Before the Open (Nov 14)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up, but gains were small. Japan, India, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore led. South Korea and China dropped. Europe currently leans to the downside. Greece and Norway are posting decent gains; Stockholm, Switzerland, Prague and Germany are down. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up.
The market has traded in a small range all week, and for the fifth straight week both the range and the volume have declined. I consider this all part of the consolidation process. Heading into this week the market needed to rest. It had come a long way in a short period of time, we didn’t have very many set-ups to play and most of the indicators were pulling off extreme levels. A rest or pullback would be perfectly normal and healthy for an uptrending market. So far, this is what we’ve gotten.
Overall I continue to like the market, but in the near term the risk/reward for new entries still isn’t great. This doesn’t mean you can’t trade, it just means limiting yourself to the very best set-ups while making note of the current conditions would be wise. In fact if you have to trade, consider partial positions. If the market moves up, at least you have exposure. If it continues to rest, you can add the second half at a later date.
The market is nicely set up for an end-of-year run. It just needs to consolidate its gains. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
UBS reiterates its ‘Buy’ rating on Best Buy (BBY +0.82%) and raised its price target on the stock to $36 from $32.
Wal-Mart (WMT +4.72%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital.
Nike (NKE +0.32%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Sterne Agee.
TJX (TJX -0.36%) and Ross Stores (ROST -0.28%) were both downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at Canaccord.
Baker Hughes (BHI +15.24%) climbed over 5% and Halliburton (HAL +1.05%) rose over 1% in pre-market trading after Baker Hughes confirmed that “it has engaged in preliminay duscussions with Halliburton regarding a potential business combination transaction.”
Harley-Davidson (HOG +0.80%) rose 1.4% in pre-market trading after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral.’
Gabelli reported a 17.34% stake in Pep Boys (PBY -1.49%) .
Pennant Capital reported a 7.0% passive stake in WellCare (WCG -0.10%) .
Trinseo S.A. (TSE +1.40%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 1 cents, well below consensus of 14 cents.
Meritage Group reported a 5.0% passive stake in Discovery (DISCA +3.14%) .
Carter’s (CRI -0.81%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Sterne Agee with a price target of $91.
Nordstrom (JWN +0.55%) reported Q3 EPS of 73 cents, higher than consensus of 71 cents, but then lowered guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS view to $3.70-$3.75 from $3.80-$3.90, weaker than consensus of $3.86.
Applied Materials (AMAT +0.58%) slipped 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 27 cents, right on consensus, although Q4 revenue of $2.26 billion was less than consensus of $2.27 billion.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Retail Sales
8:30 Import/Export Prices
9:00 Fed’s Bullard: U.S. Economy and Monetary Policy
9:55 Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment
10:00 Business Inventories
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
4:00 PM Stanley Fischer
Notable earnings before today’s open: BITA, IOC, MEA, MONT, SFXE, LEAF
Notable earnings after today’s close: OTCQB:VPCO
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers