Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. Australia and Japan posted decent gains; Indonesia, Hong Kong and China led to the downside. Europe is split with big movers in both directions. Greece is down 2.2%, followed by Italy (down 1.5%). Prague is up 1.76%, followed by Russia (up 1.16%). London and Germany are down around 0.6%. In the Americas, Brazil is getting hit hard. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.
The dollar is down. Oil is down and in jeopardy of falling below 80; copper is up. Gold is flat; silver is down a lightly.
We head into this new week with the market having just completed its strongest week of the year. The S&P 500 rallied 78 and is now 145 off its low from two weeks ago. Many indicators have reversed from extreme levels and are now supporting the bulls’ case. Things change quickly, huh? Two weeks ago the sky was falling, and the bears were out in full force. Now the market has rallied back more than 62%, and absent a major event in the world rocking the current vibe, odds favor a decent market in the intermediate term. We’re probably not going straight up to the highs – a few indicators suggest some range bound movement the next couple weeks – but at the very least the bulls have a cushion to work with and a lot of wiggle room.
Two Wednesday’s ago I change my near-term bias to “up,” and although the market could use a rest, I have no reason to change this. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Allergan (AGN +0.46%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.72, below consensus of $1.77.
Merck & Co. (MRK +1.73%) reported Q3 EPS of 72 cents, weaker than consensus of 88 cents.
Roper Industries (ROP +0.43%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.55, better than consensus of $1.53.
Precision Drilling (PDS -1.99%) reported Q3 EPS of 18 cents, higher than consensus of 17 cents.
Armstrong World (AWI -0.14%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 83 cents, stronger than consensus of 78 cents.
Business Insider reports that Wal-Mart and Best Buy have joined Rite Aid and CVS Health in rejecting Apple’s (AAPL +0.37%) mobile payments system Apple Pay.
Rackspace (RAX +0.98%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Ventas (VTR -1.28%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at UBS.
Halliburton (HAL -0.13%) was downgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Conviction Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
Anadarko (APC -1.29%) and EP Energy (EPE +1.64%) were both downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
Precision Castparts (PCP -0.26%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.
Acuity Brands (AYI +0.76%) was upgraded to ‘Conviction Buy’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
Alcoa (AA +1.91%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Deutsche Bank.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
9:00 PMI Services Index Flash
10:00 Pending Home Sales
10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook
Notable earnings before today’s open: AGN, AWI, BEN, EDR, EXAS, HUN, LGND, MRK,NMM, ONB, PDS, ROP, SIR, STNG, STX, TEN, TREX, VNDA
Notable earnings after today’s close: ADVS, AGNC, AHGP, ALSN, AMGN, AMKR, ANAD, ARLP, AVB, BOH, BWLD, CGNX, CLF, CMP, CR, CROX, DCO, DDR, DENN, FBP, FOE, GGP, HIG, HLS, IDTI, IPHS, KN, LMNX, MAS, MERU, MRH, MSTR, MTW, OHI, OMI, PCL, PMCS, PRE, RGA, RGC, SANM, SYA, TWTR, UHS, XL
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers