Before the Open (Apr 11)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the downside. China and India rallied more than 1%. Indonesia dropped more than 1%; Japan was also weak. Europe is currently mostly up. Germany, Belgium, Russia, Turkey, Spain and Italy are up more than 1%; the Netherlands, Norway and France are also doing well. Future here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
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LB Weekly – the indexes, the breadth indicators, a look at the big picture
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The dollar is down slightly. Oil and cooper are down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
As is typically the case, I don’t have anything to say beyond what was already said in the weekly report posted over the weekend.
The market is mixed up right now. The big picture says the market has been in consolidation mode for two years. The intermediate term – going back a couple months – looks good and has looked more promising than the October rally. But the short term trend points down. Breadth has been declining for a month, and a several indicators point towards a need to recycle before supporting a rally attempt. When the three time frames tell different stories, as has been the case the last couple weeks, it’s wise to be defensive.
Here’s the 10-min, 10-day S&P chart. A big sloppy mess. Rallies get sold, dips get bought. Nothing sticks. No follow through. Make adjustments or get chopped up.

Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Alcoa (AA -1.16%) climbed over 3% in pre-market trading before it releases its Q1 earnings results after today’s close.
Yahoo! (YHOO -0.28%) rose over 1% in pre-market trading after the parent company of the UK’s Daily Mail said it is in talks with a number of potential bidders for Yahoo.
United Natural Foods (UNFI -1.10%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from Equal Weight’ at Morgan Stanley.
NXP Semiconductors (NXPI +1.82%) was rate a new ‘Buy’ at Nomura with a price target of $95.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT -0.50%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at HSBC.
Noble (NE +1.92%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy at Societe Generale.
Restaurant Brands International (QSR -0.78%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Sector Perform’ at RBC Capital Markets.
Cummins (CMI +1.13%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Macquarie.
Valero Energy (VLO +2.27%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Credit Suisse.
United Continental (UAL -0.15%) slipped nearly 1% in after-hours trading after the company reported March traffic was down -1.5% and its Mar consolidated load factor fell -1.1 points versus Mar 2015.
QLogic (QLGC +6.80%) climbed over 2% in after-hours trading after Bloomberg reported the company hired Qatalyst Partners to explore strategic alternatives for the company, including a possible sale.
Boston Scientific (BSX +0.10%) fell nearly 1% in after-hours trading after it voluntarily recalled its Fetch 2 aspiration catheter due to complaints of shaft breakage.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s Economic Calendar
none
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers