{"id":8337,"date":"2015-02-24T08:36:42","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T13:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8337"},"modified":"2015-02-24T08:36:42","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T13:36:42","slug":"before-the-open-feb-24-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8337","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Feb 24)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Taiwan rallied 1.1%; Malaysia, Japan and Singapore also did well. Europe is currently mixed. Greece is up 8.2%; Prague and Amsterdam are also doing well. Russia is down 1.5%. Futures here in the States are flat.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold is down, silver is flat. Bonds are down. <\/span>
\n Janet Yellen will give her semi-annual testimony regarding monetary policy before the Senate Banking Committee today…and then again tomorrow before the House Financial Services Committee. The Fed minutes released last week were somewhat dovish. Wall St. will be looking for hawkish\/dovish signals from the committee chairman.<\/span>
\n US officials are looking into possible precious-metals (gold, silver, platinum, palladium) price rigging. I’ve heard stories about price fixing for 15 years, but this is the first I’m hearing about an actual government investigation. Until now such a concept was reserved for the gold bug\/conspiracy theorists. <\/span>
\n Greece sent a list of economic reform plans to the euro zone finance ministers outlining reforms to secure a 4-month extension to euro zone funding. Greece’s creditors, the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF, were all satisfied with the reforms, and the Greek stock market is up more than 8%.<\/span>
\n Yesterday was the market’s smallest range day since December, so nothing changed. All the indexes are at or near new highs, and the Nas and Nas 100 are very close to taking out their all-time highs from 2000. Apple is on fire. It’s market cap is twice the second-biggest publicly traded company. <\/span>
\n FLSR and SPWR are up big in pre-market trading. They’re forming some sort of joint venture. <\/span>
\n Bias remains to the upside. More after the open.<\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Home Depot (HD +0.04%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.00, stronger than consensus of 89 cents.<\/span>
\n Comcast (CMCSA -0.50%) reported Q4 EPS of 77 cents, below consensus of 78 cents.<\/span>
\n Valspar (VAL -0.14%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 85 cents, more than consensus of 76 cents.<\/span>
\n Werner (WERN +0.25%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Deutsche Bank.<\/span>
\n Worthington (WOR -1.67%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Credit Suisse.<\/span>
\n Office Depot (ODP -0.53%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 7 cents, higher than consensus of 4 cents.<\/span>
\n First Solar (FSLR +1.26%) rose 9% and SunPower (SPWR -0.82%) jumped 11% in after-hours trading after both companies said they are in talks to form a joint venture called YieldCo.<\/span>
\n Alliant Energy (LNT +0.74%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 54 cents, less than consensus of 55 cents.<\/span>
\n Quad\/Graphics (QUAD -1.46%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 96 cents, better than consensus of 94 cents.<\/span>
\n American Tower (AMT +0.83%) reported Q4 EPS of 42 cents, below consensus of 51 cents, and then lowered guidance on fuscal 2015 revenue to $4.25 billion-$4.33 billion, well below consensus of $4.62 billion.<\/span>
\n The Soros Fund reported a 9.95% passive stake in Oclaro (OCLR +1.99%) .<\/span>
\n Kaman (KAMN -1.31%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 76 cents, more than consensus of 70 cents.<\/span>
\n Dillard’s (DDS +0.62%) reported Q4 EPS of $3.17, less than consensus of $3.18.<\/span>
\n Texas Roadhouse (TXRH +2.48%) gained almost 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 26 cents, right on consensus, although Q4 revenue of $404.43 million was higher than consensus of $399.63 million.<\/span>
\n Express Scripts (ESRX +0.74%) rose over 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 1.39, better than consensus of $1.38.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
\n 9:00 S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index
\n 9:45 PMI Services Index Flash
\n 10:00 Consumer Confidence
\n 10:00 Richmond Fed Mfg.
\n 10:00 State Street Investor Confidence Index
\n 10:00 Yellen delivers semi-annual monetary policy testimony
\n 1:00 PM Results of $26B, 2-Year Note Auction<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: AIXG, ALKS, AMT, BMO, CBRL, CEQP, CLDT, CLDX, CMCSA, CMLP, COT, CRNT, CRZO, CYRN, DAKT, DCI, DPZ, DRH, DYAX, ECL, EXAS, EXLS, EXPD, FDML, GLDD, GTLS, HD, IART, IPXL, M, MNKD, NEO, ODP, PCRX, PF, PLL, RLGY, SAFM, SAH, SHLX, SHOO, SPAR, SPWR, SUI, THRM, TOL, TREX, OTCQB:TRXC, UTHR, VAL, VSI, WEN, WIN, WLK, WPC, ZINC<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: ACAS, AMRS, ARC, AWAY, AWK, BBRG, BGFV, BNFT, BOOM, CBI, CENX, CLGX, CLR, CPRT, DPM, DWA, DY, DYN, EIX, EPR, EXEL, FLTX, FMI, FSLR, GB, GNMK, HEI, HEP, HLS, HPQ, HURN, HWAY, INFI, JAZZ, KONA, KRA, LC, MATX, MMSI, NDSN, NFX, NKTR, NLY, NSTG, NUVA, NYMT, ORA, PZZA, QEP, RJET, RLYP, RRC, RUBI, SAM, SGY, SLCA, SM, TNDM, TRNX, TXTR, VRSK, VVUS, WBMD, XCO, Y, ZAGG<\/span>
\nOther<\/strong>…<\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a> from briefing.com<\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
\n