Before the Open (May 14)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets leaned to the upside. Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore rallied more than 1%; there were no big down markets. Europe is currently mixed. Greece is up 1.8% and Switzerland 0.5%; Prague is down 0.9% – there are no other big movers. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Copper and oil are up. Gold and silver are up.
We got a big move up Monday and then yesterday got a digestion day for most of the indexes and a pullback for the small caps.
Overall the market has done well this week. The Dow and SPX have hit all-time highs. The mid caps hit a 1-month high, and the Nas and Russell have mostly participated but have remained within their consolidation patterns.
Many indicators have improved. For example the SPX bullish percent has continued to move up while the ATR has moved down.
But the coast is not clear. Follow through – both to the upside and downside – has been hard to come by lately. Even the Nas and Russell, which have been the weakest indexes and have dropped the most off their highs, experienced most of their selling pressure in just several days of trading…otherwise they’ve been range bound too. This is the market we have to deal with, so we need to shoot for singles, not homeruns. Until the market breaks out of its funk – and it doesn’t have to any time soon – keep expectations low. So many traders are sitting at the edge of their seats waiting for the small caps to pull the market down hard or for the large caps to experience a hysterical short squeeze…but the market could just chop around in a range with false moves in both directions for the next couple months. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Nomura (NMR +1.69%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Credit Suisse.
Sprague Resources (SRLP +3.53%) reported Q1 EPS of $3.74, over three times consensus of 95 cents.
Boeing (BA +0.64%) was awarded a contract for fifty 737 planes valued at close to $3.8 billion from a low-cost carrier being set up by China’s Juneyao Airlines.
Coty (COTY -2.53%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 22 cents, over two times consensus of 9 cents.
According to China Daily, Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF +0.81%) plans to open more than 100 stores in China in the next ten years.
Sears (SHLD -0.55%) is up 5% in pre-market trading after it said it is exploring strategic alternatives for its 51% interest in Sears Canada.
Royal Caribbean (RCL -1.27%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at SunTrust.
Autodesk (ADSK -0.60%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Canaccord.
Deere (DE -0.04%) reported Q2 EPS of $2.65, stronger than consensus of $2.49.
Bloomberg reports that Fortress Investment Group (FIG +0.86%) is preparing a $4.7 billion bid for Stuyvesant Town.
Lockheed Martin (LMT +0.43%) was awarded a $101.9 million contract modification for development of the F-35A Conventional Take Off and Landing Air System for the government of Israel under the Foreign Military Sales Program.
Anadarko (APC -0.18%) raised its quarterly dividend by 50% to 27 cents per share.
URS Corporation (URS -0.11%) reports Q1 cash EPS of 60 cents, below consensus of 68 cents.
Fossil (FOSL -0.56%) dropped over 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of $1.22, higher than consensus of $1.17, but then said it sees Q2 EPS of 90 cents-97 cents, below consensus of $1.16.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Producer Price Index
10:00 Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
Notable earnings before today’s open: COTY, DE, DSX, EGRX, ELOS, ENZY, EZCH, GLOG, IOC, KATE, M, OTIV, PF, PLUG, OTC:RTRX, SNE, SODA, VLP
Notable earnings after today’s close: A, ACXM, CSCO, CVT, EXP, GEVO, JACK, NTES, PRSS, SEAS, TCX, VIPS, VOXX, WX, XONE
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers