Good morning. Happy Wednesday. Happy Fed Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Japan, Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand moved up, Taiwan, Singapore and China moved down. Europe currently leans to the upside. Germany, Italy and Austria are leading, Russia is lagging. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.
The dollar is flat. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.
The market has rallied nicely the last two days and has almost completely recaptured last week’s losses…not bad considering last week was one of the worst weeks in many months.
Today the Fed meets and announces their decisions regarding overnight rates and how much further, if any, they’ll taper.
Even though the Fed has said rates will be kept low for an extended period of time, Wall St. is somewhat looking for more concrete guidance. Tapering should continue, but as I’ve stated a few times, if the Fed wanted to slow the pace of tapering or stop for a month, it can use the situation in eastern Europe as an excuse. I doubt they do this. The US is mostly a spectator regarding Crimea and isn’t affected much by what goes on there.
The Fed is up to bat soon. Everybody waits. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Citigroup said it remains “high-conviction buyers” of Rambus (RMBS +6.56%) stock, calling the company its top small cap Specialty Semi pick.
General Mills (GIS +0.56%) reported Q3 EPS of 62 cents, right on expectations.
Orbitz (OWW +1.02%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman due to rich valuation.
Elbit Systems (ESLT +0.80%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.26, weaker than consensus of $1.41.
FedEx (FDX +0.72%) reported Q3 EPS pf $1.23, well below consensus of $1.46.
Teva (TEVA +1.11%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Sell’ at Goldman Sachs.
Center Coast Capital reported a 15.2% passive stake in Midcoast Energy (MEP -1.74%) .
Exact Science (EXAS +9.82%) jumped over 9% in after-hours trading after data from the Mayo Clinic showed Cologuard showed an ‘unprecedented’ rate of cancer detection in results of a clinical trial. Cologuard, is a noninvasive DNA test for the early detection of colorectal precancer and cancer.
Adage Capital Partners reported a 8.17% passive stake in Kindred Biosciences (KIN +3.01%) .
Oracle (ORCL +1.62%) slipped 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 68 cents, below consensus of 70 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Current Account
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
2:00 PM FOMC Announcement
2:30 PM Chairman Press Conference
Notable earnings before today’s open: ATU, FDX, GIS, KBH, VRA
Notable earnings after today’s close: CTAS, FNV, GES, JBL, XONE
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers
0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Mar 19)”
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FOMC at 2. FYI, market can drop down to 1850, and even lower, and the up trend will still be intact.
Futures didn’t do much overnight: -3 to +4. The 830 report didn’t disturb them. Now +2 at just before 9 am.
Target 1909
Fed forward guidance is critical; the goal posts may get moved if lower unemployment is called for before move to higher rates. The market is running on low volume and buying large cap elf’s, but if total volume does not pick up the market is vulnerable. The China policy on private firms taking bankruptcy looks troublesome; there are many underfinanced Chinese firms and a falling Yuan spills over into the international markets. Its one damn thing after another.