Before the Open (Jun 19)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Japan and Australia rallied 1.6 and 1.5%. China dropped 1.6%. Europe is currently mostly up. Greece is leading the way with a 1% gain, followed by Spain, Italy, London, Germany, France and Russia. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold is up, silver flat.
After the FOMC statement was released yesterday, the market rallied big time on solid volume. The S&P 400 and 500 are at all-time highs; the Dow isn’t far behind. The Nas and Russell, which suffered much bigger corrections in March and April have out-performed the last month but still have a little more work to do before hitting their own new highs.
Tomorrow is options expiration – a meaningless day. The combination of computer trading, which has increased the efficiency of the market, and weekly options, which prevent energy from building up for an entire month, has rendered the monthly expiration day to be meaningless…from a trading standpoint. It doesn’t factor into any decisions I make.
Otherwise what else can I say? I’ve had a long bias for over a month, and we’ve had many great trades. While many traders on Wall St. are in a state of denial, constantly offering a laundry list of reasons the market is going to drop hard, we’ve ridden the trend up and made money. Aluminum, application software, oil & gas, semis, railroads – all groups that have out-performed and offered us trading opportunities.
Keep it simple. Is the trend up or down? Trade in that direction. The big money is made nailing the middle part of a trend, not calling a turn. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Juniper (JNPR +0.24%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Mizuho.
BlackBerry (BBRY +2.98%) reported a Q1 EPS ex-items loss of -11 cents, a much smaller loss than consensus of -26 cents.
ConAgra (CAG -7.25%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Monster Beverage (MNST +1.62%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at Wells Fargo with a price target range of $79-$81.
NVIDIA (NVDA -0.10%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Pier 1 Imports (PIR +0.44%) reported Q1 EPS of 16 cents, weaker than consensus of 20 cents, and then cut guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS to $1.14-$1.22 from $1.16-$1.24, on the low end of consensus of $1.21.
FedEx (FDX +6.16%) was upgraded to ‘Sector Perform’ from ‘Underperform’ at RBC Capital.
Vodafone (VOD +1.87%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA/Merrill.
Starbucks (SBUX +0.33%) gained over 1% in pre-market trading after UBS upgraded the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ and raised their price target on the stock to $87 from $80.
Gabelli reporte a 12.14% stake in Ryman Hospitality (RHP +0.64%) .
Clarcor (CLC +0.12%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 76 cents, well above consensus of 62 cents.
Measurement Specialties (MEAS +0.32%) is up over 10% in after hours trading after TE Connectivity (TEL +0.26%) said it will acquire the company for $1.7 billion.
Red Hat (RHT +1.28%) rose 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 34 cents, better than consensus of 33 cents.
Jabil Circuit (JBL +0.65%) climbed over 1% in after-hours trading after it reported a Q3 core EPS loss of -6 cents, a smaller loss than consensus of -9 cents as is Q3 revenue was $3.8 billion, higher than consensus of $3.6 billion.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:00 Philly Fed Business Outlook
10:00 Leading Indicators
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Notable earnings before today’s open: BBRY, IHS, KR, PIR, RAD
Notable earnings after today’s close: ORCL, SWHC, TIBX
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers