Before the Open (Dec 3)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China, Australia and Taiwan led to the upside; Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore lagged to the downside. Europe is currently mostly up. Prague, Russia and Greece are posting the biggest gains, followed by Spain, Italy, Stockholm and Norway. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil is up, copper is down. Gold and silver are up.
After two consecutive down days the market bounced back nicely yesterday. The Dow closed at a new high (on a closing basis); the S&P completely recaptured its prior day’s loss; the small caps led but did not recover Monday’s loss. Overall, a good day.
The market is trying to find its way. The indexes have mostly moved in a range the last week…several leadership groups (airlines, railroads) have taken hits lately, so we’ll need to seen new groups emerge. The move off the October low has been as steady and consistent as any move in history, but it’s unsustainable. We’re caught between the easy money having already been made to the upside and having no desire to go short because the indexes are trending up and near their highs.
As I’ve said, there’s a time to give positions time and space to play out, and there’s a time to forget targets and stops and just be in the habit of taking quick profits. The latter is the current situation. Don’t give back a decent profit. Don’t let a profit turn into a loss. And definitely don’t let a loss turn into a big loss. There’s a time to swing for singles and time to swing for the fences. Swing for singles right now. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF -1.10%) dropped over 5% in pre-market trading after it said it sees Q4 Same-Store-Sales down by mid-to-high single-digit percentage as it lowered guidance on fiscal 2014 adjusted EPS to $1.50-$1.65, below consensus of $1.74.
DISH (DISH -2.42%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at Wunderlich.
Vale (VALE -4.58%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Canaccord.
CBOE Holdings (CBOE +0.63%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Citigroup.
Leidos (LDOS +0.75%) reported Q3 EPS of 65 cents, well above consensus of 53 cents.
British Petroleum (BP +2.23%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ at Barclays.
J.C. Penney (JCP -1.86%) fell nearly 3% in pre-market trading after Golman Sachs downgraded the stock to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral.”
comScore reports that Cyber Monday desktop online spending reached $2.04 billion, up +17% versus a year ago and the heaviest online spending day in history.
OmniVision (OVTI +6.35%) reported Q2 non-GAAP EPS of 60 cents, well above consensus of 51 cents.
Point72 Asset Management reported a 5.1% passive stake in Catalyst Pharmaceutical (CPRX +4.18%).
Ascena Retail (ASNA -0.69%) jumped over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 28 cents, better than consensus of 26 cents.
Bob Evans (BOBE +2.84%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 36 cents, higher than consensus of 33 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 Productivity and Costs
9:45 PMI Services Index
10:00 ISM Non-Manufacturing Index
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
11:00 Global Composite PMI
11:00 Global Services PMI
12:30 PM Fed’s Plosser: U.S. Economic Outlook
2:00 PM Fed’s Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard:”Financial Stability”
2:00 PM Fed’s Beige Book
Notable earnings before today’s open: ANF, BF.B, GIII, LDOS, RY
Notable earnings after today’s close: ARO, AVGO, GES, NWY, PSUN, PVH, SEAC, SNPS, TLYS, VRNT
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers