Market Alert - Pre-Market

Futures vs FV: SP +2.32; DJ +24.62; NASDAQ +8.23

Futures steadily higher, moving from low to high, in the morning session, but still no major move. That is not a bad thing: slow builds are often the best builds.

The stock indices are still trying to make the break higher, still somewhat hamstrung by a lack of wider participation. To that point, AAPL is set to start about 0.73 higher, working toward that $800B market cap.

Billionaire battle: Monday Buffett and the old rich liberals who used capitalism to make their money were complaining about the ACA repeal, etc. Buffett claimed it would give a lot of money to rich people. Repealing a 3.8% tax imposed under the ACA is giving? Whose money is that anyway? I have a different view: it is letting people keep their money; it is not a giveaway.

Anyway, Sam Zell, a real estate tycoon, is a democrat who is conservative on some issues. He says it is no giveaway, he says it attempts to put the healthcare system back in balance.


Who is right? I always take a very wary eye regarding anything Buffett says. He and the financial stations try to frame him as just a friendly old grandpa dispensing sage wisdom we can all live by. He never uttered a word that was not calculated to benefit his companies. Thus he is a hidden agenda advisor who is supposedly trustworthy. Bad news. Zell is a capitalist and doesn't apologize for it. He loves the markets and the fairness truly open markets bring. I trust him a lot more than Buffett.


Sentiment: Gundlach makes a bearish call on NASDAQ, SP500 as they are at their highs. I like that. Not everyone is a bull.


Fed: Three Fed speakers today. Yuck.


Earnings beats: AGN, W, MAR, AMC

Misses: ODP (TL), HTZ (TL, BL)


OTHER
Bonds: 2.401% versus 2.381% 10 year. Bonds sell, looking as if they are breaking the support of the rally test.

EUR/USD: 1.0878 vs 1.0928. Euro breaks higher.

USD/JPY: 114.105 vs 113.217. Dollar breaks higher, again, against the yen

Oil: 46.23, -0.20. Oil is struggling, struggling to hold the bottom of the range.

Gold: 1220.50, -6.60. Gold is also starting to break support.


Futures continue to hold modest gains into the open though the upside has stalled a bit the past half hour. It is all about the bids, the slow build into breaks higher for the indices. Plenty of good patterns, just have to make good on them. We are watching for some of these to break higher.

A quick check of some of the quote services and there appears to be a glitch in the system this morning. Nothing reported on the financial stations yet, but the SPY feed has apparently gone down the past 15 minutes.


Jon Johnson, Chief Market Strategist
InvestmentHouse.com
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