Before the Open (Nov 26)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Hong Kong, China and Australia each rallied more than 1%. Europe is mixed and mostly quiet. Germany and Prague are up; France, Norway, Spain and Stockholm are down. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down.
The first two days of the week have been quiet; today will be even quieter. Tomorrow is a day off, and Friday is a half day.
Only once during the last six weeks has the S&P dropped on consecutive days. Yesterday was a down day, so we’ll see if the feat can be accomplished again – not that it would matter much.
There’s a ton of economic news out today.
Gold and silver stocks look promising right now. Many are sitting in little consolidation patterns. The next few days may decide if the entire group legs up.
Nothing meaningful will happen today. Enjoy the time off. Rest, recharge. The rest of the year will be fruitful.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Deere & Co. (DE +0.31%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.83, well above consensus of $1.57.
Resource Capital (RSO +0.19%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at JMP Securities.
ReneSola (SOL -1.40%) reported a Q3 EPS loss of -6 cents, well below consensus of a 5 cent gain.
Copa Holdings (CPA +0.18%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.
Cinemark (CNK +0.83%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Topeka.
Hertz (HTZ +3.65%) rallied over 2% in after-hours trading after billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn reported a 10.77% stake in the company.
Ctrip.com (CTRIP) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 36 cents, well above consensus of 20 cents.
Adage Capital Partners reported a 5.28% passive stake in Rexnord (RXN +2.40%) .
Cubic (CUB +1.20%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.22, well above consensus of 94 cents.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ +0.35%) slid over 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of $1.06, right on consensus, although Q4 revenue of $28.40 billion was less than consensus of$28.76 billion.
Analog Devices (ADI -0.17%) climbed over 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 69 cents, better than consensus of 68 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Durable Goods
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
9:55 Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment
10:00 Pending Home Sales
10:00 New Home Sales
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
12:00 PM EIA Natural Gas Inventory
1:00 PM Results of $29B, 7-Year Note Auction
3:00 PM USDA Ag. Prices
Notable earnings before today’s open: DE, SDRL, SOL
Notable earnings after today’s close: LEDS
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers