Before the Open (Sep 4)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China moved up 0.8%; Australia moved down 0.4%, followed by Indonesia (down 0.36%) and Japan (down 0.33%). Europe is currently mostly up. Italy is leading the way (up 1.1%), followed by France (up 1%), Spain and Belgium (up 0.8%), Amsterdam (up 0.7%) and Greece (up 0.6%). Futures here in the States suggest a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil is down, copper up. Gold is down, silver up.
The S&P gapped up and opened at a new high on Tuesday but then gave it all back. The same scenario played out yesterday – strong open followed by selling pressure. Overnight news induces a strong open, but there hasn’t been enough intraday buying interest to hold the gains. And for what it’s worth, even though the S&P has hit a new high several times, the index has closed within a 7-point range for seven straight days.
Today we’ll try again…strong open followed by…???
Some ugly candles formed on the Nas and Russell charts yesterday…and several key tech stocks (AAPL, FB) took big hits after hitting all-time highs.
Overall the market is doing just fine, but near term things are less clear.
Conflicting news has been the norm lately. Some good earnings, some bad…some encouraging econ numbers, some not so good…positive technicals but a geopolitical mess…some analysts saying the rally has a few more years to go, others saying 30-60% pullback. There is no shortage of stuff going on…never a dull world.
I’m sticking with the trend, which is up. If/when the market rolls over, I’ll exit my remaining positions. I’m not trading $10B. I could get flat pretty quickly. So many people talk about being close enough to a top to sit out. The problem with that thinking is they’ve been on the sidelines for a couple years because this has been their attitude all along. And even if we were close to a top, unless you’re trading billions of dollars and anticipate liquidity issues trying to exit, you don’t have to slowly scale out over time. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
VeriFone (PAY -1.31%) reported Q3 EPS of 40 cents, stronger than consensus of 35 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS view to $1.46-$1.47, above consensus of $1.45.
L Brands (LB +0.13%) reported August sales up 9% and same-store-sales up 5%.
Las Vegas Sands (LVS +0.70%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Argus.
Ciena (CIEN +1.49%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 32 cents, better than consensus of 29 cents.
D.R. Horton (DHI -2.54%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS.
Foot Locker (FL -0.23%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Jefferies with a price target of $66.
Joy Global (JOY -0.58%) reported Q3 EPS of 80 cents, weaker than consensus of 84 cents.
Yum! Brands (YUM +0.08%) slid over 3% in after-hours trading after it said it sees its Q3 China division same-store-sales down 13% versus prior year.
Weyerhaeuser (WY -0.29%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at BMO Capital with a price target of $39.
Symantec (SYMC +0.04%) rose almost 1% in after-hours trading after Bloomberg reported that it is working with Home Depot on its data breach.
ABM Industries (ABM -0.67%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 47 cents, better than consensus of 46 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2014 adjusted EPS view to $1.65-$1.69, higher than consensus of $1.60.
Matrix Service (MTRX +2.53%) reported Q4 EPS of 28 cents, below consensus of 36 cents, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS to $1.40-$1.60, well below consensus of $1.77.
WhiteWave Foods (WWAV -1.67%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at Oppenheimer with a price target of $43.
PVH Corp. (PVH +0.69%) jumped 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $1.51, above consensus of $1.42.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
Chain Store Sales
7:30 Challenger Job-Cut Report
8:15 ADP Jobs Report
8:30 Gallup US Payroll to Population
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 International Trade
8:30 Productivity and Costs
9:45 PMI Services Index
10:00 ISM Non-Manufacturing Index
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
11:00 EIA Petroleum Inventories
11:00 Global Composite PMI
11:00 Global Services PMI
12:30 PM Fed’s Mester: Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Notable earnings before today’s open: CIEN, HOV, JOY, MEI, MFRM, PAY, UTIW
Notable earnings after today’s close: ACET, AMBA, BEBE, BLOX, COO, ESL, FNSR, SEAC, VRNT, ZQK, ZUMZ
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers