Before the Open (Aug 3)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the downside. China, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong fell 0.9% or more. Malaysia rallied 1.2%. Europe currently leans to the upside. Greece has started trading again. Their market is down 16%, but this is no surprise because ETFs that track the Greek market have been trading in the US and other countries. Belgium, Netherlands, Prague, Germany, Denmark and Ireland are up more than 1%; Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal are also doing well. Turkey is down more than 1; South Africa is also weak. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
July Archives
The dollar is up. Oil is down a buck and is trading at a new low. Copper is down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
The market has been all over the map lately…big swings in both directions but very little net change. But during this time breadth has continued to deteriorate. The AD line, the bullish percent charts, the percentage of stocks above various moving averages – they all suggest less and less stocks are participating, which of course points to less stocks doing the heavy lifting. Until this changes, until we see more broad-based strength, the market’s upside will be capped. Yes there can continue to be mini rallies, but there won’t be any full-blown rallies.
A key to trading on context. That means you have to match your trading style with the environment. The same set-up in two different environments will produce two different results. Right now we have a lot of up and down movement and no move lasts more than a week or two. Your entries, the timing of your entries, your anticipated holding times – they all have to take this into consideration. Otherwise you’ll be lucky to just churn your wheels.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Lowes (L -0.52%) reported Q2 EPS of 45 cents, well below consensus of 70 cents.
Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO -1.61%) reported Q2 EPS of 66 cents, higher than consensus of 47 cents.
Noble Energy (NBL -2.54%) reported Q2 EPS of 26 cents, well above conensus of 6 cents.
NiSource (NI +1.99%) reported Q2 EPS of 18 cents, weaker than consensus of 21 cents.
Torchmark (TMK -0.29%) was upgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Underperform’ at FBR Capital.
AMC Networks (AMCX +0.60%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ at Morgan Stanley.
Coach (COH -0.32%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.
Assurant (AIZ -0.73%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Underperform’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Monster Beverage (MNST +0.90%) should be bought on any weakness, says Stifel.
NVIDIA (NVDA -0.35%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Macquarie.
Yelp’s (YELP +1.42%) recent guidance cut may signal weakness for similar companies such as Groupon (GRPN +0.21%) and others, according to a weekend Barron’s story.
Kellogg (K +0.12%) on Sunday announced an agreement on a five-year master contract with labor unions at four of its ready-to-eat cereal factories in Battle Creek, one day before current contract expires on Monday.
Renewable Energy (REGI -1.45%) announced an agreement to acquire most of the assets of Imperium Renewables.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
Auto sales
8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
8:30 Gallup US Consumer Spending Measure
9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index
10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
10:00 Construction Spending
Notable earnings before today’s open: ARCB, ARRY, BSFT, BWP, CDW, CLX, CNA, DO, FTR, GWR, KOS, L, MCY, NBL, NEE, NI, NSP, ON, PERI, PPL, TREX, TSN
Notable earnings after today’s close: ADUS, AEIS, AIG, ALDW, ALJ, ALL, ANH, APU, BKD, BMRN, BNFT, CAR, CGNX, CHGG, CKP, CTRP, CYH, DAC, DENN, DK, DKL, ELGX, ELNK, ENH, EPIQ, EXP, FIVN, GGP, HIL, IDTI, ININ, INN, KAR, KBR, KONA, LLNW, LMNX, MCEP, MCHP, MDU, MDWD, MIC, MRC, NLS, NVGS, OHI, ONDK, ORA, OTTR, PLOW, PPS, QEP, QLYS, RBC, RSPP, RTEC, SGMS, SNHY, THC, TNET, TSRA, TXRH, UGI, VECO, VNO, VNR, WSTC, XL
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers