Before the Open (Jul 18)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. There were no big winners or losers. Europe is currently mostly down. Greece is down 2.6%; Prague and Russia are down 1.3-1.4%. Switzerland, Norway, Amsterdam, Austria, Spain and Germany are also down noticeably. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.

The dollar is up a small amount. Oil is flat, copper up. Gold and silver are down.
Yesterday was the market’s biggest down day since the April bottom, and baring a decent rally today, this week and last week will combine for the biggest back-too-back down weeks since January.
The warnings have been there.
The lagging small caps have been a big warning.
The indicators we follow have been lagging for a couple weeks.
And the quality and quantity of good set to be had have been very low, so even if you wanted to trade, there hasn’t been much to work with.
I’ve been laying low for two weeks – partly because there hasn’t been many good set ups to play and partly because of my move back to the States. In fact I stated a couple weeks ago I was more interested in keeping what I had than building on it.
If a top is in place, fine. There’s plenty of time to get short. One of the consequences of nailing a 5-year rally is you miss the turn. If you try to pick tops, you miss the bulk of the move on the way up. If you do what I do – ride a trend for all it’s worth – you give a little back when the market turns. Nobody will nail an entire move AND pick the top exactly. Determine your style and stick with it.
If the market really is going to trend down for a while, there will be plenty of time to get short. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Amazon (AMZN -0.97%) announces a Kindle Unlimited subscription service for $9.99 per month.
Johnson Controls (JCI -1.01%) reported Q3 EPS of 84 cents, better than consensus of 83 cents.
Honeywell International (HON -1.27%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.38, higher than consensus of $1.36.
General Electric (GE -1.52%) reported Q2 EPS of 39 cents, right on consensus.
Bank of New York Mellon (BK -0.29%) reported Q2 EPS of 62 cents, better than consensus of 57 cents.
Celanese (CE -1.25%) rose 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.47, well ahead of consensus of $1.24.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD -1.93%) slumped over 15% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 2 cents, below consensus of 3 cents.
Schlumberger (SLB -1.07%) reported Q2 EPS ex-items $1.37, above consensus of $1.36.
Capital One (COF -2.24%) reported Q2 EPS of $2.04, well above consensus of $1.82.
Google (GOOG -1.53%) rose nealy 2% in pre-market trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $6.08, below consensus of $6.24, but reported Q2 sales excluding revenue passed on to partners of $12.7 billion, higher than consensus of $12.3 billion.
International Business Machines (IBM +0.07%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $4.32, better than consensus of $4.29, and said that it sees fiscal year 2014 EPS at least $18.00, above consensus of $17.87.
Stryker (SYK -0.70%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.08, right on consensus, but then lowered guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS to $4.75 – $4.80, on the lower end of consensus of $4.80.
Hub Group (HUBG +1.34%) reported Q2 EPS of 51 cents, higher than consensus of 50 cents.
Seagate (STX -2.97%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.10, right on consensus, although Q4 revenue of $3.30 billion was slightly below consensus of $3.33 billion.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
9:55 Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment
10:00 Leading Indicators
Notable earnings before today’s open: ALV, BK, ERIC, FHN, GE, HBAN, HON, IPG, JCI, KSU, LH, VFC
Notable earnings after today’s close: BMI
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers