Before the Open (Feb 25)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. New Zealand rallied 2.1%; Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan also did well. China dropped 0.6%. Europe currently leans to the downside. Austria is up 1%, followed by Prague (up 0.9%) and Belgium (up 0.8%). Russia is down 2.2%, followed by Greece (down 1.1%) and Italy (down 0.6%). Futures here in the States point towards a slight down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil is up a small amount; copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds lean to the downside.
The indexes put in across-the-board highs yesterday…the Nas and Nas 100 remain the only indexes that haven’t hit their all-time highs. The move wasn’t convincing; it wasn’t full of energy and enthusiasm. But it works. Instead of the market forcefully moving up, it’s grinding up. Hard to trade. You’ve heard the saying: Bull markets don’t let you in, bear markets don’t let you out. This bull run has been hard to jump in because there have been virtually no mini corrections. In fact the Nas has moved up 10 consecutive days. How often does that happen?
With the financial situation in Greece being dealt with (or at least delayed for four months)…and earnings season winding down…and the Fed out of the way (Yellen speaks today before the House committee), the market may have a lack of external news to use as guidance. For technical traders, this is a good thing. The best moves happen organically without external forces. It’s the ones that get started with an announcement that can’t initially be trusted.
But having said this, volatility has dropped a bunch. Volume has declined, and the intraday ranges have been teeny tiny. The VIX has dropped to its lowest level since early December – very characteristic of an uptrend.
Don’t fight this trend. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Lowe’s (LOW +1.25%) reported Q4 EPS of 46 cents, better than consensus of 44 cents.
Masonite (DOOR -0.48%) reported Q4 EPS of 6 cents, less than consensus of 9 cents.
Papa John’s (PZZA -0.24%) slid 4% in after-hours trading after it reported reported Q4 EPS of 52 cents, better than consensus of 50 cents, but then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS to $1.98-$2.06, below consensus of $2.11.
HealthSouth (HLS +0.15%) reported Q4 EPS with items of 41 cents, less than consensus of 48 cents, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS to $2.24-$2.29, below consensus of $2.44.
Dycom (DY -1.79%) reported Q2 EPS of 27 cents, well above consensus of 10 cents.
QEP Resources (QEP -0.62%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 22 cents, below consensus of 25 cents.
Range Resources (RRC -0.21%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 39 cents, better than consensus of 28 cents.
Alleghany (Y -0.63%) reported Q4 EPS of $8.61, higher than consensus of $8.36.
Verisk Analytics (VRSK +0.16%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 65 cents, better than consensus of 63 cents.
Matson (MATX +0.98%) reported Q4 EPS of 63 cents, above consensus of 58 cents.
First Solar (FSLR +10.19%) reported Q4 GAAP EPS of $1.89, over double consensus of 76 cents.
Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI +2.18%) rose 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.47, better than consensus $1.44.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ +0.79%) dropped 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 revenue of $26.8 billion, below consensus of $27.34 billion, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS view to $3.53-$3.73 from $3.83.-$4.03, well below consensus of $3.95.
Edison International (EIX +0.26%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.08, well above consensus of 83 cents.
Century Aluminum (CENX +0.45%) reported Q4 EPS of 63 cents, less than consensus of 64 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
10:00 New Home Sales
10:00 Yellen delivers semi-annual monetary policy testimony
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
11:30 Results of $13B, 2-Year FRN Auction
1:00 PM Results of $35B, 5-Year Note Auction
Notable earnings before today’s open: AEE, AVA, BBG, BSFT, CCOI, CHK, CLH, CPB, CVC, DIN, DLTR, ECA, EE, EV, FI, FMS, HFC, ICLR, ISLE, JAKK, LAD, LAMR, LL, LOW, MEMP, MGA, MWE, NVDQ, OCR, PERI, RRD, RY, SMP, SODA, STRZA, STWD, TDS, TGT, TJX, USM
Notable earnings after today’s close: AEGN, AGO, AMSG, ANIK, AR, AREX, ARI, AVGO, AWR, BLDP, BMRN, BWC, CEMP, CHDN, CHMT, CLUB, CLVS, CRM, CSGP, CWT, CXO, DRYS, DXCM, EAC, EHTH, ELGX, EPAM, ESRT, ESV, FARO, FOE, GMED, GPOR, GXP, HK, IL, KW, LB, LGCY, LHCG, MCHX, MDVN, MELI, MMLP, OAS, ORIG, PGTI, PLKI, PRSS, PVA, RGR, RIG, RIGP, SBY, SFM, STAA, SYNC, TEG, TTEC, WDAY, WLL, WMGI, WPX, WR
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers