Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China dropped almost 3%; Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea dropped more than 1%. Europe currently leans to the downside. Germany, Austria and Prague are down; France and Italy are up. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.
The dollar is up slightly. Oil is down $1.36; copper is down too. Gold is down, silver is up.
The market remains in very good shape. Except for the Dow, all the indexes hit new highs last week.
The breadth indicators are also in good shape. Some are moving up; others, having topped a couple weeks ago, are cycling down. We’re likely to get divergence with some of these indicators, but divergences usually take time to play out. Hence, there isn’t an immediate urge to purge all positions.
My biggest concern is the extent of the move off the early-February lows. The S&P is up 140 in five weeks and has yet to register consecutive down days. In fact its worst stretch was a “down 3 of 5 days” week in the middle of February. Steady, consistent, methodical. The market keeps pressing higher, and this is a little worrisome. I think it’s healthier to have some ups and downs, some backing and filling, but this isn’t happening. Plus I consider the quality of the current batch of new set ups to be a notch or two lower than in previous weeks. There are some decent looking oil charts, but otherwise we don’t have a decent stable of very good set ups to play. And for what it’s worth, the situation in eastern Europe will remain front page news for the time being. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Ferrellgas Partners (FGP +1.30%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 76 cents, below consensus of 85 cents.
D.R. Horton (DHI -1.63%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Citigroup.
Wells Fargo downgraded the Financials sector to ‘Market Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ citing weakening earnings momentum.
KB Home (KBH -2.05%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA/Merrill.
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM +0.95%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital.
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU -2.14%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital.
athenahealth (ATHN -3.06%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Perform’ at Oppenheimer.
Staples (SPLS +1.15%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at BB&T.
The WSJ reported that Boeing (BA -0.25%) said a problem caused by a change in wing-maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ manufacturing process had caused hairline cracks in the wings on some of its yet-to-be-delivered 787 Dreamliner jets, requiring 42 aircraft to be inspected and delaying deliveries to airlines.
Glazer Capital reported a 7.6% passive stake in Pacer (PACR unch) .
Moody’s Investors Service raised its outlook on the Netherlands’ ‘Aaa’ government bond ratings to stable from negative.
Luxor Capital Group reported a 5.6% passive stake in Conn’s (CONN -1.02%) .
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY +1.32%) lowered guidance on Q4 EPS to $1.57-$1.61 from $1.60-$1.67, weaker than consensus of $1.65.
Haynes International (HAYN -0.02%) announced a price increase of 3%-5% on all product forms effective immediately
SAC Capital reported a 5.0% passive stake in Walter Investment (WAC -4.35%) .
JP Morgan reported a 10.6% passive stake in United Online (UNTD -1.42%) .
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
No major events scheduled.
Notable earnings before today’s open: FGP, REN, TICC
Notable earnings after today’s close: CASY, FCEL, FTEK, MED, NES, NVAX, POWR, PWRD, UNFI
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers
0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Mar 10)”
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The Euro at 138? Why? Worth thinking about since currency strength is an excellent pointer to the economy of the EU or the weakness of the USA? Hard to tell yet, but one could believe that it is widely believed that the US Government has become inept at both international relations and domestic economic policy. It is faith in the management of a states currency.
A signal is developing. It uses margin debt rate of change. The rule: when the 15-month rate of change of total margin debt first rises above and then falls back below 48 percent – a sell signal is given. This may be in progress. The history seems to be fairly good for major adjustments, less important market price adjustments, not so good.
Keep an eye on China: things are moving there and they own, and are selling, US Treasury debt, the raises interest rates in the debtor state. That is another signal to be considered. Best to all.
china widening its peg to usd and creating more yaun to be a international reserve currency
and japans flooding of liquidity to europe to weaken its yen ,which effects the carry trade
are of consideration as well
thats why i dont trade currencies –to much international soverign manipulation
We’re looking at resistance overhead, extending up thru 1882.
If we move down, my expectation is that we will get down to an 1867 level of support. That support extends as lo as 1861. As long as support holds, the near term target is 1890.
LT target still 1900.
Futures range overnight: -10 to +.75, at 925 -4.50
the next bull market will start in 9 earth years 361 days at high noon
mean while back on earth the ides of march quad witches have arrived
as the insto banks have to take the opposite side to the long only bull
a down week may be needed to balance the puts to the call bull
so as the banks can lay off some of their bets
still short from friday