Before the Open (Mar 25)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Hong Kong moved up 0.5%; other up markets posted small gains. China and Indonesia dropped 0.8%, followed by Taiwan (down 0.7%). Europe is currently mostly down. Russia is down 1.2%, followed by Italy (down 1%), France (down 0.9%), Germany and Spain (down 0.8%) and Amsterdam (down 0.7%). Greece is up 3.7%. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

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The dollar is down. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
The big news out this morning is Kraft (KRFT) is merging with Heinz to create the third largest food company in the US. Heinz is privately owned by a private equity group, but Kraft is publicly traded and is up 35% in premarket trading. Here’s the chart – an incredible move for a stock that typically moves very slowly.

Since dropping to a new low last week, oil has moved up 4 of 5 days. The gains haven’t been huge, so the total bounce is still relatively small. In my eyes crude is still trending down and has a lot more work to do if this is going to reverse. Any oil stock trade to the long side is short term until crude officially starts trending up.

The personality of the S&P has remained the same. Lots of ups and down, and other than a little extra push at the end of February, no move has lasted long or traveled too far. Be ahead of the curve taking profits. It’s great to nail big moves, but lots of little wins add up.

Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Kraft Foods Group (KRFT -1.27%) surged 16% in pre-market trading after saying it will merge with H.J. Heinz.
Starwood (HOT -2.28%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at SunTrust.
Tesla (TSLA +1.05%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Outperform’ at CLSA.
Finish Line (FINL +0.41%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at B. Riley.
Leidos (LDOS -2.20%) reported Q4 EPS of 69 cents, higher than consensus of 48 cents, but then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS to $2.20-$2.45, below consensus of $2.53.
Merck (MRK -0.17%) announced a new $10 billion share repurchase program.
ING Groep (ING +1.20%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
Ultragenyx (RARE -2.65%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at CRT Capital with a price target of $90.
Cepheid (CPHD -2.08%) announced it has received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA for Xpert Ebola, a molecular diagnostic test for Ebola Zaire Virus that delivers results in less than two hours.
Wells Fargo initiated United Rentals (URI +0.25%) with an ‘Outperform’ rating and a $110-$115 valuation range.
Steelcase (SCS -2.16%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 21 cents, better than consensus of 20 cents.
Park City Group (PCYG +0.57%) filed to sell 1 million shares of common stock.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Durable Goods
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: APOL, DXLG, FRAN, LDOS, LNN, PAYX, YGE
Notable earnings after today’s close: FIVE, FNV, FUL, OTIV, PSUN, PVH, RHT, TGB, VRNT, WOR
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers