Before the Open (Dec 9)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China dropped an incredible 5.4%. Hong Kong, Australia and India were also very weak. Europe is currently mostly down. Greece is down 10.7% (not a typo). Spain is down more than 2%; Italy, Austria, Amsterdam, Norway, Prague, Germany, France and London are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a big gap down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil is up, copper is down. Gold and silver are down.
When I argued over the weekend a pullback was right around the corner, I was open to one taking place right away but wasn’t giving the market an ultimatum. The market typically isn’t that sensitive. It wasn’t hard to see coming. I’ll do a video covering the indicators I was looking at. The S&P closed about 20 off its high yesterday, and futures are down another 20 this morning.
Lots of big overseas news today…
China tightened collateral rules for short-term loans. Bonds rated below AAA cannot be used, so there was a big sell-off in riskier debt that spread to higher quality notes and stocks. Hence the 5.4% sell-off, but keep in mind the Chinese market is up about 50% (per the $SSEC) since late June.
German imports dropped 3.1%, and exports fell 0.5%.
Greece has moved forward a presidential vote by two months. I don’t pretend to fully understand everything going on over there, but there’s still a big fight over austerity measures, and this vote plays a huge roll in how they deal with their economic struggles. Heading into today, the Greek market was flat over the last 3-1/2 years. That’s not terrible considering the country was basically insolvent.
In the US…a divergence between the large and small caps plus negative divergences between the S&P and numerous breadth indicators told us to be very careful with longs because either the indicators needed to improve quickly or the market would head down. We’re getting a move down. Isn’t it coincidental when news hits right when the technicals are calling for turn? The media will say the news caused the selling pressure. I disagree. It was in the cards anyways, and the news just gives everyone a place to blame.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Walgreen (WAG -1.27%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Mizuho.
SAIC (SAIC -1.07%) reported Q3 EPS of 77 cents, higher than consensus of 74 cents.
Burlington Stores (BURL -1.77%) raised guidance on fiscal 2014 adjusted EPS view to $1.65-$1.67, above consensus of $1.61.
HD Supply (HDS -1.39%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 55 cents, better than consensus of 53 cents.
Schlumberger (SLB -3.38%) and Oceaneeing (OII -5.10%) were both downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Jefferies.
AutoZone (AZO -1.17%) reported Q1 EPS of $7.27, better than consensus of $7.16.
T-Mobile (TMUS +0.04%) fell over 3% in pre-market trading after the company said it will sell as much as 17.4 million new convertible shares.
Steadfast Capital reported a 6.6% passive stake in Wix.com (WIX -1.38%).
ABM Industries (ABM -1.02%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 52 cents, less than consensus of 58 cents, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 adjusted EPS $1.65-$1.75, below consensus of $1.80.
IDT Corp. (IDT unch) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 46 cents, better than consensus of 42 cents.
Pinetree Capital reported a 13.0% passive stake in Sphere 3D (ANY -5.16%).
Pep Boys (PBY -3.31%) reported a Q3 EPS loss of -3 cents with items, well below consensus of a 12 cent gain.
TRT Holdings reported a 9.98% stake in Northern Oil and Gas (NOG -11.78%).
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:30 NFIB Small Business Optimism Index
7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
10:00 Wholesale Trade
10:00 Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
1:00 PM Results of $30B, 3-Year Note Auction
Notable earnings before today’s open: AZO, BURL, CONN, HDS, JW.A, PTRY, SAIC, UTIW
Notable earnings after today’s close: KFY, KKD, NCS
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers