Fedspeak & Earnings

Good morning. Stock futures are pointing to a weak open after earnings from Alcoa (AA) missed Wall Street's profit expectations. Investors also appear nervous ahead of the afternoon speech by Richmond Fed Bank President Jeffrey Lacker who was the sole dissenter in the Fed's September decision to leave rates unchanged. The FOMC minutes will also be the focus this afternoon.

Premarket trading has a negative bias to it with few gainers (RMBS, INFY, NRPH, PEIX, ATML, BLDP, RVSN) and quite a few downside movers (AMTD, SCHW, ACOR, DVAX, ACGY, SHPGY, BRCM, MRVL, CHTT, BRCD, LM, VOXX, DNA). So far the pullbacks we've seen have been shallow and quite weak though a number of folks are looking for "selling on the news" situation as earnings season gets underway. If recent days have been any indication, the buyers remained focused on the unloved groups (energy, home-builders) versus the top performers. That kind of rotation is healthy and necessary for the overbought sectors to work off their overbought conditions. After the run we've seen, a few days, if not a few weeks of more consolidation and rotation would be good for this market.

I'm ready to put some money to work and I have a few stocks I'm watching closely, but I'm not going to force it if I don't see the trade. Have a great day!