Before the Open (Dec 30)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan, Hong Kong and Australia dropped more than 1%. Indonesia did well. Europe is currently mostly down. Russia is down 3.2%; Spain, London, Germany, France, Austria, Greece, Amsterdam and Norway are down 0.8% or more. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil is down, copper up. Gold and silver are up.
Yesterday we got more new highs from the indexes, but par for the course this time of year, volume was light and the range was small. If Wall St. is a big voting booth, more traders/investors are voting for higher prices, but turnout at the polls isn’t impressive. Still, you can’t fight it. Most of the indexes are at all-time highs, and most of the indicators are supporting the strength. Yes, in the near term some backing-and-filling makes sense, but unless the indicators suddenly stop, odds favor higher prices over the next couple weeks.
The big story/opportunity remains oil. A 10-point move in either direction is very possible. Oil could continue down from its currently level in the mid-50’s, hit an air pocket and quickly drop to the mid-40’s…Or yesterday’s weakness and new low will prove to be a trap, and crude will suddenly bounce. The stocks of course, being very sensitive to crude’s movement, could rally or fall 25% based on what the underlying does. If you love movement and action, this is where it’s at heading into the new year.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
BB&T (BBT +0.41%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Rafferty Capital.
Piper Jaffray keeps an ‘Overweight’ rating on CBS (CBS +0.84%) and said it is a top pick for 2015.
Hyperion Therapeutics (HPTX +2.93%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Brean Capital with a price target of $40.
Piper Jaffray keeps an ‘Overweight’ rating on Microsoft (MSFT -0.90%) and said it is a top pick for 2015.
QLogic (QLGC -0.62%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at DA Davidson with a price target of $17.
First Marblehead (FMD +14.72%) rose over 3% in after-hours trading after HC2 Holdings reported an 8.56% stake in the company.
SPO Partners reported a 7.9% stake in Oasis Petroleum (OAS -1.68%) .
MSD Capital reported a 5.1% passive stake in Esterline (ESL -0.28%) .
Gabelli reported a 5.24% stake in The Pantry (PTRY +0.32%) .
Tiger Global reported a 9.2% passive stake in OnDeck (ONDK -2.69%) .
Civeo Corp. (CVEO +2.61%) slumped over 20% in after-hours trading after it said it sees fiscal 2015 revenue of $540 million-$600 million, well below consensus of $817.2 million and said it will suspend its quarterly dividend.
Bulldog reported a 9.09% stake in Alliance New York Municipal Income Fund (AYN +0.76%) .
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
9:00 S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index
10:00 Consumer Confidence
10:00 State Street Investor Confidence Index
3:00 PM Farm Prices
Notable earnings before today’s open: none
Notable earnings after today’s close: HGR
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers