Before the Open (Aug 25)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. Taiwan and Indonesia did well; China and India were weak. Europe is currently down across-the-board. France, Germany, Austria, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Spain and Italy are down the most. Futures in the States point towards a gap down open for the cash market.
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The dollar is down. Oil is down; copper is up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are up.
The indexes suffered one of their biggest drops of the last five weeks yesterday. The market felt weak, but the losses weren’t too bad. Volatility jumped, and the range expanded.
Little moves up get sold; little moves down get bought. There has been no traction in either direction.
I straddle the fence right now. I can’t say with any degree of certainty the next move will definitely be up or down…and I have no idea when the move will take place. The market has traded quietly for almost six weeks. When it’s ready to move, it’ll move.
Yellen speaks tomorrow at Jackson Hole. She could certainly say something to ignite a fire under either buyers or sellers. The last few Fed meetings have caused jumps in gold and silver but have not affected the market. If Yellen suggests the odds rates get raised at the Sept 21 meeting are increasing, the market would likely react negatively.
Don’t over-analyze. There aren’t many obvious trades that jump off the screen at us.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Northrop Grumman (NOC -0.23%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.
Sprint (S -0.49%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral at Buckingham Research Group.
Express (EXPR -25.51%) lost over 1% in pre-market trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 13 cents, weaker than consensus of 17 cents, and then lowered guidance on full-year adjusted EPS to $1.00-$1.14 from a prior view of $1.41-$1.54.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCAU +0.44%) climbed 3% in pre-market trading after the Maeil Business newspaper reported that the vice chaorman of Samsung Electronics will fly to Italy to discuss a deal regarding auto-parts maker Magneti Marelli, an auto-parts unit of Fiat.
Netflix (NFLX -0.79%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at William Blair & Co.
HEICO (HEI +1.19%) rose over 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 62 cents, higher than consensus of 59 cents, and then said it sees 2016 net income of 13%-15%, up from a previous view of 12%-14%.
Cree (CREE -1.22%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Roth Capital with a price target of $34.
Workday (WDAY -0.38%) climbed nearly 11% in pre-market trading after it reported Q2 revenue of $377.7 million, above consensus of $372.8 million.
PVH Corp. (PVH -0.67%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.47, higher than consensus of $1.29.
Electronics for Imaging (EFII -0.88%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Stifel with a 12-month target price of $53.
HP Inc. (HPQ -1.17%) fell nearly 6% in pre-market trading after it said it sees Q4 adjusted EPS from continuing operations of 34 cents-37 cents, weaker than consensus of 40 cents.
Guess? (GES -6.23%) surged 15% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 14 cents, much better than consensus of 6 cents, and then raised guidance on full-year adjusted EPS to 62 cents-75 cents from a May 25 view of 55 cents-75 cents.
Tilly’s (TLYS +7.11%) jumped 10% in after-hours trading after it reported an unexpected Q2 EPS profit of 5 cents, better than consensus of a -5 cent loss.
Nymox Pharmaceutical Corp. (NYMX +83.13%) rallied over 10% in after-hours trading on carryover from Wednesday’s announcement of positive results from a long-term Phase 3 study evaluating the drug fexapotide in men with enlarged prostates.
Ballard Power Systems (BLDP -4.33%) jumped 10% in after-hours trading after it said its Protonex unit was notified by the U.S. Commerce Department that its family of fuel cell propulsion systems are now designated EAR99 (Export Administration Regulations 99) compliant.
Today’s Economic Calendar
Monetary policy symposium
8:30 Durable Goods
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
11:00 Kansas City Fed Mfg Survey
1:00 PM Results of $28B, 7-Year Note Auction
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