 EPS of $4.07, higher than consensus of $4.00, but reported Q3 revenue of $1.1 billion, below consensus of $1.14 billion.
RockTenn (RKT +1.62%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $2.66, well above consensus of $2.46.
Owens & Minor (OMI +1.49%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 47 cents, below consensus of 49 cents.
Weatherford (WFT +0.55%) reported Q3 EPS of 23 cents, better than consensus of 22 cents.
Tutor Perini (TPC +0.57%) reported Q3 EPS of 49 cents, weaker than consensus of 55 cents.
Pioneer Natural (PXD +3.96%) reported Q3 EPS ex-items of $1.26, below of consensus $1.35.
Marathon Oil (MRO +0.65%) rose nearly 2% in pre-market trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 87 cents, stronger than consensus of 77 cents.
Anadarko (APC +1.63%) fell 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS ex-items of $1.13, below consensus of $1.16.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
10:00 ISM Non-Manufacturing Index
Notable earnings before today’s open: AFSI, AKRX, AMED, AMG, AOL, ARCC, ARCO, ASH, BCRX, BDX, BPI, CCC, CHTR, COCO, CTSH, CVS, D, DLPH, DNR, DTV, DWRE, DX,DXM, EMR, ENR, EXH, EXLP, EXPD, FE, GLDD, GTIV, HCA, HCN, HL, HPT, HSIC, HST, HW, ICE, IFF, ISIS, KORS, KWK, LBTYA, LPX, MITT, MNTA,MOS, MPEL, MPW, NNN, NTLS, NXST, ODP, OMX, OWW, OXF, OZM, PMC, PQ, RDC, REGN, REN, RHP, RIGL, RRD, RRGB, SRE, TGH, TMUS, TRGT,TRP, VSI, XPO, ZBRA, ZINC, ZTS
Notable earnings after today’s close: ACAS, AGU, ANV, APEI, ASIA, AXLL, BCOR, BLMN, BMR, CBL, CHRW, CKEC, CTRP, CWT, DEPO, DOX, DPM, DVA, ENPH, EOX, EPR, ETE, ETP, FNGN, FOSL,FOXA, FTR, FURX, GEVO, GHDX, GIVN, GPOR, GTY, HAIN, IAG, IMPV, ININ, JAZZ, JCOM, JKHY, KAR, KND, LLNW, LXU, LYV, MCEP, MED, MELI, MIDD, MKTG, MSPD, MYGN, NRP, NYMT, OKE, OKS, OPEN, ORA, PZZA, QEP, QUAD, REGI, REXX, RGP, RGR, SALE, SAPE, SD, SGEN, SREV, SSRI, SSS, SXL, SYNC, SZYM, TNGO,TSLA, TWO, URS, VCLK, VRSK, VVUS, WWWW, Z, ZAGG
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers