Before the Open (Jul 18)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up, but gains were only small-to-moderate. Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan did the best. Europe currently leans to the upside, but movement is minimal. Other than Turkey, which is down more than 5%, there are no noticeable movers. Futures here in the States point towards a positive 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 and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are up.
As is typically the case I don’t have anything to say on this Monday morning that goes beyond what was stated in the weekly report posted over the weekend.
In it I stated I have no reason to abandon my stance that the S&P is headed to 2300-2400. From a technical standpoint the market is doing very well (both the price action and internal breadth are in good shape), and given the strength is taking place in the face of declining earnings, a world filled with major negative events and relative bad market psychology, the proverbial “wall of worry” is alive and well and likely to continue helping the market move up, not cap it. When you see bullish headlines and everyone starts feeling good and safe about investing, it’ll be time to reconsider, but we’re not there yet.
The movement may not make sense, but that’s how the invisible hand of Wall St. works. Movement doesn’t make sense for a long enough period of time to reduce the number of people who will participate. Bounces start sooner or later than expected. Tops take longer to form than expected. Nothing happens in a timely fashion. There are many bears out there, but I absolutely guarantee when the market does finally experience a significant drop, most of the bears will not profit from it. Sorry, that’s just how things work.
The trend is up. I don’t know how long it’ll last (in terms of time or price), but for now I have no reason to believe it’s close to an end. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Bank of America (BAC +0.07%) is up +0.3% in pre-market trading after it reported adjusted Q2 EPS of 37 cents, above consensus of 33 cents.
Hasbro (HAS +0.28%) reported Q2 EPS of 41 cents, higher than consensus of 38 cents.
C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW -0.50%) was downgraded to ‘Marker Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Raymond James.
Groupon (GRPN -2.24%) jumped 12% in pre-market trading after it was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Piper Jaffray.
Steve Madden Ltd. (SHOO -0.25%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Buckingham Research Group.
Texas Roadhouse (TXRH -0.87%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Maxim Group with a 12-month target price of $48.
NetEase (NTES -0.15%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Brean Capital with a 12-month price target of $235.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH -3.69%) fell over 2% in after-hours trading after the reported coup attempt by the military in Turkey.
Alon USA Energy (ALJ -1.95%) rose 2% in after-hours trading after Point72 reported a 5.4% passive stake in the company.
Coca-Cola Femsa SAB de CV (KOF -0.12%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Bradesco Corretora with a price target of $80.
Ferro (FOE -0.70%) tumbled over 8% in after-hours trading after it turned down bids from Apollo and CVC Partners that were below $14 a share.
Superior Energy Services (SPN -2.01%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Inline’ at Imperial Capital LLC with a 12-month price target of $23.
Today’s Economic Calendar
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
4:00 PM Treasury International Capital
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers