Before the Open (Jul 15)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. India, Indonesia and Korea led the gains greater than 0.9%; Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan also did well. Europe is currently mixed. Austria is down 1% and Spain 0.7%. Belgium is up 0.7%. The other markets haven’t moved much. Futures here in the States point towards a slight up open for the cash market.

The dollar is down slightly. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are up.
The market was horribly slow yesterday. The range was small, and volume was light. Nothing changed from over the weekend when I stated I continue to like the market long term, but in the near term am not as confident given several breath indicators are not supportive of upside right now. In this context, short term is the following week or so. If the indicators continue to deteriorate, then we’re likely to get more selling, but if they firm, it’ll be business as usually and new highs are likely to follow. Don’t predict. Let the market guide you.
There also aren’t many very good set ups to be had. Trading isn’t hard if you first make sure the conditions are right. Good conditions will dampen losses from losing trades and help winners. Right now conditions aren’t great. They can change quickly…it’s not a process where it takes weeks for improvement to finally kick in, but you do have to be patient and wait for improvement.
Between lagging indicators, a lack of good set ups and an extremely low volatility summer, I think it’s best for swing traders choose their spots wisely. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Goldman Sachs (GS +1.33%) reported Q2 EPS of $4.10, higher than consensus of $3.05.
Reynolds American (RAI +2.32%) will acquire Lorillard (LO +1.83%) in a transaction valued at $27.4 billion.
Lexmark (LXK +1.15%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Bernstein.
Kroger (KR +0.90%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital with a price target of $58.
Progressive (PGR -0.08%) was upgraded to ‘Equal-Weight’ from ‘Underweight’ at Evercore.
Albemarle (ALB +0.86%) and Rockwood Holdings (ROC +0.28%) announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Albemarle will acquire all outstanding shares of Rockwood in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $6.2 billion.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM +0.88%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.59, well above consensus of $1.31.
Comerica (CMA +0.14%) reported Q2 EPS of 81 cents, better than consensus of 76 cents.
Google (GOOG +0.98%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at FBR Capital with a price target of $674.
Valero (VLO -0.36%) is down over 3% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q2 EPS of $1.10-$1.25, weaker than consensus of $1.39.
Intel (INTC +0.77%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at Imperial Capital with a price target of $37.
Apollo Education (APOL -0.10%) slid over 6% in after-hours trading after the U.S. Department of Education said that it intends to conduct an ordinary course program review of the University of Phoenix’s administration of federal student financial aid.
Spirit Airlines (SAVE +0.34%) rose nearly 2% in after-hours trading when Lone Pine Capital reported a 6.0% passive stake in the company.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales
8:30 Retail Sales
8:30 Import/Export Prices
8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
10:00 Business Inventories
10:00 Yellen delivers semi-annual monetary policy testimony
Notable earnings before today’s open: CBSH, CMA, GS, JBHT, JNJ, JPM, WWW
Notable earnings after today’s close: ADTN, AIR, CSX, CTAS, IBKR, INTC, YHOO
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers