Before the Open (Nov 18)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China, Singapore and India dropped more than 1%; Taiwan was also weak. Europe is currently mixed. France, Spain and Italy are weak. Russia, Greece and Czech Republic are doing well. Futures here in the States point towards a slight up open for the cash market.
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The dollar is down. Oil is up, copper is down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
Big rally Monday was followed by some follow through yesterday morning, but the gains were wiped out by the close, leaving an ugly candle on the daily charts. The internals have not improved, and the quality and quantity of set-ups is very low.
We got a 38.2% drop after the big October rally, and now we’re getting a little bounce. Is the pullback the beginning of a leg down or just a pullback within an uptrend? Time will tell. I like the overall market (the bulls deserve the benefit of the doubt), but I’m much less sure about the short term.
FOMC minutes get released today. I guess we’ll get a glimpse of what the Fed officials were thinking during the last meeting, but several have made statements since, which to me trumps what was discussed at the meeting.
No big bets right now. Timing is important in trading, and right now I don’t see a compelling argument to be overly long or short in the near term. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Apple (AAPL -0.43%) was added to the ‘Conviction Buy’ list at Goldman Sachs.
Staples (SPLS -2.05%) slid 3% in pre-market trading after it lowered guidance on Q4 EPS to 26 cents-30 cents, below consensus of 29 censts, and said it sees Q4 sales down y/y due to the unfavorable impact of a stronger dollar.
Syngenta AG (SYT +9.24%) rose nearly 2% in pre-market trading after Monsanto said it’s considering another takeover bid for the company.
Fairchild Semiconductor International (FCS +0.68%) climbed nearly 7% in pre-market trading after ON Semiconductor Corp. agreed to buy the company for about $2.4 billion.
Lowe’s (L -0.21%) rose over 1% in pre-market trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 80 cents, better than consensus of 78 cents.
Exxon Mobile (XOM -1.16%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Raymond James.
Sally Beauty Holdings (SBH +4.65%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Norfolk Southern (NSC -1.51%) jumped over 6% in after-hours trading after Canadian Pacific Railway proposed a merger with Norfolk and promised a “sizable premium” for the company. CSX Corp. (CSX -0.51%) also gained on the news and rose over 2%.
Universal Insurance (UVE -30.73%) jumped nearly 7% in after-hours trading after the company said statements made by short sellers Lakewood Capital are “misleading” and contain “partial” information.
Jack in the Box (JACK -0.72%) climbed over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 62 cents, below consensus of 65 cents, but said it sees adjusted fiscal 2016 EPS of $3.55-$3.70, above the consensus estimate of $3.55.
Vipshop Holdings (VIPS +0.24%) rose nearly 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 earnings per ADS were 12 cents, right on consensus, and said its board approved a $300 million stock buyback program over the next 2 years.
Citrix Systems (CTXS -1.26%) fell over 3% in after-hours trading after it said it sees 2016 non-GAAp EPS of $4.40-$4.50, above consensus of $4.22, but said it foresees 2016 revenue rising by 1% to 2%, below current consensus of a 4.7% increase.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s Economic Calendar
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Housing Starts
10:00 Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
12:00 PM Fed’s Kaplan: Monetary Policy
2:00 PM FOMC minutes
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers