Before the Open (Aug 15)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China rallied 2.4%; Hong Kong also did well. Indonesia fell 1%. Europe currently leans to the upside, but movement is minimal. Austria, the UK, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Turkey, Greece and Denmark are up; Norway and Romania are down. Futures 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 down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
As is typically the case I don’t have much to see beyond what I already discussed in the weekly report posted and sent out yesterday morning.
I will say that despite oil’s bounce off a key area, I’m not yet entirely convinced this move will have legs. Here’s the daily. I’m long some positions but not in with size.

And ironically, despite gold and silver’s proximity to their highs, I’m not yet ready to jump into new positions there either. The metals have been on an incredible run, but they feel tired. I’ve scaled back and am looking to load up again on a dip.
FOMC minutes on Wednesday may shed some light on the odds of a rate hike next month. Otherwise, more often than not the market’s tendency is to continue doing what it’s been doing rather than change. If this holds, slow, range-bound movement will continue. That’s it for now.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Procter & Gamble (PG +0.36%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at B. Riley with a 12-month target price of $105.
Valient Pharmaceuticals (VRX +1.76%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Underperform’ at Mizuho Securities USA.
Esterline Technologies (ESL -0.25%) was raised to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Drexel Hamilton LLC with a 12-month target price of $86.
Patheon NV (PTHN +4.41%) was rated a new ‘Overweight’ at Piper Jaffray with a 12-month target price of $32.50.
Equity One (EQY +0.22%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Stifel.
Cypress Energy Partners LP (CELP -0.40%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Raymond James.
Lennox International (LII -0.32%) was downgraded too ‘Neutral’ from ‘Positive’ at Susquehanna.
Channel Advisor reports that Amazon.com (AMZN +0.17%) July comparable sales were up +6.4% versus +11.6% in June and Ebay (EBAY -0.99%) comparable sales were up +3.5% versus +3.8% in June.
Badger Meter (BMI +0.67%) slid over 5% in after-hours trading after the company announced that its review of options to enhance shareholder value had been completed and that it will boost the dividend by 15% and increase the number of shares outstanding through a 2 for 1 stock split.
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (ACAD -1.57%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after Baker Bros. Advisors disclosed a 1.3 million share purchase of ACADIA stock on August 10 to increase its stake in the company to 21.56%.
Kingold Jewelry (KGJI +1.99%) catapulted higher by over 40% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 30 cents versus a gain of 1 cent y/y. Kingold reported Q2 net sales of $390.3 million, up +56.5% y/y, and the CEO cited increased gold demand in China and a “quick rebound” in gold prices.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
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