Before the Open (Sep 19)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Taiwan rallied 2.8%, and Indonesia did better than 1%. South Korea, Hong Kong, China and Singapore also did well. Europe is currently posting solid gains. Hungary is leading the way with a 2% gain. The UK, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Finland, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Portugal are up more than 1%. Futures in the States point towards a moderate gap up 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 is up; copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up.
As is typically the case, I don’t have anything to add to the comments already made in the LB Weekly, published over the weekend.
In it I concluded the market was still in limbo. It didn’t follow through on the previous Friday’s big down day…but it didn’t robustly bounce either. It moved both up and down and closed with a small-to-moderate gain.
For two months the market moved very slowly in a tight range on low volume. The indicators lost their usefulness and didn’t give us much to work with. Now things have changed.
If the market moves up, does volume stay strong? Does the ATR decline? Does the number of stocks trading above their 50-day moving averages increase? Favorable answers will likely lead to more upside and eventually new highs. But unfavorable answers, coupled with the S&P failing to get back above its own 50, will likely lead to another leg down.
The FOMC announces their interest rate decision Wednesday. It’s a big one. For most of this year it’s been a foregone conclusion they wouldn’t change rates, but hawkish talk has ramped up. I personally don’t think they do anything, but we still have to keep it on our radars. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
GoPro (GPRO +5.65%) jumped nearly 6% in pre-market trading after it said it will unveil new products at today’s anaylst meeting.
Mattel (MAT -0.22%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. with a 12-month price target of $37.
U.S. Steel (X -0.93%) and AK Steel Holdings (AKS +1.23%) were both upgraded to ‘Sector Weight’ from ‘Underweight’ at Keybanc Capital Markets.
Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD +0.19%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Credit Suisse witha target price of $34.
General Motors (GM -0.48%) climbed over 1% in pre-market trading after it was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equalweight’ at Morgan Stanley with a 12-month price target of $37.
PayPal Holdings (PYPL -0.32%) fell over 1% in pre-market trading after it was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Canaccord Genuity.
Buckeye Partners LP (BPL -0.28%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a 12-month price target of $78.
Targa Resources (TRGP +0.58%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs with a 12-month price target of $52.
Science Applications International (SAIC +0.47%) was awarded a U.S. Defense Logistics Agency contract worth as much as $700 million over the next 5 years for chemicals, packaged petroleum, oils and lubricants.
Enlink Midstream LLC (ENLC -0.06%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
North Sound increased its stake in Novatel Wireless (MIFI +3.82%) to 7.1% from 5.9%.
Sanofi (SNY -1.26%) sued Merck (MRK -0.16%) to block Merck’s MK-1293 diabetes drug that Sanofi says infringes on 10 of its patents.
Today’s Economic Calendar
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers