Before the Open (Aug 18)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China dropped more than 6%. Hong Kong, Australia and Indonesia fell more than 1%. Europe currently leans to the downside, but there aren’t many big movers. Russia, Hungary and Luxembourg are down more than 1%. Greece is also weak. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.
VIDEO overview of the Leavitt Brothers service…here
The dollar is flat. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are mostly down.
The market staged an impressive move off its low yesterday. All the indexes posted a gain. The small caps and Nas led, but volume was on the lighter side.
The internals improved some. The AD line and AD volume line moved above 0 again…new highs registered their second-highest reading of the last month while new lows dropped to their lowest over the same time period. The internals are not in great shape, so they’re not ready to support a full-blown rally, but they are less bad than they’ve been. It’s a step.
The housing market improved in China…leading some to believe the government will be less helpful supporting the market going forward…so down it went 6%. Crazy world. Investors would rather a shitty economy and government intervention than the opposite.
There seems to be less going on in the world right now…at the very least there are many less influential news items. This gives the technicals a chance have greater influence. Despite all the ups and downs, the gaps, the sudden reversals and all the major news from over the summer. let’s not forget what the S&P has done/is doing. Here’s the daily. Just a range. Rallies get sold, dips get bought, and after six months there is virtually no change. This isn’t bad considering everything the market has had to absorb.

Still, my overall bias remains to the downside until the internals improve. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Wal-Mart (WMT -0.65%) fell 2% in pre-market trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $1.08, below consensus of $1.12.
Home Depot (HD -0.04%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.71, right on consensus.
Dick’s Sporting (DKS +0.60%) reported Q2 EPS excluding items of 67 cents, weaker than consensus of 75 cents.
BofA/Merrill Lynch downgraded SanDisk (SNDK +0.43%) two notches to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Buy’ and lowered its price target to $40 from $75.
Disney (DIS +1.76%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Wells Fargo.
The Gap (GPS +0.73%) was initiated with an ‘Underperform’ at Wolfe Research with a price target of $30.
American Eagle (AEO +2.06%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ and a Top Pick at Wolfe Research with a price target of $22.
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF +0.79%) was initiated with an ‘Underperform’ at Wolfe Research with a price target of $15.
Children’s Place (PLCE +1.07%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at Wolfe Research with a price target of $67.
MasTec (MTZ -0.69%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 10 cents, weaker than consensus of 15 cents, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 adjusted EPS to 73 cents-83 cents from $1.45, well below consensus of $1.14.
Scientific Games (SGMS +0.25%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Sterne Agee CRT with a price target of $18.
Abiomed (ABMD +2.43%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at CRT Capital with a price target of $130.
International Game (IGT -0.66%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Sterne Agee CRT.
Agilent (A +0.44%) reported Q3 EPS of 44 cents, better than consensus of 41 cents.
Urban Outfitters (URBN -0.28%) reported Q2 EPS of 52 cents, higher than consensus of 49 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Housing Starts
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers