Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. China led with a 1.3% gain; Hong Kong, India and New Zealand also did well. Europe is currently mostly up. Spain and Italy are leading (up 1.7% each) followed by Greece (up 1.2%). Only Russia is down. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.
The dollar is down slightly. Oil is down, copper up. Gold and silver are down.
The S&P 500 hit another new high yesterday. The Nas is doing equally well, but the Dow has failed to match the S&P’s movement, and of course the small caps have been pulling up the rear lately.
Several indicators have started to reverse – this is what the bulls want to see, but it’s has to continue.
Trading set ups have improved too.
But I didn’t sense there was much force and enthusiastic energy behind the S&P’s recent new highs. The index merely moved up and then traded in a a range. The bears, who’ve grown in numbers and volume (how vocal they are), haven’t thrown in the towel yet. The bulls haven’t exactly used the new high as a reason to pile in. I get the sense that a quick move is brewing, but the near term direction is unknown. If the bears panic, the market could easily rally hard a couple days, but if the bulls don’t get follow through soon, the floor could get pulled out.
I continue to like the market overall, and while things have improved in the near term, they haven’t improved enough for me to believe the “all clear” sign has been given. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
There are 27 of the S&P 500 companies that have already reported earnings this morning. Notable winners include Ford (F -0.22%) ($0.40 vs the consensus of $0.36), Caterpillar (CAT -1.53%) (1.69 vs 1.52), Nasdaq (NDAQ -0.72%) (0.70 vs 0.68), Coca-Cola Enteprises (CCE +0.66%) (0.90 vs 0.88).
GM (GM -0.93%) reported Q2 EPS ex-items of 28 cents, slightly below the consensus of 59 cents.
Amazon (AMZN -0.75%), Visa (V -0.03%), Starbucks (SBUX +0.51%) and others report after the close today.
Facebook (FB +2.92%) in after-hours trading yesterday reversed initial losses and rallied 5% following its Q2 earnings call. The rally in Facebook helped boost other social media stocks such as Twitter (TWTR +0.27%), LinkedIn (LNKD +3.79%), and Yelp (YELP +0.19%).
AT&T (T -0.17%) fell 1% in after-hours trading after reporting earings.
Angie’s List (ANGI -3.97%) and Tripadvisor (TRIP +3.06%) plunged more than 10% late yesterday after their respective earnings reports.
Cliffs Natural (CLF +2.18%) fell more than 1% late yesterday after a disappointing earnings report.
Teradyne (TER -2.92%) fell 4% late yesterday after a disappointing earnings report.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index Flash
9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
10:00 New Home Sales
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
11:00 Kansas City Fed Mfg Survey
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Notable earnings before today’s open: AAL, ABC, ALK, ALXN, ARG, ASPS, BBW, BC, BCC, BHE, BKU, BMS, BMY, BPOP, BSX, CAB, CAM, CAT, CCE, CELG, CLF, CLFD, CLI, CMS, COG, CRI, CRY, CSH, CWEI, DAN, DFT, DGX, DHI, DLX, DNKN, DO, DPS, DST, ECA, EQM, EQT, F, FAF, FLIR, GM, GNTX, GPI, GPK, GRUB, HOT, HSY, IMAX, IMS, IQNT, ISSI, IVC, JAH, JBLU, KEM, KKR, LAZ, LLY, LTM, LUV, MHO, MMM, MTH, MTRN, NBL, NDAQ, NOK, NUE, NWE, O, ORI, OSTK, PCP, PDS, PENN, PHM, PNK, POT, PRLB, PTEN, QSII, RCI, RCL, RDWR, RS, RTIX, RTN, SCHL, SFE, SIAL, SQNS, SUI, SVU, SXC, TDY, TROW, TWI, UA, UAL, UFS, UNP, USG, VAC, VDSI, VIVO, WAB, WCC, WIT, WYN, ZMH
Notable earnings after today’s close: ABAX, ACTG, ALGN, ALTR, AMZN, ATRC, AWAY, BAS, BCOV, BCR, BIDU, BJRI, BLDR, CB, CBI, CERN, CLS, COLM, CTCT, CYN, DECK, DGII, DLB, DTLK, ECHO, ELY, EPR, FET, FICO, FII, FLEX, FSL, GIMO, HBHC, IM, INFA, KLAC, LEG, LOGM, LSCC, MITK, MKTO, MLNX, MSCC, MTD, MTSN, MXIM, N, NR, NTGR, OLN, P, PACB, PEB, PFG, PFPT, QLGC, QLIK, RFMD, RGA, RGC, RSG, RVBD, SBAC, SBUX, SIVB, SPNC, SRCL, SWFT, SWI, SYA, TPX, TSRO, UHS, V, VR, VRSN, WOOF, WRE, WRI
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers