Before the Open (Jan 21)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China dropped 3.2%, Japan 2.4% and Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia more than 1%. Europe is currently mostly up. Russia is up 2.5%; the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, Italy and Portugal are up more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a slight down open for the cash market.
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The dollar is flat. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are up.
The market was very weak the first half of yesterday and then rallied big time during the afternoon session. The small caps posted a gain (when was the last time the small caps led on an up day?) while everything else closed down but well off their lows.
Breadth indicators across-the-board have moved to extreme levels and would support a bounce attempt. In fact I’d say if the market can’t bounce, it’s in big trouble. Under normal circumstances – even in a weak market – there are ups and downs, and oversold levels produce bounces. Failure to bounce implies the market is so weak, levels that haven’t been seen in 2+ years can’t excite buyers to come off the sidelines and put money to work.
In the near term I favor the upside – perhaps we’ll get a week or two up sideways-to-up movement – but overall I don’t believe the low of 2016 has been seen, so whatever bounce we get, assuming we get one, will be sold into. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
United Continental Holdings (UAL -0.13%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $2.54, below consensus of $2.56.
Raymond James Financial (RJF -2.31%) reported Q1 EPS of 73 cents, weaker than consensus of 84 cents and said it sees Q2 “adversely” affected by equity market declines “coupled with seasonal factors that are expected in the first calendar quarter.”
Oracle (ORCL -1.77%) jumped 9% in pre-market trading after Goldman Sachs said that current trends around Oracle’s cloud business are on track.
Briggs & Stratton (BGG +2.07%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 34 cents, well above consensus of 18 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2016 EPS to $1.25-$1.41 from a prior estimate of $1.20-$1.36.
Belmond Ltd. (BEL unch) will replace UTi Worldwide in the S&P SmallCap 600 as of the close of trading Friday, January 22.
FireEye (FEYE -2.36%) rose 5% in after-hours trading after it raised guidance on preliminary Q4 billings to between $257 million-$258 million, above previous guidance of $240 million-$260 million.
LifeLock (LOCK +1.98%) slid 3% in after-hours trading after founder and CEO Todd Davis said he will step down effective March 1 and be replaced by president Hilary Schneider.
Xilinx (XLNX +0.68%) rallied over 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 net revenue of $566.2 million, above consensus of $554.6 million.
Sallie Mae (SLM +0.56%) dropped 3% in after-hours trading after it lowered guidance on 2016 core EPS to 49 cents=51 cents, well below consensus of 65 cents.
Endocyte (ECYT +3.90%) jumped 10% in after-hours trading after it was rated a new ‘Outperform’ at Credit Suisse with a price target of $11.
Medivation (MDVN +3.72%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after it was rated a new ‘Outperform’ at Credit Suisse with a price target of $49.
F5 Networks (FFIV -3.72%) rose almost 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.73, higher than consensus of $1.60.
Kinder Morgan (KMI -4.30%) fell 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 revenue of $3.64 billion, below consensus of $3.91 billion, and said it sees 2016 capex of $3.3 billion, below a December 9 estimate of $4.2 billion.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Philly Fed Business Outlook
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
11:00 EIA Petroleum Inventories
4:30 Money Supply
4:30 Fed Balance Sheet
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers