Before the Open (May 24)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. There were no 1% losers, but Japan, Singapore, China, Indonesia and South Korea were weak. Europe is currently mostly up. Turkey is up about 3%; Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Belgium are up more than 1%; London, Austria, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Hungary and Portugal are also doing well. Greece is down more than 2%. 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.
Nothing noteworthy happened yesterday, so everything talked about over the weekend in the weekly report remains on the table.
Yesterday the indexes traded quietly in small ranges; volume was very light. There were a few ups and downs, but there were no forceful moves and no reasons to pay close attention.
There’s more Fed talk about raising rates in June if the data comes in where they want it. In my opinion they will raise, as long as the market doesn’t fall apart. Despite the Fed’s talk about employment, inflation and the worldwide landscape (economically and politically), the Fed’s #1 indicator is the stock market. If the market holds the current level or rallies, a rate hike in June is a done deal. If the market drops, forget it. They’ll be to afraid to raise.
That’s it for now. I’m not going to fill up space here when nothing changed yesterday. My bias leans to the upside, but we must still recognize the S&P remains in a 2-month consolidation range. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Home Depot (HD -0.33%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Topeka Capital Markets with a 12-month price target of $158.
Best Buy (BBY +2.04%) fell over 4% in pre-market trading after it forecast Q2 adjusted EPS of 38 cents-42 cents, below consensus of 50 cents.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII -0.26%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel with a 12-month price target of $135.
Twitter (TWTR -0.14%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at MoffetNathanson LLC.
General Mills (GIS +0.40%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Pier 1 Imports (PIR -2.84%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Topeka Capital Markets with a 12-month price target of $12.
Polycom (PLCM +0.18%) jumped over 10% in after-hours trading after it said it received a revised offer from Sponsor 1 and will engage them in talks.
Williams-Sonoma (WSM +0.10%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Topeka Capital Markets with a 12-month price target of $62.
Nordson (NDSN +0.58%) climbed almost 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $1.19, better than consensus of 92 cents, and said it sees Q3 EPS of $1.25-$1.37, higher than consensus of $1.23.
Parsley Energy (PE +0.24%) dropped nearly 2% in after-hours trading after it said it will buy the mineral rights of 30,000 acres in Texas for $280.5 million in cash and will finance the acquisition by offering 8 million shares of class A common stock.
Wright Medical Group NV (WMGI +0.73%) fell over 2% in after-hours trading after it started a 6.2 million share secondary offering of ordinary shares.
Square (SQ +0.75%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after it was upgraded to ‘Buy’ rom ‘Neutral’ at BTIG.
Booz Allen Hamilton Holdings (BAH -1.59%) dropped over 2% in after-hours trading after it reported a secondary offering by affiliate Carlyle Group of 13 million shares of class A common stock.
Seaspan (SSW -3.34%) slid nearly 7% in after-hours trading after it announced a 5-million share secondary offering of class A shares.
Aeglea BioTherapeutics (AGLE -2.01%) surged almost 15% in after-hours trading after the U.S. FDA granted fast track designation to Aeglea’s AEB1102 to treat excess arginne secondary to a urea cycle disorder called Arginase I deficiency.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
10:00 New Home Sales
10:00 Richmond Fed Mfg.
1:00 PM Results of $26B, 2-Year Note Auction
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers