Before the Open (Mar 16)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China rallied 2.3%, followed by Hong Kong (up 0.5%) and Singapore (up 0.4%). Taiwan dropped 0.7%, and Australia fell 0.3%. Europe is currently mostly up. Germany, Belgium and Amsterdam are up more than 1%; Stockholm, Italy and Spain are also doing well. Greece is down 2.4%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

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The dollar is down. Oil is down, copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
The market is very much mixed heading into this week and could go either way. All the indicators have moved to levels that would be supportive of a bounce, but many have not moved to extreme levels.
The quality and quantity of good set ups to play has improved but isn’t great.
The indexes had a big down day last Tuesday and a big up day Thursday. Friday we got some of both – bears in control early, bulls in control late.
And the S&P is sitting near the midpoint of its February rally, so it doesn’t have strong support or resistance nearby.
With the position of the indicators being able to support a bounce and the improvement in the trading ideas, my bias leans to the upside. But it’s not a strong lean. The market has some proving to do. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Union Pacific (UNP -0.53%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Macquarie.
Seagate (STX -1.41%) was upgraded to ‘Strong Buy’ from ‘Buy’ at Needham.
Royal Gold (RGLD +0.97%) and Rangold (GOLD -1.07%) were both upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at HSBC.
Jabil Circuit (JBL +0.18%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Cross Research.
DuPont (DD +0.12%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Francesca’s (FRAN -0.52%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Janney Capital.
The FT reports that the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency will bring a $1 billion lawsuit against Nomura (NMR unch) due to the bank’s role in the subprime mortgage crisis.
Walt Disney (DIS -0.68%) rose nearly 1% in pre-market trading after its “Cinderella” movie made $70.1 million in sales in its weekend debut, above estimates of $64 million, according to data from Rentrak Corp.
Netflix (NFLX -2.21%) fell nearly 2% in pre-market trading after Evercore ISI cut its rating on the stock to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold.”
Henry Schein (HSIC -1.40%) will replace CareFusion (CFN -0.12%) in the S&P 500 as of the close of trading on March 17.
Hanesbrands (HBI +0.49%) will replace Avon Products (AVP -5.85%) in the S&P 500 as of the close of trading on March 20.
SL Green Realty (SLG +0.05%) will replace Nabors Industries (NBR -0.17%) in the S&P 500 as of the close of trading on March 20.
Equinix (EQIX -0.43%) will replace Denbury Resources (DNR -3.82%) in the S&P 500 as of the close of trading on March 20.
Boeing (BA -0.31%) was awarded $713.9 million government contract modification for 26 remanufactured CH-47F helicopters, four new CH-47s, and the option of building two more CH-47 helicopters.
Bloomberg reports that Whiting Petroleum (WLL +4.28%) has drawn interest from Exxon Mobil (XOM -0.42%) , Continental Resources (CLR -4.88%) Hess Corp. (HES +0.33%) and Statoil (STO -1.37%) as it weighs a sale of the company.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
9:15 Industrial Production
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
4:00 PM Treasury International Capital
Notable earnings before today’s open: PGNX, RDNT
Notable earnings after today’s close: ANW, BDE, BOOM, CALL, DCO, EGY, FTEK, FXEN, JMEI, MCP, NES, NOAH, OMER, QUNR, XONE
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers