Before the Open (Jan 9)

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Australia, India and South Korea did well; Taiwan, China and Singapore posted small losses. Europe currently leans to the downside. Spain and Russia are down more than 2%, Italy more than 1%, Amsterdam, Austria, London, France and Germany are down noteably. Greece is up 2.6%. Before the employoment numbers were released, futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are down. Gold is up, silver is down.
The S&P 500 dropped about 100 points off its high in six days, and then it only took two days to recapture 70 of those lost points. The sky is falling one day with talking heads predicting gloom and doom for 2015, and two days later they’re looking for new highs. Gotta love Wall St. Gotta love how manic depressant it is. Gotta love how forgetful it is.
And what’s taken place the last two days isn’t out of the ordinary. Bottoms are typically of the V variety, and after the first or second up day is put in place, it’s not uncommon for there to be a relatively big gap up. It happened in December. It happened in October.
Here are the employment numbers…
unemployment rate: 5.6% (was 5.8% last month)
nonfarm payrolls: +252K (was +321 last month)
private payrolls:
average workweek: unchanged at 34.6 hours
hourly wages: down 5 cents to $24.57
labor participation rate:
October job gain raised from 243K to 261K.
NOvember job gain raised from 321K to 353K.
The market’s reaction was positive. S&P futures jumped about 10 points on the release and are now up a couple points. Odd. The decreased unemployment rate was due to people leaving the workforce, and the drop in hourly wages is worrisome.
Up, down, up, down – the market has been all over the place the last month. Have an opinion? Wait, you’ll be right. Then wait a little longer, and you’ll be wrong. No move lasts long. Once a mini trend establishes itself, it reverses. Day traders can do their thing, but swing traders who seek to grab the meat of a trending move haven’t had much to do lately. Oh well.
Set-ups have improved the last couple days, so if the positive bias remains, we’ll get some nice trades off today and next week. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Eli Lilly (LLY +2.37%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Starwood (HOT +1.33%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.
Akamai (AKAM +2.34%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at B. Riley.
Stanley Black & Decker (SWK +1.90%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from Buy at Longbow.
Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR +2.61%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at UBS with a price target of $182.
SandRidge Energy (SD -3.70%) jumped over 10% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 7 cents, above consensus of 4 cents.
National Oilwell (NOV +2.98%) was initiated with an ‘Overweight’ at Barclays with a price target of $80.
Halliburton (HAL +2.16%) was initiated with an ‘Overweight’ at Barclays with a price target of $48.
Baker Hughes (BHI +0.99%) waas initiated with an ‘Overweight’ at Barclays with a price target of $65.
JPMorgan Chase reported a 4.9% passive stake in Brinker (EAT +0.76%).
Nabors Industries (NBR +0.36%) and Helmerich & Payne (HP +2.25%) were both downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at KeyBanc.
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY +1.59%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.23, better than consensus of $1.19, and then said it sees fiscal 2014 EPS at approximately $5.05-$5.09, above consensus of $5.04.
Macy’s (M +0.38%) fell 4% in after-hours trading after it gave guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS of $4.25-$4.35, below consensus of $4.36, and then said it plans to close 14 stores.
Helen of Troy (HELE +2.83%) gained over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $2.17, well above consensus of $1.57, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2015 adj EPS to $5.01-$5.11 from $4.55-$4.65, above consensus of $4.92.
PriceSmart (PSMT +1.92%) reported Q1 EPS of 68 cents, below consensus of 73 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Non-farm payrolls
10:00 Wholesale Trade
Notable earnings before today’s open: AYI, AZZ, INFY, SYRG
Notable earnings after today’s close: ANGO, BBBY, CUDA, EOPN, HELE, PSMT, RT, TCS, VOXX
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers