Before the Open (May 15)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets leaned to the upside. China dropped 1.2%, Japan 0.8%. Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Australia posted moderate gains. Europe currently leans to the downside. Greece is down 4%, Italy and Spain more than 1%. Switzerland is posting the biggest gain at 0.6%. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.
Just like that, the small caps have given back all their gains from Monday. A one-day rally is all we got. We shouldn’t be surprised…I laid out what I was looking for for me to believe a rally had legs, and so far not enough piece were in place. This doesn’t mean the market can’t pause here and then attempt to move up again…it just means the timing wasn’t right.
From a trading perspective, we need to continue being conservative, continue keeping our expectations low. Be content with little gains; don’t swing for the fences. For the average independent trader trading a modest account, only one good trade is needed each week. During better times, 2-3 is sufficient. You don’t have to trade huge size or be super active to pull money from the market. Never feel like you have to do something. There’s no shame in maintaining a low profile until a trend begins. Once that happens, you can jump in and compensate for the low time.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Wal-Mart (WMT -0.51%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.10, below consensus of $1.15.
Kohl’s (KSS -3.33%) reported Q1 EPS of 60 cents, weaker than consensus of 63 cents.
Flowers Foods (FLO -1.80%) reported Q1 EPS with-items 29 cents, right on consensus, although Q1 revenue of $1.16 billion was below consensus of $1.22 billion.
Twitter (TWTR -1.62%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Underweight’ at Atlantic Equities.
Southwestern Energy (SWN +0.02%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Conviction Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
Teekay ({=TK reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 5 cents, much better than consensus for a -15 cent loss.
A Phase I study showed AstraZeneca’s (AZN -0.09%) AZD9291 drug is effective in over 60% of patients with non-small cell lung cancer that no longer respond to other therapies due to a genetic mutation known as T790M.
Jack in the Box (JACK -2.35%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 51 cents, below consensus of 52 cents, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2014 adjusted EPS to $2.25-$2.35, below consensus of $2.35.
Vipshop (VIPS +2.40%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 63 cents, well above consensus of 48 cents.
Agilent (A -1.72%) reported Q2 EPS of 72 cents, lower than consensus of 73 cents, and said it sees Q3 EPS of 72 cents-74 cents, weaker than consensus of 79 cents.
Cisco (CSCO -0.22%) rose over 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 51 cents, better than consensus of 48 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
8:30 Consumer Price Index
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
9:00 Treasury International Capital
9:15 Industrial Production
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:00 Philly Fed Business Outlook
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
10:00 E-Commerce Retail Sales
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
6:10 PM Janet Yellen speech
Notable earnings before today’s open: AAP, ACAT, ATK, CA, CAE, DANG, FLO, KSS, MANU, MEA, PERI, SFXE, TK, WMT
Notable earnings after today’s close: ADSK, AMAT, JCP, JWN, QUNR, VJET, ZIOP
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers