Before the Open (Sep 24)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed, but movement was small. China rallied 1.5%; New Zealand, Korea and Hong Kong also closed up. Australia dropped 0.7%; Japan and Indonesia also fell. Europe currently leans to the upside. Russia and Italy are up 0.9%, followed by France (up 0.7%) and Germany and Switzerland (up 0.25% each). Prague is down 0.34%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil is flat, copper up. Gold and silver are down.
It was another ugly day on Wall St. yesterday. The large caps dropped moderately; the small caps got hit hard and are in a virtual free fall. Since the 3-day pop surrounding last week’s FOMC announcement, which put several indexes at new highs, it’s been all down hill. And I can’t even say rallies are getting sold because there are no rallies – just steady, consistent, across-the-board selling pressure.
Sooner or later we’ll get a legit rally attempt. It could last a day (the biggest up days occur within downtrends) or it could last a couple days. In either case, unless a complete washout takes place first, such a rally attempt is likely to get sold into. Not enough damage has been done and not enough pain has been felt for the market to put in a bottom. But if we get more selling first, if longs can be partially wiped out, then something more meaningful can play out.
If you’re a long only trader, have patience. If you play both sides, the easy money on the short side has been made (in the near term), so expect a bounce soon. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Rio Tinto (RIO +1.51%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ at Morgan Stanley.
Ericsson (ERIC -1.46%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at UBS.
Accenture PLC (ACN +0.48%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.08, below consensus of $1.10.
Autoliv (ALV -0.98%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at Exane BNP Paribas with a price target of $118.
Morgan Stanley (MS -0.45%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.
Sage Therapeutics (SAGE +11.55%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Newmont Mining (NEM +1.39%) raised its 2014 copper output guidance to 120,000 metric tons (MT)-125,000 MT from 80,000 MT-95,000 MT and raised its fiscal year 2015 copper production guidance to 250,000 MT-270,000 MT from 220,000 MT-240,000 MT following the receipt of an export permit in Indonesia.
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY -1.57%) jumped over 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $1.17, better than consensus of $1.14.
AAR Corp. (AIR +0.25%) reported Q1 EPS of 36 cents, less than consensus of 38 cents, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS view to $1.65-$1.75 from $1.80-$1.90, below consensus of $1.87.
Steelcase (SCS +0.19%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 27 cents, higher than consensus of 23 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
10:00 New Home Sales
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
11:30 Results of $13B, 2-Year FRN Auction
12:05 PM Fed’s Mester: Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy
1:00 PM Results of $35B, 5-Year Note Auction
Notable earnings before today’s open: ACN, KBH, PAYX, MTN
Notable earnings after today’s close: JBL, WOR
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers