Before the Open (Aug 30)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. India and Hong Kong did well; there were no big down markets. Europe is currently up across-the-board. France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Italy are leading the way. Futures in the States point towards a slight down open for the cash market.
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The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
The market bounced back yesterday. The S&P is back in the middle of its range and is unchanged going back three weeks.
Overall nothing has changed – from one quiet trading period the second half of July to another quiet zone here in August.
I still firmly believe higher prices are coming, and even if we do get a slight rate increase next month, I don’t have a strong reason to abandon my S&P target between 2300-2400. But in the near term I’m more neutral and don’t see great set-ups to be had. I don’t think this is a time to force trades because most of them are mediocre or worse.
The market will wake up when it wants to. Don’t drain your emotional energy staring at prices all day when nothing is happening.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Apple (AAPL -0.11%) is down nearly 2% in pre-market trading after it was ordered to pay 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) plus interest as the European Commission said Ireland illegally cut Apple’s tax bill.
First Data Corp. (FDC -0.38%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Craig Hallum with a 12-month price target of $20.
VMware (VMW +1.32%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey with a 12-month price target of $92.
Rackspace Hosting (RAX -0.13%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Raymond James.
Coeur Mining (CDE +1.10%) was upgraded to ‘Sector Perform’ from ‘Sector Underperform’ at CIBC.
Flextronics International (FLEX +1.00%) rose over 1% in after-hours trading after its board authorized a buyback of up to $500 million in company stock.
Catalent (CTLT +0.36%) slid almost 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 52 cents, below consensus of 53 cents.
Skyworks Solutions (SWKS +0.51%) dropped 2% in after-hours trading after CFO Donald Palette retired and was replaced by Kris Sennesael.
American Airlines Group (AAL -0.17%) lost 1% and United Continental Holdings (UAL +0.17%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after American Airlines president Scott Kirby left the company for the same role at United Continental.
ScanSource (SCSC +1.18%) slumped over 12% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 51 cents, well below consensus of 71 cents, and said it sees Q1 adjusted EPS of 60 cents-68 cents, weaker than consensus of 75 cents.
Phibro Animal Health (PAHC +3.19%) gained almost 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 40 cents, higher than consensus of 38 cents.
Hershey (HSY +0.71%) tumbled over 10% and Mondelez International ({=MDLZ rose over 3% in after-hours trading after Mondelez International said it is no longer seeking a merger with Hershey.
Syros Pharmaceuticals (SYRS -0.43%) surged over 18% in after-hours trading after it said its research published in the scientific journal Nature Chemical Biology shows a promising approach to treating several cancers through its CDK12 and CDK 13 inhibitors.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
9:00 S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index
10:00 Consumer Confidence
10:00 State Street Investor Confidence Index
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers