{"id":8621,"date":"2015-05-20T07:43:05","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T12:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8621"},"modified":"2015-05-20T07:43:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T12:43:05","slug":"before-the-open-may20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8621","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (May 20)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. Japan, China, India and South Korea did well; Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan lagged. Europe is currently mixed, but other than Russia (down 1.5%), movement is very little. Germany, France, Italy and Prague are down; London, Belgium and Switzerland are up. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.<\/span>
\nThanks for your votes on my public list<\/a> at stockcharts.com. Keep ’em coming.<\/strong><\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil is up, copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are mostly up. <\/span>
\n Yesterday was all about the dollar. It jumped, causing commodities to take big hits. Oil is still in consolidation mode, but many oil stocks, which have been lagging crude lately, wouldn’t even be considered in uptrends any more. Gold, silver, copper, aluminum and others got hit hard.<\/span>
\n The indexes were mostly quiet. The first couple hours were spent in a relatively small range. Then a rally attempt towards the end of lunch got sold into, and in the end, small losses were posted by the indexes. The quietness of indexes definitely covered up the across-the-board selling in the commodities. <\/span>
\n The market can’t get out of its way. It seems like it wants to move up, but it just hasn’t been able to get much traction. It’s as if the invisible hand of the market wants to make sure as few traders\/investors as possible participate in the next trending move. To do this, there have lots of ups and downs, lots of sudden reversals, lots of doubt cast.<\/span>
\n I’d consider the market to be in consolidation mode within an uptrend, and on an intermediate term basis there are items preventing a breakout. The small caps have been lagging, and the internals are mixed. A small number of stocks can do some heavy lifting in the near term, but for any rally attempt to last, we need broad-based participation. This is what I’m looking for to confirm a move up. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Hormel Foods (HRL +0.13%) reported Q2 EPS of 67 cents, mildly above the consensus of 63 cents. Q2 revenue of $2.3 billion was slightly below the consensus of $2.40 billion.<\/span>
\n Lowe’s (LOW -1.68%) reported Q1 EPS of 70 cents, mildly below the consensus of 74 cents. Q1 revenue of $14.13 billion was slightly below the consensus of $14.28 billion.<\/span>
\n Staples (SPLS -0.42%) reported Q1 non-GAAP EPS of 17 cents, matching the consensus. Q1 revenue of $5.26 billion was below the consensus of $5.47 billion.<\/span>
\n Northrop Grumman (NOC +0.58%) increased its quarterly dividend by 14% to 80 cents\/share.<\/span>
\n Yahoo (YHOO -7.62%) said this morning that the IRS statement on spin-offs will not affect its previously filed requests.<\/span>
\n LendingClub (LC +1.50%) rallied nearly 3% in after-hours trading after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to Overweight from Equal Weight.<\/span>
\n Autodesk (ADSK -1.51%) fell 2% in after-hours trading due to a disappointing earnings report.<\/span>
\n Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH +3.26%) fell -2.5% in after-hours trading after filing to sell 20 million of ordinary shares.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
\n 10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
\n 2:00 PM FOMC minutes<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: AEO, EV, EVLV, HRL, LOW, SFUN, SPLS, TGT<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: BRS, CRM, EGHT, HGR, LB, NTAP, RXN, SCVL, SNPS, WSM, WSTL, XNET, YOKU<\/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