Before the Open (Jun 12)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Hong Kong rallied 1.4%, and China moved up 0.9%. There were no big down market. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are mostly down. Greece is down 4.2%; France, Germany and Amsterdam are down more than 1%; London, Austria, Belgium, Norway, Prague, Finland, Switzerland, Hungary, Spain and Portugal are also down noticeably. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.
Follow my public list at stockcharts.com.
The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are flat.
Yesterday was a quiet day. The indexes closed a little above their opens, and the ranges were small. Volume declined, and there a complete lack of conviction in both directions, both in terms of price movement and indicator support.
Now we’re getting a little give back today. I don’t consider this alarming. There are been a couple other instances the last couple months where the market gapped up and rallied off a low, only to turn around and give back some of the gains before the real move began.
A quick glance at the indexes reveals the small and mid caps are in the upper halves of their ranges going back to March; the Dow, SPX and Nas 100 are in the middle. We are still in consolidation mode. Until this ends, be ahead of the curve taking profits. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR +0.15%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at UBS.
Host Hotels (HST +0.77%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel.
Actuant (ATU +1.62%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Sector Perform’ at RBC Capital.
Mondelez (MDLZ -0.02%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital.
Monster Beverage (MNST +0.11%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS.
Williams-Sonoma (WSM +0.67%) upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Perform’ with a $90 price target at Oppenheimer.
Citrix (CTXS +6.70%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Underweight’ at Piper Jaffray.
Novartis (NVS +0.13%) announced that the U.S. FDA has approved its drug Promacta for the treatment of children six years and older with chronic immune thrombocytopenia.
Bob Evans (BOBE +0.30%) rose over 3% in after-hours trading after the company said it will pursue a strategic transaction for a select portion of its restaurant properties.
The WSJ reports that DISH (DISH +0.33%) is in talks to borrow $10 billion-$15 billion for its T-Mobile bid.
Raytheon (RTN +1.19%) was awarded a $152.9 million government contract to provide 53 APY-10 radar system production kits and related support for the P-8A Poseidon full-rate production aircraft for the Navy and the government of Australia.
Twitter (TWTR -0.03%) jumped more than 4% in after-hours trading after CEO Richard Costolo said he will step down and be replaced by Jack Dorsey, co-Founder and Chairman of the board, in the interim.
Restoration Hardware (RH -1.03%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 23 cents, higher than consensus of 20 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2015 adjusted EPS to $3.02-$3.15 from $2.95-$3.10, above consensus at $3.04.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Producer Price Index
10:00 Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment
Notable earnings before today’s open: none
Notable earnings after today’s close: none
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers