Before the Open (Jun 14)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Australia fell 2%; Japan and New Zealand dropped more than 1%; Hong Kong and Singapore were also weak. Europe is currently mostly down. Belgium and Denmark are down more than 2%; London, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Finland, Hungary, Spain and Portugal are down more than 1%. Futures in the States point towards another gap down open for the cash market.
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List of Indexes and ETFs – here
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The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold is flat; silver is down. Bonds are down.
The last two days have combined for the biggest 2-day drop since February. There have been moderate down days the last few months, but they’ve mostly been isolated.
In May the S&P dropped to lower low…and then quickly rebounded. Then last week it moved to a higher high…and since has quickly dropped. I still consider the index to be trading within a consolidation pattern within an uptrend.
The 2-day Fed meeting starts today. Expectations for a rate hike have declined a bunch. Between the weak employment reports and the looming “Brexit” vote (the Fed does follow world events), and the recent stock market weakness (the Fed also watches the market closely), the Fed is likely to err on the side standing pat rather than taking a chance by inching rates up.
Otherwise I find the current market to be very uninteresting. If you’re a day trader, volatility is picking up, so you’ll be able to get off a few trades each day. If you’re a swing trader, I don’t think there’s much to do. Sure a month from now we’ll look back and see things we could have or should have done, but right now I just don’t see it. I don’t just want decent set ups; I want decent set ups under the right conditions. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Tractor Supply Co. (TSCO -1.72%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Guggenheim Securities with a 12-month price target of $110.
Navistar International (NAV -0.60%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel with a 12-month price target of $10.
Spectra Energy (SE -0.75%) was awarded a 168-mile intrastate natural gas pipeline project by Mexico’s Comision Federal de Electrcidad valued at $1.5 billion.
LinkedIn (LNKD +46.64%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
Cadence Design Systems (CDNS -0.45%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Needham & Co.
Vonage (VG +1.72%) rallied nearly 5% in pre-market trading after it was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Citigroup.
Baidu (BIDU -0.44%) slumped 8% in after-hours trading after it lowered guidance on Q2 revenue to $2.807 billion-$2.823 billion from an April 28 view of $3.119 billion-$3.192 billion.
Mattress Firm Holding Corp. (MFRM +1.87%) fell over 2% in after-hours trading after it said it identifies material weakness related to accounting for significant transactions.
Tailored Brands (TLRD -1.81%) rose over 4% in after-hours trading on signs in insider buying after COO Bruce Thorn bought 21,600 shares at $11.52 and General Counsel A. Alexander Rhodes bought 8,700 shares at $11.62.
Minerva Neurosciences (NERV +0.50%) slid over 3% in after-hours trading after it proposed a public offering of common stock.
ImmunoGen (IMGN -0.20%) tumbled 11% in after-hours trading after it announced a $100 million offering of convertible senior notes
KemPharm (KMPH -5.41%) plunged over 30% in after-hours trading after the company said the FDA did not approve its painkiller Apadaz.
Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA +0.50%) dropped 4% in after-hours trading after Chief Medical Officer William Shanahan was terminated effective immediately.
Today’s Economic Calendar
FOMC meeting begins
6:00 NFIB Small Business Optimism Index
8:30 Retail Sales
8:30 Import/Export Prices
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
10:00 Business Inventories
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers