Before the Open (Apr 21)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Japan moved up 2.7%; Hong Kong and Australia did better than 1%. Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan also did well. Europe is currently mostly down. Greece and Finland are down more than 1%; London Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia and Belgium are also weak. Norway is doing well. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
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List of Indexes and ETFs – here
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The dollar is down. Oil is up slightly; copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
The market just keeps on keepin’ on. The buying isn’t forceful. It’s not conclusive. But 6 out of 7 up days have put the S&P up another 50 points, and for the second straight day, the index has closed above 2100 – less than 30 points from its all-time high.
This has become a very hated rally. Nobody wants to buy it, and the bears keep getting frustrated and burned with their attempts to pick a top. I’ll admit the current situation is hard to buy, but we’ve had very easy and obvious trades the last two months. Easy and obvious = market trend up and obvious leading groups to play. Commodities have done great. Oil, steel, nonferrous metals, gold, silver (and a few others) have out-performed by wide margins and given us many opportunities to nail some big returns. Trading is hard (and tiring) when you look at 1000 stocks and try to pull out a handful of winners. But if you narrow your search by recognizing what groups are leading, your research is more efficient, and your odds of winning significantly increase. There’s a bull market somewhere. One of your first steps should be finding that bull market.
Having said this, I’m long but not all in. Risk/rewards up here aren’t great, so I’ve reduced my exposure. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Newmont Mining (NEM -1.49%) rose nearly 3% in pre-market trading as copper rose to a 4-week high and after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 34 cents, higher than consensus of 18 cents.
American Express (AXP +2.28%) rose over 4% in pre-market trading after it reported Q1 EPS of $1.45, higher than consensus of $1.33.
Yum! Brands (YUM +0.49%) climbed nearly 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 95 cents, better than consensus of 83 cents.
Qualcomm (QCOM +0.50%) slid over 3% in pre-market trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.04, higher than consensus of 96 cents, but CEO Mollenkopf signaled that its largest customers may use secondary sources for chips for their smartphones going forward.
Las Vegas Sands (LVS -0.61%) lost 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 45 cents, well below consensus of 63 cents.
F5 Networks (FFIV +1.46%) gained over 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.68, higher than consensus of $1.63, and then raised guidance on Q3 adjusted EPS to $1.77-$1.80, higher than consensus of $1.74.
Mattel (MAT -2.57%) dropped over 8% in pre-market trading after it reported a Q1 adjusted loss of -13 cents, a wider loss than consensus of -7 cents.
Packaging Corp. of America (PKG -0.62%) gained 3% in after-hours trading it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.11, above consensus of $1.01.
United Continental Holdings (UAL +0.95%) fell over 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.23, higher than consensus of $1.18, but said it sees Q2 passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) falling 6.5%-8.5%.
Kinder Morgan (KMI -0.84%) fell over 1% in pre-market trading after it reported Q1 revenue of $3.2 billion, less than consensus of $3.76 billion.
Citrix Systems (CTXS +0.47%) rose over 6% in after-hours trading after it raised its fiscal-year adjusted EPS estimate to $4.90-$5.00, well above consensus of $4.71.
Tractor Supply (TSCO +0.49%) climbed over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 50 cents, better than consensus of 46 cents.
United Rentals (URI -1.65%) slipped nearly 6% in after-hours trading after it lowered guidance on 2016 revenue to $5.6 billion-$5.8 billion from a January 27 estimate of $5.65 billion-$5.95 billion.
Wednesday’s Key Earnings
Abbott (NYSE:ABT) +0.3% after topping expectations.
American Express (NYSE:AXP) +4.1% AH on Q1 beat, reaffirming guidance.
Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) -4.8% on weaker soda volumes.
EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC) +3% thanks to VMware tracking stock.
Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) -3% AH as it cut 2016 spending.
Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) -6% AH after missing estimates.
Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) -8.8% AH as weak Barbie and forex impacts hit results.
Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) +2.8% AH topping the consensus outlook.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) -3.2% AH offering weak guidance.
United Continental (NYSE:UAL) unmoved after a set of mixed results.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) +2% posting in-line earnings.
Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) +3.9% following a strong quarter.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Philly Fed Business Outlook
8:30 Chicago Fed National Activity Index
9:00 FHFA House Price Index
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:00 Leading Indicators
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
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