Before the Open (Feb 2)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China dropped 2.6%, and Japan fell 0.7%. Singapore rallied 1%, and Australia moved up 0.6%. Europe is currently mixed. Greece is up 4.6%, Norway, 1.4% and Germany 0.4%. Spain is down 1.9%, and Amsterdam is down 0.4%. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.

The dollar is flat. Oil is up, copper flat. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are up.
This is potentially a big week. There are lots of economic numbers to be released, including the latest employment data on Friday. There are many earnings reports coming out. And the background for all this is a range-bound market which is close to its lows. The bulls have a little wiggle room but not much. When it comes the indexes, I’m not sure there’s a magic level that, if penetrated, would immediately motivate a huge round of selling. Such levels exit with stocks – hence the concept of support and resistance – but they don’t work as well with the overall market. But despite this the bulls have to step up soon. The indexes are near the bottoms of their ranges, and sentiment shifted last week. Sell-offs the last six weeks have all been quickly reversed, so it’d be wise for the bears to not get overly excited about the prospects of a big move down. But at this juncture, having a plan in place to profit from such a move would be prudent.
A week from now the indexes could still be sitting in a range. Why not? They don’t have to breakout. But with things deteriorating some last week, and all the news on the agenda, we need to be ready.
I still like gold and silver, although I know it hasn’t been a smooth ride. I’m warming up to oil. Otherwise, my bias is to the downside, so any long trade is just a quickie. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Tenneco (TEN -2.15%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.05, higher than consensus of 99 cents.
NuStar Energy (NS +3.11%) upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS.
Western Gas Partners (WES +1.12%) was reinstated with an ‘Overweight’ at Barclays with a price target of $84.
Delta Air Lines (DAL -5.78%) and Spirit Airlines (SAVE -7.09%) were both upgraded to ‘Strong Buy’ from ‘Outperform’ at Raymond James.
Wyndham (WYN -2.07%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at Deutsche Bank.
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF -2.18%) and Guess (GES -4.86%) were both downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at Evercore ISI.
1-800-Flowers.com (FLWS +3.14%) reported Q2 EPS of 68 cents, below consensus of 80 cents.
Diamond Foods (DMND -9.93%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital.
Pitney Bowes (PBI -0.29%) reported Q4 EPS of 51 cents, right on expectations
Sysco (SYY -1.83%) reported Q2 EPS of 41 cents, right on consensus.
Shire (SHPG -1.31%) announced that the U.S. FDA approved its Vyvanse Capsules, the first and only medication for the treatment of moderate to severe binge eating disorder in adults.
Nicholas Woodman reported a 44.9% passive stake in GoPro (GPRO -2.14%) .
JPMorgan Chase reported a 6.5% passive stake in Brandywine Realty (BDN -1.66%).
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Gallup US Consumer Spending Measure
8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index
10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
10:00 Construction Spending
11:00 Global Manufacturing PMI
Notable earnings before today’s open: AVY, FLWS, LII, NKA, NMM, ONB, PBI, SYY, TEN, XOM
Notable earnings after today’s close: ADVS, AEIS, AFG, AGNC, APC, ARE, BKH, CLF, FN, HIG, IDTI, LLNW, LMNX, MDU, NANO, OI, RCII, RGA, RTEC, TMK, TNAV, UDR, XL
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers