Before the Open (May 2)

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Taiwan and Hong Kong moved up. Movement was minimal. Europe is currently mixed. France is up, Norway is down. There are no big movers. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold is flat, silver is down.
So here we are, Friday. It’s been a long week. In addition to almost 900 earnings reports, we had an FOMC meeting Wednesday and the latest employment numbers today. That’s a lot for traders and investors to chew on.
The biggest development, or continued development, is the lagging small caps. The S&P large caps started the week weak and took out last week’s low but has since rallied and taken out last week’s high. The Russell small caps on the other hand have also taken out last week’s low but have made no valid attempt to move up with force. The SPX is nicely set up to breakout and run to a new high. The small caps are attempting to put in a double bottom and are almost 10% off their high.
The next major move will be determined right here…between the small and large caps. If the small caps can hold their lows and move up, the market will be free to trend higher in the intermediate term. But if the small caps fail to get any traction to the upside, the large caps will not run very far, even if they make a new high.
Here are the employment numbers…
unemployment rate: 6.3% (was 6.7% last month)
nonfarm payrolls: +288K
private payrolls:
average workweek: unchanged 34.5 hours
hourly wages: down 1 cent to $24.31 – unchanged
labor participation rate drops to 62.8% from 63.2%
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Newell Rubbermaid (NWL -0.23%) reported Q1 EPS of 35 cents, higher than consensus of 32 cents.
CVS Caremark (CVS +0.51%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.02, weaker than consensus of $1.04.
XL Group (XL +1.28%) reported Q1 EPS of 85 cents, better than consensus of 74 cents.
Manitowoc (MTW +1.57%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 17 cents, below consensus of 20 cents.
Fluor (FLR -0.21%) reported Q1 EPS of 92 cents, weaker than consensus of 97 cents.
Tempur Sealy (TPX +0.74%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 53 cents, better than consensus of 51 cents.
Southwestern Energy (SWN -0.98%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 66 cents, stronger than consensus of 63 cents.
Akamai (AKAM +2.75%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 58 cents, higher than consensus of 53 cents.
Covance (CVD -0.28%) reported Q1 EPS ex-items of 90 cents, better than consensus of 89 cents.
Mohawk (MHK +0.69%) reported Q1 EPS ex-items of $1.23, stronger than consensus of $1.17.
DaVita (DVA +0.91%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 85 cents, less than consensus of 86 cents, although Q1 revenue of $3.04 billion was slightly above consensus of $3.03 billion.
Outerwall (OUTR -2.86%) reported Q1 EPS of 94 cents, better than consensus of 93 cents.
Avon Products (AVP -10.21%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at BTIG.
Western Union (WU -0.13%) reported Q1 EPS of 37 cents, better than consensus of 35 cents.
Wynn Resorts (WYNN +1.34%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $2.32, well ahead of consensus of $2.07.
LinkedIn (LNKD +5.05%) fell nearly 3% in pre-market trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 38 cents, better than consensus of 34 cents, but then said it sees fiscal 2014 revenue of $2.05 billion-$2.06 billion, lower than cosnensus of $2.11 billion.
Kraft Foods (KRFT -0.30%) reported Q1 EPS ex-items of 78 cents, higher than consensus of 76 cents.
Expedia (EXPE +4.06%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 16 cents, better than consensus of 15 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Nonfarm payrolls
10:00 Factory Orders
Notable earnings before today’s open: AXL, BPL, CBM, CTB, CVS, CVX, EL, GEL, GIL, HRC, KCG, MMC, MOSY, MSG, NCT, NWL, NWN, OZM, PCYC, PNM, PNW, SNH, SPR, SRE, SUP, TDS, TRP, USM, WETF, XLS
Notable earnings after today’s close: RAIL, VOLC
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers