Before the Open (Oct 30)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. India, China and Japan did well; Hong Kong dropped. Europe is currently mostly down. Greece is down more than 4%; Spain and Italy are down more than 2%; London, Germany, France, Belgium, Amsterdam and Norway are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.
The market dropped a little yesterday. No big deal considering the prior day was one of the biggest up days of the year. Today the market will start in a hole, so if it wants to avoid its first back-to-back losses in three weeks, it’ll have some extra work to do.
Overall I continue to like the market. I switched my bias to “up” three Wednesday’s ago, and I’ve had no reason to change. Everything that was lost at the end of September and beginning of October has been recaptured, and unless something external changes things, the market should do well into the end of the year.
But it’s too far gone to chase new longs in the near term – the risk/reward just isn’t as favorable as it was a couple weeks ago…or last week. The market needs to rest. It needs to restore all its spent energy. In fact I’d love a mini correction to get the bears excited again…to set the stage for another leg up later in the year. We’ll see. I remain long, but admittingly I’m under-exposed and am hopeful of some decent entries to put more money to work. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Time Warner Cable (TWC +0.81%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.86, weaker than consensus of $1.90.
Level 3 (LVLT -0.93%) will replace Jabil Circuit (JBL -0.30%) in the S&P 500 as of the close of trading on November 4.
CME Group (CME +0.61%) reported Q3 EPS of 84 cents, higher than consensus of 82 cents.
Avis Budget (CAR -0.23%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.91, better than consensus of $1.80.
Baidu (BIDU -1.93%) reported Q3 EPS ex-items of $1.90, well above consensus of $1.69.
Williams (WMB +3.07%) reported Q3 EPS of 15 cents, weaker than consensus of 19 cents.
Con-way (CNW -0.53%) reported Q3 EPS of 78 cents, above consensus of 75 cents.
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH +1.19%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.11, better than consensus of $1.08, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2014 adjusted EPS to $2.28-$2.32, better than consensus of $2.26.
Kraft Foods (KRFT -0.59%) reported Q3 EPS ex-items of 78 cents, higher than consensus of 74 cents.
Fortune Brands (FBHS -0.52%) reported Q3 ex-items EPS of 55 cents, less than consensus of 56 cents.
Hanesbrands (HBI -0.15%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.73, above consensus of $1.68.
Allstate (ALL -0.40%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.39, higher than consensus of $1.33.
F5 Networks (FFIV -2.60%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.57, better than consensus of $1.48.
MetLife (MET +0.33%) reported Q3 operating EPS of $1.60, well above consensus of $1.38.
Visa (V -0.95%) rose 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $2.18, stronger than consensus of $2.10.
Century Aluminum (CENX -0.22%) reported Q3 EPS of 52 cents, right on consensus, although Q3 revenue of $500.6 million was better than consensus of $488.64 million.
Akamai (AKAM -1.64%) reported Q3 EPS of 62 cents, higher than consensus of 57 cents.
Whiting Petroleum (WLL +1.21%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.24, better than consensus of $1.22.
Unum Group (UNM -0.20%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 87 cents, weaker than consensus of 90 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 GDP Q4
9:00 Janet Yellen speech
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
1:00 PM Results of $29B, 7-Year Note Auction
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Notable earnings before today’s open: ABC, ABMD, ACIW, ACOR, ALLE, ALU, AMAG, AMT, ANR, APD, APO, ATK, AUDC, AVP, BCO, BG, BGCP, BLL, BWA, CAH, CARB, CBM, CEVA, CI, CME, CNSL, COP, COR, CRCM, CRNT, CRR, CVI, CVRR, DBD, DFT, DHX, DST, EPD, EXLS, FCH, FCN, FIG, FIS, GBX, GEL, GG, GLOP, GNC, GOV, GTI, GTLS, HAR, HEES, HGG, HST, I, IDA, IDCC, INCY, INGR, IQNT, IRDM, IRM, ITC, IVZ, JCI, K, KCG, KEM, KMT, LAD, LECO, LKQ, LLL, LPLA, LRN, MA, MD, MDC, MDXG, MGM, MMYT, MO, MOD, MOS, MPC, MPLX, MPW, MSCI, MZOR, NEO, NGD, NI, NILE, NOV, NVO, NYT, O, OAK, OCN, ODFL, OXF, PBI, PCRX, PEG, Q, RDEN, RDN, RDS.A, RFP, RGLD, RTIX, SCG, SHOO, SMP, SNAK, SPAR, SSE, STRA, STRZA, SUI, TASR, TEVA, THRM, TRI, TWC, UAN, UPL, USAC, VICL, VNTV, WLT, WST, WWE, XEL
Notable earnings after today’s close: ADNC, ADUS, AEGR, AFFX, AHS, AHT, AIV, ALJ, ATEN, ATRC, AXTI, BCOV, BEAT, BYD, BYI, CCI, CHE, CODE, COLM, CPSI, CPT, CSLT, CTRL, CUBE, DCT, DGI, DGII, EGN, EGO, EHTH, ELGX, ELLI, ELX, EMN, EPAY, ESIO, ESS, EXPE, FLDM, FLR, FLT, FRT, GB, GDOT, GMED, GNMK, GPRO, GRPN, HIL, HME, IMMR, IMPV, INT, ISBC, KEG, LNKD, LRE, LYV, MCHP, MELI, MHK, MOH, MTZ, MXL, MYL, NATI, NEM, NR, NSR, NUVA, OIS, OMCL, ONNN, OPLK, OUTR, PKI, PSA, PXLW, QNST, RAIL, RSG, SAM, SBUX, SEM, SGEN, SGMS, SIMG, SPF, SREV, STAA, STAG, SYNC, TCO, TEP, THRX, TNAV, TPX, TRMB, TSO, TSRA, TSYS, TUES, VCRA, WU, YRCW, ZEN
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers