Before the Open (Feb 26)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed up across-the-board. Hong Kong rallied more than 2%; Indonesia and Singapore did better than 1%. Europe is currently mostly up. Greece is up more than 3%; London, Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Denmark, Spain and Italy are up more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
Here we go. Yesterday the S&P closed just above resistance at 1950, and today the index will gap up 8-9 points (as of this writing). The area above (between 1950-2000) is thin. Not much trading took place there are on the way down, so it could act as a gap on the way up and not offer much resistance.

If oil can also breakout, it’d be a pretty powerful 1-2 near-term punch. The market and oil have been correlated lately, so strong confirmation comes with crude strength.

I continue to like the market in the near term, but all long trades are relatively quick. I don’t trust the upside, so I’m not exactly giving positions much time and space to move around.
Overall I still lean to the downside. There are still a lot of things to not like about the market. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Freeport-McMoRan (FCX -1.11%) and Alcoa (AA +1.26%) both ar up at least 1.5% in pre-market trading as copper prices moved higher.
J.C. Penney (JCP +8.57%) surged 10% in pre-market trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 39 cents, much higher than consensus of 21 cents.
Best Buy (BBY +2.45%) ws downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at Piper Jaffray.
Live Nation (LYV -1.05%) reported a Q4 adjusted EPS loss of -39 cents, a wider loss than consensus of -32 cents, but reported Q4 revenue of $1.74 billion, higher than consensus of $1.66 billion.
Intuit (INTU +1.25%) gained 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 25 cents, higher than consensus of 19 cents.
Air Lease (AL +3.72%) jumped 15% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.21, well above consensus of 88 cents.
Kraft Heinz (KHC +2.70%) climbed 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 62 cents, better than consensus of 58 cents.
The Gap (GPS +1.17%) said it sees fiscal 2016 adjusted EPS of $2.20-$2,25, below consensus of $2.44.
Baidu (BIDU -2.78%) rose over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 revenue of $2.89 billion, above consensus of $2.84 billion.
Integra LifeSciences Holdings (IART +0.86%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 87 cents, above consensus of 86 cents.
Kindred Healthcare (KND -0.77%) reported Q4 core continuing operations EPS of 33 cents, higher than consensus of 24 cents, but said it sees fiscal 2016 revenue of $7.25 billion, below consensus of $7.38 billion.
Biomarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN +0.09%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS revenue of $227.9 million, above consensus of $224.4 million, but said it sees fiscal year revenue between $1.05 billion to $1.10 billion, below consensus of $1.15 billion.
Newfield Exploration (NFX +4.23%) fell over 5% in after-hours trading after it announced a 29 million-share secondary offering.
Private Bancorp of America (PBAM -6.34%) will replace Sirona Dental Systems (SIRO +4.99%) in the S&P MidCap 400 after the close of trading Monday, February 29.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Wednesday’s Key Earnings
AB Inbev (NYSE:BUD) -1.9% as marketing failed to lift volumes.
Apache (NYSE:APA) -2.1% following a big slump in revenues.
Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) +10% AH after topping expectations.
Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) +2.5% despite slowing sales, soft outlook.
Gap (NYSE:GPS) -2.6% AH on light guidance.
Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) +15.1% after a Q4 beat, talks with FTC.
J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP) +9% AH following an upbeat holiday quarter.
Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) +4% AH with a set of strong earnings.
Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) -7% AH after missing estimates.
Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) flat on mixed results.
Sears (NASDAQ:SHLD) +3.2% shrinking its footprint, layoffs.
SeaWorld (NYSE:SEAS) -9.2% after acknowledging spying claims.
Weight Watchers (NYSE:WTW) -15% as subscriptions continued to fall.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 GDP Q4
8:30 International trade in goods
8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
10:00 Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment
10:15 Fed’s Powell and Williams: “Fed Communication Away from the Zero Lower Bound”
11:30 Results of $28B, 7-Year Note Auction
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
1:30 PM Fed’s Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard speech
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers