Before the Open (Aug 18)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Hong Kong and Indonesia gained 1% or more; India, New Zealand and South Korea also did well. Japan fell 1.6%. Europe is currently mostly up, but there are no big winners. Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece, Denmark and Finland are doing well. Futures in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.
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The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
There isn’t much to talk about. We’re getting normal day-to-day news, which is moving prices of individual stocks around, but the overall market is not only trading in a range but is also just alternating between up and down each day. The S&P is virtually unchanged going back two weeks, and prior to that it traded in a range (at a lower level) for three weeks.
The market will move when it’s ready to move. We have no say in the matter, so we’re best off resting, reading a book or taking advantage of the little extra free time we have due to the lack of good set-ups. Trades often come in bunches – we’ll have many good trades over the course of several weeks and then none while the market chops and churns and resets itself.
Charlie Munger said: “It takes courage to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.”
Gold and silver are looking more interesting. Several stocks have fallen to their 50-day MAs. Otherwise we’d be wise to sit tight and wait for truly great opportunities and pass on many of the mediocre ones. It depends on your trading style.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Wal-Mart (WMT +0.05%) climbed over 3% in pre-market trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.07, better than consensus of $1.02, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2017 adjusted EPS to $4.15-$4.35 from a Feb view of $4.00-$4.30.
Phillips 66 (PSX -0.35%) was rated anew ‘Buy’ at Stifel with a price target of $59.
Twitter (TWTR -1.13%) dropped 3% in pre-market trading after it was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at Evercore ISI.
NetApp (NTAP -0.35%) jumped over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 46 cents, well above consensus of 36 cents.
Cisco Systems (CSCO -1.29%) lost nearly 2% in pre-market trading after it said it sees Q1 adjusted ES of 58 cents-60 cents, below consensus of 60 cents, and then said it will cut as many as 5,500 jobs of 7% of its global workforce, citing a “challenging macro environment.”
Synopsys (SNPS +0.05%) gained 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 76 cents, higher than consensus of 74 cents, and then raised its fiscal 2016 adjusted EPS view to $3.00-$3.03 from a May 18 estimate of $2.95-$3.00.
L Brands (LB -0.20%) climbed over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 70 cents, well above consensus of 6 cents, and then raised guidance on full-year adjusted EPS to $3.70-$3.85 from a May 18 view of $3.60-$3.80.
Agilent Technologies (A +0.31%) dropped 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 revenue of $1,04 billion, less than consensus of $1.05 billion, and said it sees Q4 adjusted EPS of 50 cents-52 cents, weaker than consensus of 64 cents.
Briggs & Stratton (BGG -1.53%) slumped nearly 15% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 46 cents, below consensus of 54 cents.
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (ARWR +2.76%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Cantor Fitzgerald with a 12-month target price of $15.
SpartanNash (SPTN -1.82%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS continuing operations of 58 cents, better than con-sensus of 57 cents.
YY Inc. (YY +1.03%) rose over 2% in after-hours trading after it said Q2 earnings/ADS were 90 cents, up +17.1% y/y.
Keysight Technologies (KEYS +0.27%) tumbled nearly 9% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q4 ad-justed revenue of $715 million-$755 million, below consensus of $756.4 million.
Accuray (ARAY +4.93%) sank over 10% in after-hours trading after it said it sees full-year revenue of $410 million-$420 million, below consensus of $431.9 million.
Wednesday’s Key Earnings
Cisco (CSCO) -1.7% AH confirming 5,500 layoffs.
Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW) -5.7% after missing estimates.
NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) +7.5% AH beating expectations.
Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS) -7.1% on slowing sales.
Target (TGT) -6.4% cutting full-year guidance.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Philly Fed Business Outlook
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:00 Fed’s Dudley Speech
10:00 Leading Indicators
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
4:00 PM Fed’s Williams: Economic Outlook
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