Before the Open (Mar 9)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. India dropped more than 2%, Australia, Indonesia and South Korea more than 1%. Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan were also weak. China rallied almost 2%. Europe is currently mostly down. Greece is down 4.2%, London is down about 1.2% and Amsterdam, Norway and Prague are down about 0.6%. Italy is up 0.5%. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is flat. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
Last week we got the biggest weekly drop since the end of January. Given the diverging and declining breadth indicators, the weakness should not have surprised anyone. It was well telegraphed, and at the very least we were told the upside was limited in terms of time or price.
Now a pullback has begun. It could be the beginning of a big move down…or it could lead to a pretty typically correction within an uptrend. As traders, we don’t know. At times like this managing risk is our only course of action.
If you’re a long term trader – the type of trader who isn’t going to be shaken out by minor pullback – determine what you’re willing to give back and keep stops in place just in case a bigger move down plays out.
If you’re a day trader, nothing matters to you because you’re in cash every day when the market closes and you’re just as comfortable going short as you are going long.
If you’re somewhere in the middle – you’re a trend trader who doesn’t sit tight during minor corrections – protect what you have. Don’t let a big profit turn into a small profit, and definitely don’t let a loss turn into a big loss. You can always get back in, so your first order of business is to protect what you have. Then focus on making a few bucks to the downside if that’s your thing.
The long term trend is up, and having long bias has served us well over the years. Anything can happen, but for now I’m going to treat this like a pretty normal pullback within an uptrend – one that will get bought and give us a round of long trades. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Amazon.com (AMZN -2.00%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at SunTrust.
VMware (VMW -1.62%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Underweight’ at Piper Jaffray.
General Motors (GM -2.05%) said it will immediately begin a $5 billion share buyback program.
Alcoa (AA +0.70%) agrees to acquire RTI International (RTI -1.94%) in transaction valued at $1.5 billion.
Cantor keeps a $160 price target and ‘Buy’ rating on Apple (AAPL +0.15%) and predicts that the Apple Watch will be the best selling new product in the company’s history, with sales of 20.6 million units in its first year of availability.
The Fresh Market (TFM +3.53%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
D.R. Horton (DHI -3.15%) , Ryland Group (RYL -3.38%), and KB Home (KBH -2.75%) wera all upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at JMP Securities.
Juniper (JNPR +1.81%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
BlackBerry (BBRY -2.02%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Interstate Properties reported a 7.1% stake in Vornado (VNO -4.12%).
Kingsway Financial Services (KFS -1.97%) reported a 19.9% stake in 1347 Property Insurance (PIH -1.45%).
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
10:00 Labor market condition index
12:30 PM TD Ameritrade IMX
Notable earnings before today’s open: BITA, LITB, POZN, WUBA
Notable earnings after today’s close: CASY, FISH, IDT, KANG, KFY, MM, MR, QIHU, UNFI, URBN, VNET, WPRT, XOXO
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers