Before the Open (Mar 26)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Korea and Singapore led the way with Hong Kong, Australia, Indonesia and Taiwan following behind. Europe is currently mostly up. Russia is up 2%; Germany, France, Spain, Amsterdam and Switzerland are up 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil is up, copper is down. Gold and silver are up.
The market dropped Monday and then moved up Tuesday. The net has been an up week for the Dow, a flat week for the S&P and a down week for the Nas, Russell small caps and S&P mid caps.
The Nas and Russell have taken out previous lows. Some would say this defines a downtrend – lower highs and lower lows – but the technicians don’t take falling patterns into consideration…patterns that slant against the overall trend and act to “shake the tree” a little before legging up again. The Dow, SPX and mid caps have simple held their ground…they’re in consolidation mode.
Here’s the S&P over the last month. A sloppy mess. Rallies get sold, dips get bought. The market has not risen or fallen more than two consecutive days for an entire month. You cannot use trending strategies when the market is in chop mode. Adjustments are needed or you’ll chop your account. More after the open.

Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Corning (GLW +2.29%) was upgraded to ‘Positive’ from ‘Neutral’ at Susquehanna.
Walgreens (WAG +3.28%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Macquarie.
Covanta (CVA +4.55%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at RW Baird.
Carlyle Group (CG -1.01%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS.
Garmin (GRMN -0.89%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Citigroup.
Lockheed Martin (LMT +1.50%) was awarded a $698.03 million government contract to procure long lead parts, materials and components in support of 57 IX F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters.
Facebook (FB +1.23%) said it agreed to acquire Oculus VR for approximately $2 billion.
International Game (IGT +0.34%) fell over 8% in after-hours trading after it cut its fiscal 2014 adjusted EPS outlook to $1.00-$1.10 from $1.28-$1.38 and said it will reduce its global workforce by 7%.
Steelcase (SCS -0.55%) reported Q4 EPS of 18 cents, higher than consensus of 17 cents, which prompted Raymond James to upgrade the stock to ‘Strong Buy’ from ‘Outperform.’
Peabody Coal (BTU +1.18%) and Arch Coal (ACI -0.64%) were both downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at UBS.
PVH Corp. (PVH -1.71%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.43, better than consensus of $1.42, but then lowered guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS to $7.40 to $7.50, well below consensus of $7.81.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
2:00 Fed’s Bullard: “Unconventional Monetary Policy”
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Durable Goods
9:45 PMI Services Index Flash
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
1:00 PM Results of $13B, 2-Year FRN Auction
1:00 PM Results of $35B, 5-Year Note Auction
Notable earnings before today’s open: FRAN, LNN, MOV, TRQ
Notable earnings after today’s close: PAYX
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers