Market Alert - Pre-Market

Futures vs FV: SP -4.85; DJ -50.94; NASDAQ -8.44

US futures are down but are climbing off the lows toward the market open. Nothing big, but a steady attempt to climb off the lows.

Not a lot of economic news. Jobless claims are lower but that is a meaningless statistic now for the past two years.

Earnings are the biggest story, or should be. FB's beat has FB showing a 0.37 gain at the open. Easy big fellow.

Beats: FB; AL; BDX; CI; DLPH; EW; TSCO

Misses: DB; SYMC (TL); MRK (TL); AZN (TL); MET (TB); EL (TL)

Dollar: Continues under pressure as the Fed shows no signs of hiking and thus supporting the greenback. With Trump appearing to prefer a weaker dollar policy, there is no support right now. Needs to learn from Reagan and Clinton, not Bush: a weak dollar diminishes options and chances for prosperity.

H-1B visas: A leaked proposed EOrder attempts to reorganize the process, placing the higher paid applicants at the front, the lower paid applicants, such as those from India, at the bottom. The idea is apparently to get the higher paying people in the US, i.e. the higher skilled. Other details are sparse on the rest of the EO.

The H-1B is one reason the tech 'titans' are speaking out against Trump's other immigration EOrder. They are very afraid the H-1B visa will be curtailed. It should be; plenty of US citizens educated with STEM degrees living out of Mom and Dad's basement because they cannot get a job with the companies claiming there are no skilled workers to hire. I wonder if someone will claim the draft EO is somehow racist, a religious ban, etc.? You have to ask these things today, apparently.


OTHER MARKETS
Bonds: 2.440% vs 2.477% 10 year

EUR/USD: 1.0815 VS 1.07892. Dollar starting to break against the dollar.

USD/JPY: 112.335 vs 112.68.

Oil: 57.20, +0.40

Gold: 1224.50, +16.20


A sluggish start but at least the market is trying to build into the open versus Wednesday with a static gap higher that was sold almost as the bell rang. The action has not been good. Will watch if the market can build off a softer open and particularly watch the recent leaders, e.g. chips, China, materials/builders, FAANG to see if they are picking up the burden.

Jon Johnson, Chief Market Strategist
InvestmentHouse.com
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