Before the Open (May 2)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across-the-board. Japan dropped 3.1%; India, Indonesia and South Korea were also weak. China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan were closed. Europe seems mixed, but I’m not getting accurate data. The websites I get data from are not updating. Germany is up 1%; France and Poland are also doing well. Norway, Turkey and Finland are down. But I don’t trust these numbers. Futures in the States point towards an 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. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
As is typically the case on Monday’s, I don’t have anything to add to the report published over the weekend.
Overall I like the market, but in the near term the market needs to work off some negative divergences.
The AD line, AD volume line, the percentage of stocks above their 20- and 50-day moving averages, the percentage of stocks at a 10- and 20-day highs and others all suggest less participation on the most recent rally attempt.
The quality and quantity of good set ups is not very good right now, so there just isn’t much to do right now. The charts need time to reset. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Apollo Education Group (APOL +2.90%) surged 14% in pre-market trading after a consortium led by Apollo Global Management LLC increased its bid for the company to $1.14 billion.
Delta Air Lines (DAL -2.78%) gained 2% in pre-market trading as incoming CEO Ed Bastian takes over today.
Baker Hughes (BHI +1.04%) slipped nearly 3% in pre-market trading after Halliburton abandoned its $28 billion deal to merge with Baker Hughes on antitrust concerns.
Seagate Technology Plc (STX -19.07%) fell nearly 3% in pre-market trading after it was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at JPMorgan Chase.
Kirby (KEX -0.33%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at BB&T Capital Markets with a 12-month price target of $80.
United Technologies (UTX +0.13%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
Groupon (GRPN -18.28%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Sector perform’ at RBC Capital Markets.
Synnex (SNX -1.61%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Citigroup.
L-3 Communications (LLL +0.53%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Tech Data (TECD -2.62%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Citigroup.
Vale (VALE +0.89%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at BB&T Capital Markets.
Antero Midstream Partners LP (AM +0.67%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Credit Suisse with a price target of $34.
Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Holdings (OLLI -1.01%) dropped nearly 2% in after-hours trading after it started a 10-million share secondary offering.
Acadia Pharmaceuticals (ACAD -0.31%) won FDA approval for its Nuplazid drug to treat hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson’s disease.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Gallup US Consumer Spending Measure
8:50 Fed’s Lockhart speech
9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index
10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
10:00 Construction Spending
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers