Good morning. Happy Wednesday. Happy FOMC Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China dropped 1.4%, and Malaysia dropped 0.4%. New Zealand rallied 1%, and South Korea gained 0.5%. Europe currently leans to the downside. Greece is down 7.5%. Prague, Austria and Spain are down more than 1%. Stockholm is up 1.4%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
The dollar is up. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are flat. 10-year bonds are flat.
The big story today is the Fed. Their 2-day meeting concludes with a target rate for overnight rates and the discount rate. No change is expected, so Wall St. will key in on their statement. A lot has happened since the last meeting, so you never know. Traders mostly want to figure out if rates are likely to be raised sooner or later.
Greece is down 7.5%. The government is freezing privatization plans for its biggest port. Also the newly elected government denounced a statement from the European Council regarding Russia’s role in the escalating violence in Ukraine. This is important because sanctions from the EU on Russia must be unanimous, so with one dissenting vote, things get much more complicated.
Apple is up 7.3% on earnings. That’s a huge move for a huge company. And it comes on the heels of Microsoft dropping 9% yesterday.
Three more days of trading this month. The S&P is down 29, so if it wants to close positive for the month and signal the likelihood of a positive year, it’s got some work to do. It’s not insurmountable loss, but it doesn’t have much room for error.
The Fed, earnings season and a 3-month range – that’s what the market is dealing with right now. Until the range resolves, it would not be wise to place big bets. The market trends, the market chops. Your trading has to adjust to the environment. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
International Paper (IP -1.50%) reported Q4 EPS of 53 cents, higher than consensus of 48 cents.
Apple (AAPL -3.50%) jumped 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of $3.06, well above consensus of $2.60.
PolyOne (POL -0.50%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 36 cents, better than consensus of 34 cents.
Total System (TSS -1.84%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 58 cents, higher than consensus of 53 cents.
VMware (VMW -2.24%) climbed over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of $1.08, more than consensus of $1.07, and then authorized an additional $1 billion stock buyback.
Ultra Petroleum (UPL +1.04%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Western Digital (WDC -3.32%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $2.26, higher than consensus of $2.10.
International Game (IGT -0.29%) reported Q1 EPS of 19 cents, below consensus of 25 cents, and then said it will not provide fiscal 2015 financial guidance
Freescale (FSL +0.65%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 42 cents, above consensus of 33 cents.
Yahoo (YHOO -2.93%) jumped 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 30 cents, higher than consensus of 29 cents, and then said its Board of Directors authorized a plan for a tax-free spin-off of the company’s remaining holdings in Alibaba Group (BABA) into a newly formed independent registered investment company.
Illumina (ILMN +0.78%) reported Q4 non-GAAP EPS of 87 cents, better than consensus of 78 cents.
Stryker (SYK -0.24%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.44, less than consensus of $1.45, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 adjusted EPS to $4.90-$5.10, below consensus of $5.14.
Juniper (JNPR -1.44%) climbed over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 41 cents, above consensus of 31 cents.
AT&T (T -1.12%) rose 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 55 cents, right on consensus, although Q4 revenue of $34.40 billion was above consensus of $34.26 billion.
Amgen (AMGN -0.53%) rose 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of $2.16, better than consensus of $2.05.
Electronic Arts (EA -2.14%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.22, well above consensus of 92 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS to $2.35, above consensus of $2.09.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
11:30 Results of $15B, 2-Year FRN Auction
1:00 PM Results of $26B, 2-Year Note Auction
2:00 PM FOMC Announcement
Notable earnings before today’s open: ABC, ABMD, ACAT, ADT, AEP, AHGP, AME, ANTM, ARLP, BA, BABY, BAH, BOKF, CFR, CRS, CVLT, EAT, ENR, EVER, FCAU, GD, GIB, GNTX, HCBK, HES, HTCH, IP, KLIC, KNX, MDC, MDP, MKC, MKTX, MTOR, PCH, PGR, PX, RDWR, RES, ROK, ROL, RYAM, SEIC, SPIL, STJ, STM, TEL, TROW, TUP, TXT
Notable earnings after today’s close: AF, ALB, ALGT, AMP, ATK, AVB, AZPN, CACI, CAVM, CBT, CGI, CLB, CMO, CPT, CRUS, CSII, CTXS, DHT, DRE, ESIO, EXTR, FB, FLEX, FTNT, GGP, GHL, HOLX, IBKC, IEX, ISIL, JEC, KEX, LRCX, LVS, MEOH, MKSI, MLNX, MUR, NOW, PRXL, PTC, QCOM, QGEN, SGI, SHOR, SLG, STLD, SWFT, TER, TGI, TSCO, TTEK, UMPQ, VAR, VRTX
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers