By Bryan McCormick
US stock index futures are essentially flat this morning after a moderately weak session in most of Asia's markets. The eurozone and United Kingdom were also flat at the time of this writing, after having been moderately lower at the outset of trading.
Some renewed tough talk came from China over US calls for greater market pricing of the yuan. At the same time, Greece continued to suggest that it would have difficulty carrying out its fiscal deficit reduction with its rate premium so high. In sum, there was nothing new here that the markets have not already priced in.
There was one economic data point in the United Kingdom from the CBI factory index, which showed that orders fell more than expected in March and that sentiment was tempered toward the future.
The eurozone saw a larger-than-expected trade deficit in January, pointing to weak domestic consumption. Markets did not respond strongly to this news.
Against this backdrop, US, markets await some key economic data releases today, notably Jobless Claims at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Among sell-side research analysts, the following are a few notable calls. In sectors, Baird downgraded the US health care REITs "underweight." Macquarie initiated the US semiconductor sector at "neutral."
FBR Capital Markets upgraded Nike (NKE) to "outperform" following its better-than-expected earnings news last night after the market closed. Kaufman Brothers upgraded LSI (LSI) to "buy." UBS upgraded Brown-Forman (BF.B) to "neutral." Keefe, Bruyette & Woods added First Horizon (FHN) to its model portfolio. Deutsche Bank upgraded Burger King (BKC) to "buy." Piper Jaffray downgraded PetMed Express (PETS) to "neutral." Oppenheimer downgraded AthenaHealth (ATHN).
Today will see earnings results from FedEx, which just reported as this story was being written. The initial market reaction to the news is down, with the shares currently at the $87 area. GameStop (GME), Ross Stores (ROST), and Cintas (CTAS) will also be reporting today.
Disclosure: No positions
No comments:
Post a Comment