Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan dropped 2.7%, Malaysia 1.3%, and Australia, India, South Korea, Hong Kong and China were also weak. New Zealand gained 0.9%. Europe currently leans to the upside. Norway and Russia are doing well; Switzerland and Greece are lagging. No market is up or down 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a slight down open for the cash market.
Thanks for your votes on my public list at stockcharts.com. Keep ’em coming.
The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold is down, silver is flat. Bonds are mixed.
Yesterday was a Fed meeting. Rates remain low, and the Committee briefly outlined what needs to be in place for rates to be moved up. They stated the overnight rate and discount rate will stay where they are until it sees further improvement in the labor market and is confident inflation will move up a little in the medium term. But even if these two criteria are met, economic conditions may warrant keeping rates down for some time.
This keeps the door open for the Fed to keep rates down into 2016. They have an out. They don’t have to do anything. Janet Yellen said after the last Fed announcement that just because they removed the word patient from the statement doesn’t mean they’ll be impatient. It sounds like the Fed is pretty relaxed and content to keep things where they are.
Oil attempted to break out yesterday but closed back near the top of its pattern. As of this writing crude is up 49 cents. I’ve been following the group closely and recommending trades because the tide seems to be turning, and the group is so big and so liquid, there are many opportunities. Many oil stocks did great yesterday, but some closed off their highs. Oil has now built itself a cushion. Even if it pulls back, it can maintain its newly formed uptrend.
We’re still in earnings season. Some stocks have gotten crushed; others have done great. Wall St. seems a little nervous. Companies don’t have much room for error. Piss off investors, pay the price. Because of this I don’t recommend holding into a report unless it’s a longer term trade. Some earnings seasons are uneventful; you can hold into reports because the mood is calm. This isn’t the case right now.
That’s it for now. The overall trend remains up, but per the video I sent out a couple days ago, the breadth indicators are lagging and not supportive of a market rally. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Time Warner Cable (TWC -0.02%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.65, below consensus of $1.88.
Manitowoc (MTW -0.96%) reported a Q1 adjusted EPS loss of -5 cents, a larger loss than consensus of -2 cents.
Baidu (BIDU -0.09%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.22, better than consensus of $1.16.
Marriott (MAR +3.14%) reported Q1 EPS of 73 cents, above consensus of 70 cents.
Flextronics (FLEX +0.41%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 27 cents, higher than consensus of 25 cents.
Apple (AAPL -1.47%) is down over 1% in pre-market trading after Dow Jones reported that the company found defects in the ‘taptic engine’ of the Apple Watch.
AMC Entertainment (AMC +0.37%) reported Q1 EPS of 6 cents, less than consensus of 8 cents.
Con-way (CNW -2.77%) reported Q1 EPS of 39 cents, better than consensus of 38 cents, but Q1 revenue of $1.37 billion was below consensus of $1.45 billion.
CACI (CACI -2.36%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.18, weaker than consensus of $1.27.
Williams (WMB +1.21%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 16 cents, above consensus of 15 cents.
Service Corp. (SCI -1.00%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 32 cents, higher than consensus of 28 cents. although Q1 revenue of $748.1 million was below consensus of $752.45 million.
Bob Evans Farms (BOBE -3.74%) announced that it will close 20 restaurants over the next 12 months.
Varian Medical (VAR +0.02%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.05, better than consensus of $1.00.
ARRIS (ARRS -0.89%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 44 cents, right on consensus
Hologic (HOLX -1.15%) reported Q2 EPS of 41 cents, above consensus of 39 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS view to $1.57-$1.59, above consensus of $1.57.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
8:30 Employment Cost Index
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
9:45 Chicago PMI
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
11:00 Kansas City Fed Mfg Survey
3:00 PM Farm Prices
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Notable earnings before today’s open: AAWW, AB, ABC, ACIW, ACOR, ADP, AIT, ALKS, ALLE, AMT, ANR, APD, ARG, ARW, AVP, AWI, BCE, BDC, BG, BKCC, BLL, BWA, BZH, CAH, CCE, CDK, CELG, CI, CL, CME, COMM, COP, CRR, CRS, CSH, CTCM, CVI, CVRR, CWEI, CY, DBD, DIN, DLPH, EME, EPD, ERJ, EXLS, FCN, FIS, FMS, FSS, GEO, GG, GLOP, GNC, GNRC, GOV, GTI, GTLS, HAR, HEES, HST, HUN, I, IDA, IMAX, INCY, INGR, IRDM, ITC, ITG, IVZ, LBY, LKQ, LLL, LPLA, MD, MGLN, MINI, MLM, MMC, MOS, MPC, MPLX, MSCI, MTRN, MVIS, NBIX, NI, NOK, NTCT, NVO, NYT, OAK, ODFL, OMG, PBI, PCRX, PES, PF, POT, PSX, PSXP, PWE, PWR, RDS.A, RDWR, RGLD, RGS, ROK, RYL, SCG, SEE, SHPG, SMP, SNAK, SNE, SNMX, STM, STRZA, TASR, TDY, TEVA, TFX, THRM, TKR, TWC, TWI, UAN, UFS, UPL, VA, VAC, VGR, VIAB, VLY, VNTV, WRLD, WST, WWE, XEL, XOM, XYL, ZMH
Notable earnings after today’s close: ABAX, ADNC, ADUS, AEM, AIG, AIV, ARAY, ATHN, ATR, AVD, AXTI, BCOR, BCOV, BMRN, BRKS, BYD, CALD, CAP, CATM, CEMP, CENX, CLD, CLMS, CMLS, COLM, CPSI, CPT, CTCT, CTRL, CUBE, DCT, DGI, DWA, EEP, EGO, ELLI, EMN, EPAY, EVHC, EXEL, EXPE, EZPW, FBHS, FEYE, FLR, FLS, FLT, FRGI, FSLR, G, GB, GILD, HABT, HCI, HLS, HME, HTCH, IART, IMMR, INT, ISBC, JDSU, KRG, LEG, LLNW, LNKD, LNT, LRE, LYV, MITK, MOBL, MRC, MRH, MXL, NFG, NKTR, NR, NTRI, OMCL, PCCC, PDFS, PKI, PODD, POL, PSA, PXLW, QLGC, RGC, RKUS, ROVI, SEM, SGEN, SKYW, SPF, SPN, SPWR, SWKS, SYNC, TER, THG, TMST, TNAV, TNDM, TRMB, TS, TSRO, TSYS, TUES, TXTR, UIL, V, VR, WU, WWWW, YRCW
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers