Before the Open (Aug 11)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across-the-board. Indonesia fell 2.7%, Singapore 1.4%, Malaysia 1.1% and India, South Korea and Taiwan more than 0.8%. Europe is currently mostly down. Turkey is up more than 2%, Greece more than 1% and Russia is also doing well. Germany, France, Belgium and Portugal are down more than 1%; London, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Spain and Netherlands are down noticeably. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down for the cash market.
VIDEO overview of the Leavitt Brothers service…here
The dollar is down (after being up over night). Oil is down, copper is down. Gold is up, silver is down. Bonds are up.
The big overnight story comes from China where the central bank devalued its currency by nearly 2%, its biggest one-day loss in more than two decades. Emerging-market currencies, commodities and stocks with exposure to China sold off. What are the odds this sparks a global currency war – everyone trying to devalue? I’m not a currency expert so I don’t know, but it’s something to keep in mind. And it could slightly influence whether the Fed raises rates next month. The Fed has said several times that besides employment and inflation, global events could influence their decision.
On the home front, Google is reorganizing. A new company called Alphabet will be created – it’ll be a holding company a several business units…Google will be a subsidiary. This accomplishes two things. It separates their proven search business and their pie-in-the-sky bets on self-driving cars and other crazy, but legit, attempts to reshape the future, and no doubt it gives Page, Brin and Schmidt more control (i.e. less ability for an activist investor to make waves). Since Wall St. doesn’t like how Google’s search business serves as source of funding for their other endeavors, GOOGL is up about 6% premarket.
Commodity stocks rallied big yesterday – some put in their best days in many months. Commodities have been the market’s weakest group for a long time – many have gotten cut in half in just the last couple months – so dead-cat bounces are certainly due. But with China devaluing their currency, the group is getting a cold shower this morning. We’ll see. There are some attractive charts out there, and if today’s open fully reflects what China did, you’ll get a chance to buy at lower prices before the move up continues.
This is a big week for the bulls. Yesterday all of last week’s loss was recovered. Today the market will start with a moderate gap down. The bulls won’t want to give back too much of yesterday’s gains.
My bias remains to the downside. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Valspar (VAL +1.68%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.
Intuit (INTU -0.43%) was downgraded to ‘Sector Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at RBC Capital.
International Game (IGT +1.23%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 35 cents, better than consensus of 28 cents
Google (GOOG -0.25%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Mizuho.
Towers Watson (TW -0.32%) lowered guidance on fiscal 2016 Q1 adjusted EPS to $1.30-$1.35, below consensus of $1.38, and lowered guidance on fiscal 2016 revenue to $870 million-$885 million, below consensus of $891.63 million.
Semiconductor Manufacturing (SMI +4.05%) reported Q2 EPS of 10 cents, double consensus of 5 cents.
Symantec (SYMC +0.93%) reported Q1 EPS of 40 cents, below consensus of 43 cents.
Hertz (HTZ +7.47%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 19 cents, right on consensus, although Q2 revenue of $2.69 billion was below consensus of $2.71 billion.
Stifel Financial (SF +1.67%) reported Q2 EPS of 71 cents, below consensus of 73 cents.
Snyder’s-Lance (LNCE -0.76%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 27 cents, above consensus of 26 cents.
Live Nation (LYV) reported Q2 revenue of $1.86 billion, higher than consensus of $1.70 billion.
Vipshop (VIPS -0.33%) reported Q2 EPS of 14 cents, better than consensus of 12 cents.
Kraft (KHC +0.45%) reported Q2 EPS of 92 cents, above consensus of 84 cents.
Rackspace (RAX -1.00%) reported Q2 EPS of 20 cents, right on consensus.
The Gap Inc. (GPS +1.06%) reported Jul comparable same-store-sales were down 3%, and then lowered guidance on Q2 adjusted EPS to 63 cents-64 cents, below consensus of 66 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s Economic Calendar
6:00 NFIB Small Business Optimism Index
8:30 Productivity and Costs
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
10:00 Wholesale Trade
1:00 PM Results of $24B, 3-Year Note Auction
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers