Before the Open (Dec 17)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed up across-the-board. Japan, China, Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan each posted a gain better than 1%. Europe is currently posting solid gains. Greece and Germany are up more than 3%; France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Portugal are up more than 2%; most other countries are up more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.
The dollar is up 1% (a huge move). Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are up.
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VIDEO: Leavitt Brothers Overview
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The Fed has raised rates. Instead of targeting 0-25 basis points, they’re now targeting 25-50, so it’s not an exact level; it’s a range.
The statement was awfully positive…the Fed is very confident the economy will be strong in 2016…they’re also confident inflation will move up. If they were investors, they’d be all in on the long side. That’s how confident they are 2016 will be a great year.
We’ll see. It’s not in the technicals. The story of 2016 has been the market’s weak breadth. A small number of stocks have done very well; everything else has done okay or is down a bunch. Participation needs to be much better next year for any rally to sustain itself. Personally I don’t see it happening, but I’m judging things based on the charts, not based on expectations things will improve.
At the very least, since “the economy will do great in 2016” is their expectation, anything less won’t let them continue raising. In fact if what happens is much less than their expectation, the stage will be set for more stimulus of some sort (QE).
Near term bias up…medium term bias down.
A rally into 2016 can easily take the market to new highs…then things will get much more interesting. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Micron Technology (MU -0.78%) is up nearly 2% in pre-market trading after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equalweight.’
FedEx (FDX +2.86%) rallied 5% in pre-market trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $2.58, better than consensus of $2.50.
Accenture Plc (ACN +2.21%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.28, below consensus of $1.32.
General Mills (GIS +1.09%) reported Q2 EPS of 82 cents, weaker than consensus of 83 cents.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE -0.91%) fell over 1% in after-hours trading after it reported a 5.67 million share secondary offering.
Jabil Circuit (JBL -0.25%) climbed over 2% in after-hours trading after it raised guidance on fiscal 2016 core EPS to $2.65 from a September estimate of $2.60, above consensus of $2.57.
Pier 1 Imports (PIR +4.02%) tumbled over 13% in after-hours trading after it lowered guidance on fiscal 2016 adjusted EPS to 42 cents-46 cents from a previous estimate of 56 cents-64 cents, below consensus of 58 cents.
Coca-Cola Enterprise (CCE +2.48%) slid over 2% in after-hours trading after it said forex rates negatively impacted 2015 diluted EPS by approximately 18% and that it sees forex rated negatively impacting Q1 EPS by just over 5%.
Oracle (ORCL +1.83%) fell over 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 63 cents, better than consensus of 60 cents, but reported Q2 revenue of $8.99 billion, less than consensus of $9.06 billion.
MiMedx Group (MDXG -2.29%) jumped 14% in after-hours trading after it raised guidance on fiscal 2016 adjusted EPS to 31 cents-35 cents, above consensus of 26 cents.
Pandora (P +2.91%) surged over 15% in after-hours trading after the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board said web radio services must pay rights-holders 17 cents per 100 streams, higher than the 14 cents Pandora had been paying, but below the 25 cents-29 cents the music industry had sought.
Clovis Oncology (CLVS -2.66%) gained 1% in after-hours trading after Janney upgraded the stock to a ‘Buy’ with a price target of $50.
Apogee Enterprises (APOG +1.89%) fell nearly 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 63 cents, below consensus of 64 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Current Account
8:30 Philly Fed Business Outlook
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:00 Leading Indicators
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers