Before the Open (May 5)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets leaned to the downside. Hong Kong, New Zealand and Malaysia dropped the most. Europe is currently mostly down. Italy, Germany, Spain, Amsterdam, Switzerland and Russia are down 0.9% or more. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down slightly. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are up.
The market is in a similar place today as it’s been the last month…the large caps are doing well while the small caps are lagging. Growth stocks are lagging value stocks. The Nas is lagging the NYSE. Former leader ship groups could already be considered in bear markets because they’ve fallen 20% while safe-havens are holding up well. It’s been a good old-fashion rotation out of speculative issues and into safety.
The market improved last week…it’s a step for the bulls, but it needs to continue. The AD line is holding up well…new highs at the NYSE have been expanding…new lows at the Nas have spiked twice…the bullish % has put in a higher low and higher high…the ATR has fallen hard. These are all positive signs, which means the market is slightly better off now than it was at this time last week, but it’s only a slight improvement.
The movement of the Nas and small caps will determine the market going forward. If they bounce, the Dow and SPX will break out to a new high. If they don’t, the market could come down hard. The near term is totally up in the air. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Tyson Foods (TSN +0.57%) reported Q2 EPS of 60 cents, weaker than consensus of 63 cents.
Covanta (CVA +0.22%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Wedbush.
Host Hotels (HST -0.14%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at SunTrust.
Helmerich & Payne (HP +2.03%) was downgraded at Guggenheim to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral.’
Pfizer (PFE -1.28%) reported Q1 EPS of 57 cents, better than consensus of 55 cents.
Occidental Petroleum (OXY -0.58%) reported Q1 EPS od $1.75, higher than consensus of $1.70.
United Technologies (UTX -0.24%) was awarded a $105.2 million government contract to procure long-lead components, parts and materials in support of 34 low rate initial production Lot IX F-135 propulsions systems for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.
Starboard Value reported a 6.3% stake in RealD (RLD -0.09%) .
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates sold 4.6 million shares of Microsoft (MSFT -0.78%) stock on April 30.
Madison Square Garden (MSG -6.55%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Maxim.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM -0.25%) said it sees Q2 market revenue down 20% from prior year and that it has a $4.7 billion exposure to Russia as of March 31.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Gallup US Consumer Spending Measure
9:45 PMI Services Index
10:00 ISM Non-Manufacturing Index
11:00 Global Manufacturing PMI
12:30 TD Ameritrade IMX
Notable earnings before today’s open: AUXL, BSFT, FRM, HL, IVR, OWW, OXY, PETS, PFE, RBA, RLGY, SYY, TESO, TREX, TSN, WLK
Notable earnings after today’s close: AEIS, AIG, APC, APL, ARE, AXLL, BDE, BNFT, CATM, CFN, CKEC, CKP, CRK, DATA, ECOL, ECOM, EGOV, ELNK, ENH, EOG, EOX, FLDM, FN, G, HCLP, HGR, HI, IDTI, ININ, KAR, LF, MCEP, MED, MR, NLS, OAS, OTTR, PIKE, PRI, PSMI, QLYS, RBC, RGR, ROSE, RWT, SALE, SKH, SMG, SNHY, STAG, SZYM, THC, TXRH, UAM, VECO, VNO, VVUS, WG, YY, ZIPR
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers