Before the Open (Jan 13)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and New Zealand did well; India and Japan lagged. Europe is currently mostly up. Greece is up 2.1%; Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Russia and Switzerland are up 1% or more. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are up.
The major themes stay the same. Oil continues to trend down…it’s down another 3% today and has a 44 handle. Gold and silver continue to move up…there have been many great trades from the group the last week, and the moves aren’t done.
No need to fight a trend. Oil has been weak for a long time…no need to try and pick a bottom…unless you’re a skilled short term trader and only looking for quick moves. Gold and silver have been on a tear, especially since I profiled them last Tuesday.
Trading is hard when you try and find the proverbial “needle in a haystack,” but it’s doable if you pay attention to what groups are leading and you stick what’s easy. I’m not saying trading is easy; I’m just saying there are hard trades and there are easy trades. Stick with the easy ones. Stick with the ones that jump off your computer screen.
Meanwhile the indexes are somewhat in no-man’s land between their most recent reaction highs and lows. Unless one of these boundaries is approached, nothing is urgent. Nobody has their back against the wall. Nobody has to dig in and defend their turf. The market can bounce around in a range for as long as it wants, but it’s not until one of the boundaries is approached that things get interesting. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Hilton (HLT -1.01%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Wells Fargo.
Marathon Petroleum (MPC -3.47%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.
Mosaic (MOS +0.87%) was downgraded to ‘Underperformer’ from ‘Sector Performer’ at CIBC.
Tilly’s (TLYS +0.43%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at B. Riley.
Comerica (CMA -0.96%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Underperform’ at RW Baird.
NRG Energy (NRG -1.66%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
FirstEnergy (FE -1.31%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Valmont (VMI -0.06%) lowered its fiscal 2014 EPS view to $8.10-$8.20 from $8.55-$8.65, weaker than consensus of $8.60.
Paulson & Co. reported a 19.8% passive stake in International Tower Hill Mines (THM +11.90%) .
Wolverine World Wide (WWW +0.37%) said it sees fiscal 2014 adjusted EPS at the high end of $1.57-$1.63 with fiscal 2014 revenue of $2.76 billion, more than consensus of $2.74 billion.
The Leverhulme Trust reported a 5.5% stake in Unilever (UL +1.53%) .
Sensata (ST -1.51%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Stifel with a price target of $60.
Nokomis Capital reported a 10.1% passive stake in WidePoint (WYY -1.94%) .
SYNNEX (SNX -1.31%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.83, stronger than consensus of $1.69, and then sais it sees Q1 EPS of $1.49-$1.54, above consensus of $1.45.
Alcoa (AA +0.37%) rose over 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 33 cents, well above consensus of 27 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:30 NFIB Small Business Optimism Index
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
10:00 Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
1:00 PM Results of $21B, 10-Year Note Auction
2:00 PM Treasury Budget
Notable earnings before today’s open: IHS, KBH
Notable earnings after today’s close: CSX, DRWI, LLTC, PRGS
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers