Before the Open (Apr 28)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan, China and Indonesia dropped more than 1%. Europe currently leans to the downside. Germany, France and London are up, but Belgium and Greece are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down.
After a good start to last week, all gains were wiped out Friday. The market has been iffy in the near term for a month, and it remains that way. Rallies get sold, dips get bought. No move lasts long.
The Nas and small caps are lagging…not a positive development from a technical standpoint. It’s not a good sign when investors favor safety over potential growth.
I looked at 1000+ plus charts last week and found almost nothing that looked good. This has been the state of things for the last two weeks. So even if the overall market was better set up…or the near term was more obvious, there isn’t much for a swing trader to do – that is if a swing trader takes high-probability trades under favorable conditions. If you’re a day trader, do your thing. There will always be intraday movement to play. But if you’re a swing trader, I honestly believe sitting tight is the best course of action right now. If you believe trades should jump off the computer screen and you shouldn’t have to squint to find them, lay low. Set ups are not easy and obvious.
Lots of news out this week. Almost 900 earnings reports…FOMC Wednesday…employment numbers Friday.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Corning (GLW -2.12%) reported Q1 EPS of 31 cents, higher than consensus of 30 cents.
Energy Transfer Partners (ETP -0.14%) will acquire Susser Holdings (SUSS -2.13%) for approx. $1.8 billion.
Allergan (AGN +0.92%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Stifel.
Panera Bread (PNRA -1.50%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Longbow.
Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (LH -0.93%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.51, below consensus of $1.58.
Nationaol Oilwell Varco (NOV +0.71%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.40, higher than consesnsus of $1.38.
Roper Industries (ROP -1.83%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.46, better than consensus of $1.35.
Loews (L -0.68%) reported Q1 EPS of 62 cents, well below consensus of 70 cents.
Sanctions against Russia to be announced this week may include sanctions that restrict U.S. high-technology sales to the Russian defense industry, according to comments over the weekend by White House Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken.
The merger between American Airlines (AML) and US Airways has been approved by a federal judge.
Merck (MRK -0.50%) is close to a deal to sell its consumer healthcare unit, according to Reuters.
Siemens (SI -1.34%) plans to compete with GE (BE) on its offer for Alstom, according to Bloomberg.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
10:00 Pending Home Sales
10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook
Notable earnings before today’s open: ACW, AHGP, ARLP, AVX, AWI, BEN, BWP, CHH, CHTR, CNA, CRI, CYOU, ECL, EDR, EDU, GLW, HAE, L, LH, LIN, MCGC, MCY, NOV, PDS, ROP, SOHU, STNG, TECH, TEN, UNS
Notable earnings after today’s close: ADVS, AGNC, AMKR, AMP, BLDP, BWLD, CBL, CLGX, CMP, CR, DCO, DENN, EXR, FTK, GGP, HELE, HIG, HLF, HLS, JEC, KAMN, LMNX, MERU, N, NCLH, OMI, PCL, PRE, QCOR, RKT, RRC, RTEC, RUTH, SIMO, SSW, STAA, STM, SU, TCS, UCTT, VLRS, WNC
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers