Before the Open (Jun 13)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across-the-board. China and Japan dropped more than 3%; Taiwan and Hong Kong fell more than 2%; Singapore and South Korea fell lost more than 1%. Europe is currently down across-the-board. Greece is down more than 3%; Austria, Prague, Denmark, Hungary and Italy are down more than 2%; most other markets, including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia and others, are down at least 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a down 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 flat. Oil is down; copper is up. Gold is up, silver is flat. Bonds are mixed.
I don’t really like this market. Purely from an breadth standpoint, the market started to weaken the week before last, and then last week it went into full-blown “cycle down” mode. Many indicators, including the AD line, AD volume line, bullish percent charts, percentage of stocks above certain moving averages, and others put in lower highs and are now dropping. Even though the overall market still looks good, in the near term, I expect more weakness.
From a trading standpoint, I see nothing worth trading. Trading is hard enough as is, but if you can restrict yourself to only trading when conditions are very good and only trading the ones that “jump off the screen at you,” trading is much less hard. Nothing jumped out at me this weekend.
From a news standpoint, there are things lingering that have the potential to suddenly move the market. The next FOMC meeting is Wednesday. Lots of options expire Thursday and Friday (this won’t change much). The vote in Great Britain regarding their EU membership is on June 23. By itself it’s a big deal, and if they vote to leave, other countries are likely to follow.
Lots of stuff going on…even though it’s summer. I talked in more detail about these things in the weekly report.
Personally I think sitting tight is a good idea. I see no reason to be at the edge of your seat anxiously waiting to do something. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
LyondellBasell Industries NV (LYB +0.69%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Cowen.
Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (SWHC -2.73%) rose nearly 4% in pre-market trading on concern a talk of weapons restrictions may lead to increased gun sales after a mass shooting over the weekend in Florida.
Newmont Mining (NEM -0.31%) climbed nearly 3% in pre-market trading as the price of gold climbed to a 4-week high.
U.S. Silica Holdings (SLCA -2.69%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at DA Davidson.
Globalstar (GSAT -0.83%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Chardan Capital Markets.
Endologix (ELGX -0.24%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Canaccord Genuity with a 12-month price target of $15.50
Occidental (OXY -0.20%) was downgraded to ‘Equalweight’ from ‘Oveweight’ at Morgan Stanley.
Trinity Industries (TRN -3.29%) climbed nearly 2% in after-hours trading after it said the Federal Highway Administration confirmed no suspension or debarment, which implies that Trinity’s products will continue to be eligible for Federal-Aid reimbursement.
Weatherford International PLC (WFT -2.66%) slid 2% in after-hours trading after it increased its public offering of senior notes to $1.5 billion from $1.25 billion.
Tesla (TSLA -4.61%) fell nearly 1% in after-hours trading after the WSJ reported that Tesla will revise non-disclosure agreements on concern that customers were discouraged from reporting possible safety problems
HNI Corp. (HNI -0.61%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after it raised guidance on full-year adjusted EPS to $2.70-$2.90 from a prior view of $2.40-$2.70, well above consensus of $2.56.
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