Before the Open (Oct 3)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Hong Kong, India and Indonesia gained more than 1%; Japan, Australia and Taiwan also did well. Malaysia fell 1%. Europe is currently mostly up. The UK and Hungary are up more than 1%; the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland and Turkey are also doing well. Futures in the States point towards a down 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 up. Oil is up; copper is down. Gold is up; silver is down. Bonds are up.
It’s Monday, and there’s very little news out. As is typically the case, I don’t have much to add to the comments already made in the weekly report published over the weekend.
In it I concluded the market was very neutral on many fronts. Here’s what I said:
On most fronts the market is very neutral right now.
The S&P has established a range over the last 2-1/2 months, and while it has
needed to absorb some market-moving news, its net change is minimal and
the swings have been small.
Most indicators have also neutralized. The AD line and AD volume line are
above 0 but not screaming bullish. The bullish percent charts have flattened
out. The percentage of stocks above their 200- and 50-day MAs are exactly
where you’d expect them given where the S&P is relative to its own moving
averages. Essentially the indicators are not suggesting beneath-the-surface
strength or weakness. They’re just sitting there and not helping.
No strong bias here in the near term. Overall I like the market and think the
S&P will eventually breakout to a new high and rally up to 2300-2400, but in
the near term anything goes…including nothing.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Teradata (TDC +2.96%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold at UBS.
Barrick Gold (ABX -1.23%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Deutsche Bank.
Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL +1.16%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at HSBC with a price target of $60.
National Oilwell Varco (NOV -0.33%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from “hold’ at Citigroup.
FirstCash (FCFS +1.82%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Janney Montgomery with a 12-month target price of $59.
VirnetX Holding Corp. (VHC -3.47%) jumped over 20% in pre-market trading after Apple was told to pay $302.4 million to VHC after a federal jury said Apple was guilty of infinging on VHC’s patents.
Halliburton (HAL +1.58%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Societe Generale with a 12-month target price of $55.
Twitter (TWTR +0.17%) is up over 4% in pre-market trading after a person familiar with the matter said Alphabet (GOOG +0.29%) is said to be working with Lazard to review a potential bid for the company .
Levin Capital said it increased its stake in Fluidigm (FLDM -4.76%) to 19.6% from 12.38%
Dave & Buster’s Entertainment (PLAY +3.54%) rose nearly 4% in after-hours trading after it was announced that it will replace Piedmont Natural Gas in the S&P SmallCap 600 after the close of trading Monday, October 3.
Express Scripts (ESRX +0.99%) said it will add Walgreens to its Tricare pharmacy network and drop CVS, as of December 1.
Seaword (SEAS -0.44%) gained 1% in after-hours trading after Ivory Cove reported a 5.2% stake in the company, the fourth largest.
The board of Viacom (VIAB +0.87%) has formed a special committee to evaluate a possible combination with CBS.
Illinois Treasurer Frerichs said late Friday that Illinois will suspend investment activity with Wells Fargo (WFC -0.20%).
Thursday’s Key Earnings
Accenture (NYSE:ACN) +4.3% after topping estimates.
ConAgra Foods (NYSE:CAG) +7.2% beating earnings expectations.
Costco (NASDAQ:COST) +1.7% AH on lower fees to Visa (NYSE:V).
PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) +0.4% buoyed by organic growth.
Today’s Economic Calendar
Auto Sales
8:30 Gallup US Consumer Spending Measure
9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index
10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
10:00 Construction Spending
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers