Before the Open (Mar 20)

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Quad Witching Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China led with a 1% gain, followed by Singapore (up 0.8%). India dropped 0.7%. Europe is currently mostly up. Greece is up 2.7%, followed by Germany (up 1.3%), Russia (up 1%) and Prague and Italy (up 0.7%). Futures here in the States point towards a relatively big gap up open for the cash market.

Don’t forget to check out my worst trade ever video.
The dollar is down. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
It’s quad witching day. That’s when index futures, index options, stock futures and stock options all expire. Maybe there’ll be a little intraday volatility, but overall, expiration days have differed little from other days. With the introduction of weekly options, we just don’t get the same pent up pressures we used to.
There are a handful of stocks being added to the S&P 500. Funds and ETFs that track the index have had plenty of time to make adjustments, so I wouldn’t expect this to be market-moving either.
The small and mid caps are at all-time highs. The large caps are lagging but still in good shape.
The charts of individual stocks have improved a bunch the last two weeks. Many of the stocks on our Long List have broken out and done well.
It seems like we’re back to business as usual. The overall trend has been up for many years, and it continues to be up. The short and intermediate term trends have turned down from time to time, but rarely have the corrections been anything more than a pretty normal drop within an overall uptrend. The perma bears keep losing. The buy-n-hold crowd keeps winning. And those of us swing traders who play in the direction of the trend and focus on the groups out-performing have done great. One of these days the trend will reverse. Until then, respect the 6-year rally that has taken almost all the indexes well into all-time high territory.
I’m going to start posting some trading ideas on a public list at stockcharts.com. If you want me to to this, vote for me. If you don’t care, then don’t. If I get some votes every day, I’ll keep the list live and updated.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
American Airlines (AAL +1.96%) will replace Allergan (AGN unch) in the S&P 500 as of today’s close.
Hanesbrands (HBI -0.15%) will replace Avon Products (AVP -2.54%) in the S&P 500 as of today’s close.
SL Green Realty (SLG -0.14%) will replace Nabors Industries (NBR -1.16%) in the S&P 500 as of today’s close.
Equinix (EQIX -0.26%) will replace Denbury Resources (DNR -5.66%) in the S&P 500 as of today’s close.
Darden Restaurants (DRI -0.49%) reported Q3 EPS of 99 cents, well above consensus of 84 cents.
Tiffany & Co. (TIF +1.08%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.51, better than consensus of $1.50.
Biogen (BIIB +1.34%) jumped over 6% in pre-market trading after an early-stage trial showed the company’s BIIB037 drug slowed progression of the Alzheimer’s disease.
AK Steel (AKS -2.10%) fell 5% in after-hours trading after it reported a Q1 EPS loss of -23 cents, much weaker than consensus of a 1 cent profit.
WEX Inc. (WEX -0.65%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at Oppenheimer with a price target of $120.
Nike (NKE +0.83%) rose over 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 89 cents, higher than consensus of 84 cents.
Prothena (PRTA +2.63%) reported positive results from a Phase 1 study of its PRX002 drug, a monoclonal antibody for the potential treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other related synucleinopathies.
Cooper Companies (COO +0.60%) was initiated with an ‘Overweight’ at Piper Jaffray with a price target of $212.
Mattress Firm (MFRM +2.38%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 41 cents, weaker than consensus of 48 cents, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 adjusted EPS to $2.50-$2.70, below consensus $2.77.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
10:00 Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations
10:20 Fed’s Lockhart: U.S. Economy and Monetary Policy
Notable earnings before today’s open: CMCM, DRI, KBH, TIF
Notable earnings after today’s close: none
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers