Before the Open (Jun 30)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand rallied more than 1%; India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan also did well. Europe currently leans to the upside, but there are no big winners or losers. Norway, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark and Finland are doing well. Futures here in the States point to a flat open for the cash market.
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List of Indexes and ETFs – here
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The dollar is flat. Oil is down a buck; copper is also down. Gold is down; silver is up. Bonds are down.
It’s the last day of June and the last day of Q2, so some monthly and quarterly options expire today.
Here’s the monthly S&P chart. For 2+ years the index has traded between the parallel trendlines drawn. Rallies have gotten sold; dips have gotten bought. There have been a few directional moves – some very quick, others slow – but the index has spent a lot more time grinding in a range than trending. Overall I consider the action to be perfectly normal. A multi-year rally has been followed by a consolidation period. Nothing wrong with this.

Zooming in, the market has been all over the place the last week. The S&P has followed its biggest 2-day drop in ten months with its biggest 2-day rally since late-2014. Things have changed quickly lately. This is what volatility is. This is what uncertainty leads to. One day George Soros says the dissolution of the EU is irreversible, and the market tanks; two days later 70% of the loss is recovered. Fun stuff. This is not a calm, easy-going market.
Anything goes short term. No big bets right now. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
JPMorgan Chase (JPM +2.82%) , Bank of America (BAC +3.86%), and Goldman Sachs (GS +2.17%) all rose over 1% in pre-market trading after they passed the Fed’s CCAR stress tests without conditions.
Marriott International (MAR +3.69%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Evercore ISI with a price target of $75.
American International Group (AIG +3.29%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Atlantic Equities with a 12-month price target of $60.
Progress Software (PRGS +1.74%) rallied 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 33 cents, higher than consensus of 29 cents.
CIT Group (CIT +4.28%) climbed 6% in after-hours trading after it sold its Canadian Equipment Finance and Corporate Finance businesses to Laurentian Bank of Canada.
Pier 1 Imports (PIR +4.02%) slid 3% in after-hours trading after it lowered guidance on full-year adjusted EPS to 32 cents-40 cents from an April 13 view of 42 cents-50 cents.
Shutterstock (SSTK +4.47%) rose over 1% in after-hours trading after it was announced that it will replace Southwest Gas in the S&P Smallcap 600.
Alliant Energy (LNT +0.03%) gained 0.5% in after-hours trading after it was announced that it will replace AGL Resources in the S&P 500 after the close of trading on Thursday, June 30.
Tractor Supply (TSCO +1.06%) dropped over 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 revenue of $1.85 billion, below consensus of $1.93 billion, and then lowered guidance on full-year EPS to $3.35-$3.40 from a prior view of $3.40-$3.48.
Citigroup (C +4.15%) rose over 2% in after-hours trading after it announced a $8.6 billion stock buyback and said it will lift its quarterly dividend to 16 cents from 5 cents.
Stone Energy (SGY +4.03%) jumped over 7% in after-hours trading after it said it ended its pact with ESV and ended its contract with Midstream and entered into a new gas gathering, processing pact with Williams at Mary Field in Appalachia.
Care.com (CRCM +2.79%) surged 18% in after-hours trading after it received a $46.35 million investment from Google Capital, who will add a representative to CRCM’s board and is now the company’s largest shareholder.
Wednesday’s Key Earnings
General Mills (NYSE:GIS) +3.2% after beating expectations.
Monsanto (NYSE:MON) +2.4% despite weak earnings.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
9:45 Chicago PMI
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers