Before the Open (Jul 30)

Posted on by Jason Leavitt

Good morning. Happy Wednesday. Happy Fed Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Korea rallied 1%, Australia and Taiwan moved up 0.6%. Europe is currently mixed. Russia is up almost 2%, followed by Spain (up 1%). Belgium is down 0.6%. Futures here in the States point towards a relatively big gap up for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up.
Today is FOMC day – the day the Fed announces their overnight rate target and the discount rate and then issues a statement. Rates aren’t going to move – they haven’t moved in years, and it’s not time to move them up yet. Their bond-buying is expected to be reduced another $10B to stay on pace to completely wind down QE by this October. Wall St. is mostly interested in when the Fed may raise rates in the future. Will it be this fall (doubtful) or next spring or summer? Everyone has an opinion, but nobody knows for sure. Heck the Fed doesn’t even know because they are somewhat data dependent and will be flexible based on some key economic number, one of which gets released in two days – the latest employment figures.
Normally the day is slow until the statement is released and then, well, who knows. Wall St. likes low interest rates, so news they could be raised sooner rather than later may not be well received. Otherwise, if there are no surprises and Wall St. is content with whatever the Fed says, the news may not move the market. It didn’t move the market last meeting.
I remain in conservative mode. Smaller trades and quicker profits have been my MO lately. I’m happy to see my account grow as I wait for a better environment. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
WellPoint (WLP -2.61%) reported Q2 EPS of $2.44, better than consensus of $2.26.
Marriott (MAR -0.73%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 71 cents, higher than consensus of 67 cents.
Express Scripts (ESRX +2.09%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.23, better than consensus of $1.22.
U.S. Steel (X -0.61%) reported a Q2 EPS loss of -12 cents, a much smaller loss than consensus of -29 cents.
Owens-Illinois (OI -1.04%) reported Q2 EPS of 80 cents, weaker than consensus of 82 cents.
Edwards Lifesciences (EW -0.54%) reported Q2 EPS of 88 cents, above consensus of 77 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS outlook to $3.24-$3.34, higher than consensus of $3.19.
Amgen (AMGN +0.54%) rose 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $2.37, well above consensus of $2.07,and then raised guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS view to $8.20-$8.40 from $7.90-$8.20, higher than consensus of $8.09.
Global Payments (GPN +0.41%) reported Q4 cash EPS of $1.09, higher than consensus of $1.07.
Aflac (AFL -0.80%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.78, stronger than consensus of $1.59.
Fiserv (FISV +0.02%) reported Q2 EPS of 81 cents, better than consensus of 80 cents.
Amdocs (DOX -1.85%) reported Q3 EPS of 81 cents, higher than consensus of 79 cents.
Twitter (TWTR +1.74%) surged over 20% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 2 cents, higher than consensus of a -1 cent loss, and then raised guidance on 2014 revenue to $1.31 billion-$1.33 billion, better than consensus of $1.27 billion.
Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD +1.47%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.25, better than consensus of $1.20.
American Express (AXP -0.16%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.43, above consensus of $1.38.
Ternium (TX +0.07%) reported Q2 EPS of 66 cents, well below consensus of 81 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:15 ADP Jobs Report
8:30 GDP Q2
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
11:30 Results of $15B, 2-Year FRN Auction
1:00 PM Results of $29B, 7-Year Note Auction
2:00 PM FOMC Announcement
Notable earnings before today’s open: AB, ACCO, ADT, AMED, AMT, ATRO, AUO, BAH, BDC, BEN, CFR, CVE, D, DHX, DORM, DX, ENR, EVER, GIB, GRMN, GT, HAE, HES, HSP, HUM, HUN, IACI, ICLR, INGR, LFUS, LL, LO, LPLA, MGAM, MINI, MMYT, MRGE, MWV, NICE, NVMI, PAG, PBI, PEG, PSX, PSXP, PTRY, ROK, RRD, S, SAIA, SEE, SGNT, SMP, SO, SODA, SONS, SPB, SPW, TASR, TFX, TRI, VLO, VLY, WEC, WLP
Notable earnings after today’s close: ABX, AEL, AEM, AKAM, ALB, ALL, ALLE, AMC, ANIK, ARII, ASGN, ATEN, ATW, AUY, AVG, BALT, BGC, BMRN, CATM, CAVM, CBT, CENX, CHDN, CJES, CLUB, CMO, CNL, CNW, CODE, COHR, CTRP, CW, CWT, DDR, DRE, DRIV, EGN, EHTH, ELGX, ENTR, EQIX, EQY, ESRT, ESV, EXL, EXR, FBHS, FEIC, FISH, FMC, FNF, FOE, FORM, FORR, GLUU, HIG, HK, HOLX, HOS, HR, HTH, INT, IPI, ISIL, KBR, KEX, KGC, KRFT, KS, LGCY, LNC, LOCK, LPSN, LRCX, MAA, MANT, MDAS, MEOH, MET, MOBL, MOH, MTGE, MTW, MUR, NANO, NE, NEWP, NOW, OI, OTEX, PDM, PEIX, PGTI, PPC, PVA, QUIK, RKUS, ROVI, RRTS, SAM, SBRA, SCI, SFLY, SIMG, SPN, SPRT, SSS, STAA, STAG, STMP, STR, SU, SZYM, TCO, TGB, TGI, TS, TSO, TTEK, TTMI, TWTC, UNM, VGR, VPRT, WDC, WFM, WLL, WMB, WPZ, WSTL, WTW, YELP
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers

0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Jul 30)”

  1. Today’s question, and one that’s been asked before “Was Tues the start of a down move OR was it an opportunity for the boyz who took Monday off to get aboard the next up move?” Ha, we might get our answer today.
    The ADP report was out at 815 and said we added 218K jobs, then GDP report at 830 said 4% growth.
    Futures reacted positively to both reports.
    Look at yesterday’s SPX low: still above Monday’s which is the critical low still.
    So here’s a partial answer to the question.
    If Monday’s low is not breeched, bulls are in control. Target 2001.
    If it is, bears are. Target 2001 is off the table.
    Resistance today will again be SPX 1981.50-1983. Tues high 1985 really needs to be decisively cleared.
    Futures overnight -1.25 to +10.25 after the 830 report. At 925 +8.50
    Bonds bullish.
    FOMC statement at 2 pm today. As Jason says, may not move the market, but it may provide more clarity regarding the question about yesterday’s move.

          6. running a few stops there..iwm, qqq, bkx dtx green…ok enough of this stabilize and go vertical on the fomc notes.

          7. They skated to 3 ticks above the failure level (59.00) for this support level. Big reaction so far. However, this reminds me of yesterday afternoon where they’d bounce it after dropping. They need to break resistance at 1967.00 ES.

          8. There’s failure of the support, ES 1959.00. May bounce, but think we’re headed to 1955 soon. ES

          10. To be honest, I don’t know why they stopped short of hitting that es 55. Legit target. Then again, they certainly can do it IRT the FOMC statement.

          13. We’ll know what they’re doing by the nature of this down leg. You wanna work in ES #? If so, should bounce at 65, absolute low is 63. So far they bounced it at 38%.

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