Before the Open (May 20)

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Japan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Australia did well. Europe is currently mostly up. London, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Finland, Switzerland and Hungary are up more than 1%; Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Portugal are also doing well. Futures here in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.
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I wrote an article for Top Shelf Traders emagazine. You can check it out here. I consider it very important. It’s at the heart of what I do.
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The dollar is flat. Oil is flat; copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
So here we go again. I had yesterday earmarked as being somewhat important because we got “bad news” (it wasn’t really that bad) that the Fed does indeed intend on raising rates this year, possibly as early as the June meeting. Initially the market sold off hard, but then it stabilized.
News isn’t very important; the market’s reaction to the news is. With the FOMC minutes out, the bulls had an opportunity to show us how strong/weak they really were. Most days are ho-hum without much going on. Yesterday presented an opportunity to rally on bad news. Hence why I had it earmarked as being important.
We got early weakness and late strength and a close close to the open. This left us in limbo. The bulls didn’t dominate, but they didn’t fall apart either. The jury is still out heading into today.
A drop today puts the bears in charge heading into the weekend. A rally puts things back in neutral – the S&P is, after all, unchanged going back almost two months.
So today continues the reaction from Wednesday. It’ll tell us who’s in charge. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE -0.32%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Sterne Agee CRT with a 12-month price target of $300.
Autodesk (ADSK -0.42%) lowered guidance on fiscal 2017 adjusted EPS to a loss of -70 cents to -95 cents from a February 25 estimate of a loss of -60 cents to -85 cents.
CBOE Holdings (CBOE +0.80%) was rated a new ‘Underperform’ at Sterne Agee CRT with a 12-month price target of $56.
Nasdaq (NDAQ -0.02%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Sterne Agee CRT with a 12-month price target of $76.
Shoe Carnival (SCVL -1.60%) reported Q1 EPS of 56 cents, below consensus of 57 cents.
Applied Materials (AMAT -0.05%) jumped over 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 34 cents, higher than consensus of 32 cents, and then said it sees Q3 adjusted EPS of 46 cents-50 cents, well above consensus of 36 cents.
Ross Stores (ROST +2.23%) dropped over 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 73 cents, right on consensus, bit then said it sees Q2 adjusted EPS of 64 cents-67 cents, below consensus of 70 cents.
Brocade Communications Systems (BRCD -1.36%) fell over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 22 cents, right on expectations, but said it sees Q3 adjusted EPS of 19 cents-21 cents, below consensus of 24 cents.
The Gap (GPS +1.11%) rose nearly 4% in after-hours trading after it said it was closing 75 stores to “streamline” operations.
8×8 (EGHT -1.10%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 3 cents, better than consensus of 2 cents, and said it sees 2017 revenue of $249 million-$253 million, above consensus of $245.7 million.
DryShips (DRYS +4.38%) slumped over 20% in after-hours trading after it said it is talks with lenders to restructure its debt and it elected to suspend principal and interest payments on remaining bank facilities to preserve cash liquidity.
Pacific Biosciences (PACB +1.57%) dropped over 7% in after-hours trading after it said it plans a $30 million at-the-market stock offering.
Ocean Rig UDW (ORIG -4.74%) surged over 30% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS ex-items of $1.17, well above consensus of 81 cents.
Araxas Petroleum (AXAS -2.21%) slumped over 10% in after-hours trading after it said plans 25-million share stock offering.
Thursday’s Key Earnings
Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) +8.5% AH as display and flash orders surged.
Gap (NYSE:GPS) +0.5% AH charting a path for a turnaround.
Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) +9.6% after beating expectations on a sales lift.
Today’s Economic Calendar
10:00 Existing Home Sales
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers