Before the Open (Aug 20)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Indonesia, New Zealand and Taiwan each gained about 0.5%; India dropped 0.4%. Europe is currently mixed, but there isn’t much movement. Greece is up 0.8%; Prague is down 0.6%; everything else is close to home. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down.
The market continued its march yesterday. The Nas has moved up 5 straight days and 7 of the last 8 and again pushed to a new high. The other indexes moved up equally well but aren’t yet at new highs.
Since I changed my bias to ‘up’ two weeks ago, the market has gone vertical. In the best case (the Nas), the overall uptrend has resumed. In the worst case (the Russell) the downtrend has been neutralized, and the bulls now have a big cushion to work with.
We get the FOMC minutes today. I highly doubt they move prices much.
Tomorrow starts the Jackson Hole summit where central bankers from all over the world meet. I don’t know what the speaking schedule is, but you can be sure Janet Yellen’s talk will be as important as an FOMC statement. Wall St. will be looking for clues as to when interest rates may rise.
Otherwise let’s keep doing what we’re doing, but let’s recognize the win streak in place and anticipate a pullback soon. The market has gone straight up for two weeks, so a rest is needed. If a pullback comes on low energy, it’s likely to be bought up soon after, and all the indexes are likely to rally to new highs. But if there’s intense selling during the pullback, the near term sentiment will be neutralized, and it’ll be back to the drawing board. Let the market guide you.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
JM Smucker (SJM +0.31%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.34, less than consensus of $1.37
Staples (SPLS +0.78%) reported Q2 EPS of 12 cents, right on expectations.
Lowe’s (LOW +2.12%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.04, higher than consensus of $1.03.
UBS maintains its ‘Buy’ rating on Home Depot (HD +5.55%) and raised its price target on the stock to $98 from $91.
Hain Celestial (HAIN -2.00%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 90 cents, higher than consensus of 89 cents.
Panera Bread (PNRA +1.89%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ at Barclays.
BHP Billiton (BHP -3.75%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Credit Suisse.
PetSmart (PETM +1.84%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 98 cents, better than consensus of 94 cents.
Hertz (HTZ +1.28%) slumped over 12% in after hours trading after it withdraw guidance for fiscal 2014. The stock was then downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan and downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Deutsche Bank.
Oz Management reduced its stake in Rockwood (ROC -0.20%) to 3.5% from 5.95%.
RA Capital reported a 6.2% passive stake in Vical (VICL unch) .
La-Z-Boy (LZB +2.79%) slipped over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 20 cents, below consensus of 21 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
2:00 PM FOMC minutes
Notable earnings before today’s open: AEO, EJ, EV, GLOG, HAIN, JASO, LITB, LOW, MSG, PETM, SJM, SPLS, TGT, VVTV
Notable earnings after today’s close: CACI, HPQ, IRF, LB, PLKI, SMTC, SNPS
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers