Before the Open (Feb 6)

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. Indonesia (up 1.2%), Japan (up 0.8%) and Singapore (up 0.7%) led while China (down 1.9%), Taiwan (down 0.6%) and India (down 0.5%) lagged. Europe is currently mixed. Russia (up 3.3%), Austria (up 0.6%) and Prague (up 0.5%) are up the most while Greece (down 1.2%), Germany (down 0.7%), Italy (down 0.5%) and France (down 0.4%) are down the most. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is up slightly. Oil is up, copper is down. Gold is down, silver up. Bonds are up.
There are some big pre-market movers…P (down 17%), GPRO (down almost 14%), EXPE (down 9%), ATVI (down 7%), AMBA (down 4%)…LNKD (up 11.7%), TWTR (up 11.6%), BWLD (up 4.3%), IMGN (up 4.3%).
The market closed yesterday with the Russell having broken out of its January range…the SPX is sitting just below resistance. Five days ago the S&P was at a lower low…now it’s one good day from a higher high. The song remains the same. Rallies get sold, dips get bought. This is not a time to have a strong opinion and also not a time to trade as if there was a steady trend in place. Moves have been trendy, but they’ve only been lasting a few days.
Here are the employment numbers…
unemployment rate: 5.7% (was 5.6% last month)
nonfarm payrolls: +257KK (was +252K last month)
private payrolls:
average workweek: unchanged at 34.6 hours
hourly wages: up 0.5% to $24.75
labor participation rate: rose to 62.9%
November job gain raised from 353K to 423K
December job gain raised from 252K to 329K
Futures immediately jumped on the news. Specifically S&P futures went from being flat to being up 8 points. Oil dropped on the news but then recovered and is still up $1.36 before the open. Gold and silver took big hits. Gold instantly dropped about 14 bucks.
We’ve been down this road a couple times the last couple months. The market moves up and gets the bulls excited, and then a local top is put in place. Shoot for quick 5-10% gains until the indexes definitely break out of their funk. No big bets here. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
AON Plc (AON +0.64%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.89, better than consensus of $1.86.
Bloomberg reported that RadioShack (RSH unch) has filed for bankruptcy protection.
McKesson (MCK +2.38%) rose 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $2.89, well above consensus of $2.61.
Standard Pacific (SPF -1.63%) reported Q4 EPS of 16 cents, above consensus of 15 cents.
Tempur Sealy (TPX -0.87%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 86 cents, better than consensus of 85 cents.
Activision Blizzard (ATVI +1.39%) fell 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 94 cents, above consensus of 88 cents, but then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS to $1.15, below consensus of $1.43, and lowered its fiscal 2015 revenue estimate to $4.40 billion, below consensus of $4.71 billion.
CME Group (CME +1.78%) reported Q4 EPS ex-items of 95 cents, higher than consensus of 93 cents.
News Corp. (NWSA +0.90%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 26 cents, more than consensus of 24 cents.
Symantec (SYMC +1.45%) reported Q3 EPS of 53 cents, better than consensus of 49 cents.
Kemper (KMPR +1.82%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.02, well above consensus of 70 cents.
Twitter (TWTR +1.33%) surged more than 9% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 12 cents, double consensus of 6 cents.
Expedia (EXPE +0.15%) slumped 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 86 cents, well below consensus of $1.01.
Nuance (NUAN -1.11%) reported Q1 EPS of 25 cents, higher than consensus of 22 cents.
LinkedIn (LNKD +2.56%) rose over 9% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 61 cents, beter than consensus of 53 cents.
Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD -0.43%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.07, weaker than consensus of $1.11.
Lionsgate (LGF +1.84%) reported Q3 adjsuted EPS of 79 cents, above consensus of 64 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Non-farm payrolls
12:45 PM Fed’s Lockhart: U.S. Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy
3:00 PM Consumer Credit
Notable earnings before today’s open: AAN, ALU, AON, AXL, BECN, BPL, CAE, CBM, CBOE, DWSN, FLIR, HRS, MCO, MMC, MSG, SIRO, STRA, UFS, WETF
Notable earnings after today’s close: CCJ, D, GBDC
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers