Before the Open (Nov 5)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and New Zealand led to the downside; Japan did well to the upside. Europe is currently mostly up. Italy is p 2%, and Spain, Belgium, Amsterdam, Norway, Switzerland, Greece, France, Germany and London are up more than 1%. Prague is down 0.8%. Futures here in the States point towards a relatively big gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil is up, copper down. Gold is down 2.4%, and silver is down 5%.
On Monday the market moved up and the closed off its high. On Tuesday it moved down and then closed off its low. It’s all part of the resting process. The indexes came a long way in a short period of time and need to take some time off before attempting to move higher. Today the S&P will gap to within a couple points of its high. We’ll see if buyers, scared to miss a leg up, jump into new positions. My bias, of course, is still to the long side, and I’m long the market (been long for three weeks), but I’m not all in. I’m hoping for better entries. I’m hoping we get a dip. If it doesn’t happen, oh well. That’s life as a trader. It’s an imperfect art at best. Nailing the long and intermediate moves isn’t extremely difficult – having the appropriate size on when those moves happen is the challenge.
A couple different oil companies (see below) have beat earnings. These guys aren’t dummies. Despite lower crude prices, they’ve hedged their production at much higher levels. I don’t know how far out they’ve gone, but they certainly planned for at least a temporary dip.
My stance stays the same. Long and intermediate term I like the market and believe it will go higher and the indexes will hit new highs. Shorter term it’s over-extended and in need of a rest. The S&P rallied 200 points is less than three weeks. That’s completely unsustainable, and the risk/reward for new entries is not great. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Time Warner (TWX -4.81%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.22, higher than consensus of 94 cents.
Covidien PLC (COV -0.42%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.15, better than consensus of $1.02.
EOG Resources (EOG -3.26%) rose over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.31, higher than consensus of $1.30.
Papa John’s (PZZA +0.97%) reported Q3 EPS of 39 cents, above consensus of 37 cents.
Levin Capital Strategies reported a 5.0% passive stake in Great Western (GWB -0.86%) .
Cimarex Energy (XEC -3.81%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.53, better than consensus of $1.51.
KAR Auction (KAR -0.79%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 40 cents, higher than consensus of 31 cents.
Team Health (TMH +0.23%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 60 cents, better than consensus of 59 cents.
Activision Blizzard (ATVI -1.72%) climbed over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 23 cents, well above consensus of 13 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS to $1.35 from $1.29, higher than consensus of $1.33.
Intel (INTC +0.67%) fell over 1% in after-hours trading after it was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Bernstein.
Pioneer Natural (PXD -3.84%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.35, higher than consensus of $1.26.
21st Century Fox (FOXA -2.97%) reported Q1 EPS of 48 cents, well above consensus of 36 cents.
Itron (ITRI -2.15%) reported Q3 EPS of 39 cents, better than consensus of 36 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:15 ADP Jobs Report
8:30 Gallup U.S. Job Creation Index
8:30 Treasury Refunding Quarterly Announcement
9:45 PMI Services Index
10:00 ISM Non-Manufacturing Index
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
Notable earnings before today’s open: ACT, ANSS, ARIA, ATHM, AVA, AWR, AXAS, BBEP, BPI, BSFT, CBB, CCC, CEQP, CHK, CLH, CNP, COV, CSTE, CTSH, DAVE, DNR, DUK, EE, ENB, ENDP, FSS, GLDD, GTN, HFC, HL, HRC, INXN, KELYA, LAMR, LPX, LVLT, MDLZ, MEMP, MGA, MNTA, MVIS, NICE, NRG, NUS, OGE, PWE, PWR, RDC, RLGY, ROC, RRD, RTI, SBGI, SE, SEP, SMG, SSYS, STWD, SWC, THI, TMHC, TRGT, TW, TWX, VG, VOYA, WCG, WIX, YORW
Notable earnings after today’s close: ABTL, ACAS, ACLS, ALNY, ALSK, ANDE, AR, AREX, ASH, ATO, ATSG, AVG, AWK, BALT, BCOR, BIOS, BKD, BREW, BWC, CBS, CDE, CF, CLR, CODI, CPE, CSOD, CTL, CVG, CXO, DATA, DEPO, DK, DPM, DRYS, DVR, DYN, ECOL, ECYT, EFC, ENS, ENSG, ETE, ETP, EXAR, EXXI, FMI, FNV, G, GNW, GPOR, GSM, HOLX, HTCH, IL, INWK, IO, JCOM, KGC, KW, LBTYA, LHCG, LPSN, MBI, MCHX, MCP, MDR, MDWD, MED, MHLD, MIDD, MRIN, MTDR, MTRX, MUSA, MWE, NDLS, NLY, NVAX, NWSA, OILT, ORA, ORIG, OSUR, PAA, PLNR, PMT, PODD, POWR, PPO, PRGN, PRU, PTC, QCOM, QEP, QUAD, RGP, RNDY, RUTH, SB, SBY, SCTY, SD, SKUL, SLF, SSNI, SSRI, STMP, SUSP, SWIR, SWM, SXL, SYMC, SZYM, TCAP, TEAR, TEG, TERP, THOR, TNGO, TPC, TRAK, TROX, TRUE, TS, TSLA, TSRO, TTEC, TXTR, UHAL, VVUS, WBMD, WFM, WMC, WMGI, WR, WTI, WWWW, XPO, Z
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers