Before the Open (Feb 18)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday. Hope you enjoyed your long weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets, which did well yesterday, moved up again today. Japan rallied 3.1% followed by India with a 0.8% gain. China dropped 0.8%. Europe, which also did well yesterday, leans to the upside today. London is up 0.5%; Spain and Stockholm are down 0.5% and 0.6%. Otherwise there are no big movers. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.

The dollar is flat. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down.
Quick recap of what’s taken place the last month. The S&P dropped 100 points in about 8 days and then rallied all the way back in about 8 days.
Volume has been weaker on the way up than it was on the way down.
The small caps are lagging. The S&P is only about 0.5% from its high, the Russell is 2.5%.
Charts of individual stocks are much improved…tech is leading. Numerous tech stocks, including GOOG, PCLN, NFLX, FB and others hit all-time highs last week.
Indicators are also much improved. Some are already in over-bought territory. Others have curled up and support the market’s rally, but the moves must continue.
Overall I like the market, but with the S&P having moved up 7 or 8 days and having rallied 100 points on below-average volume, it’s time to take a more defensive posture. It’s not yet known if this rally constitutes one last hurrah before falling again or if the market will rest and take off. The first move off the low is the easy move. Now things get tougher. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Waste Management (WM +0.78%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 56 cents, below consensus of 61 cents.
Wolverine World Wide (WWW -0.60%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 22 cents, higher than consensus of 20 cents.
Kansas City Southern (KSU -2.60%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan.
Weight Watchers (WTW -27.73%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ at Barclays.
The WSJ reports that Actavis (ACT +0.13%) is expected to buy Forest Labs (FRX +1.49%) for $89.48 a share in cash and stockin a deal valued at $25 billion.
Medtronic (MDT +0.49%) reported Q3 EPS of 91 cents, right on expectations.
Coca-Cola (KO +0.72%) reported Q4 EPS of 46 cents, right on expectations.
Duke Energy (DUK +0.03%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.00, better than consensus of 95 cents.
NiSource (NI +1.15%) reported Q$ EPS of 47 cents, right on expectations.
Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded its outlook on Italy’s Baa2 government bond rating to stable from negative.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
9:00 Treasury International Capital
10:00 E-Commerce Retail Sales
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
Notable earnings before today’s open: CHH, CPLA, DAKT, DSX, DUK, EDR, FDP, GEL, GOV, GPC, KO, MDT, NCLH, NI, NVMI, USAC, VDSI, WM, WWW, XRAY
Notable earnings after today’s close: ACMP, ADI, AUY, BRKR, CF, CLDT, COLM, CYH, DRYS, ENPH, FLR, FLS, HE, HLF, HSTM, INWK, KAR, LZB, NBR, NPSP, OII, ORIG, PBPB, PEI, PLAB, PNRA, RAIL, SM, TEX, ZIXI
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers