Good morning traders,

• Note a lot happening overnight, as markets seem to kind of be in a wait and see mode.  Asia ex China is up roughly 0.5%, while China is down -2%.  Europe is also a mixed bag.  Ireland up a full percent (check news on Ireland this morning if you haven’t seen it), while the other European indexes range between +0.4 to – 0.8%.  The only large mover overnight is Dubai, up 1.4%.
• Some moves in forex, while not significant on their own, deserve our attention.  the AUDJPY has been trading near support at the top of a much larger range, and is up 1.4 standard deviations this morning.  USDHKD has been extremely strong, and is continuing the run.  The EUR and GBP are both weak against most of their trading partners, leaving a slightly position (+0.2%) net impact on the US Dollar index.  No huge moves here early this Monday morning, but definitely some themes to monitor throughout the day.
• Metals are slightly stronger this morning, but within a range that could simply be overnight noise.  My sense is that the bears had their chance in Gold and Silver last week, but really failed to produce any breakdown below support.  I would lean slightly long on the complex coming into this week, as Platinum and Palladium have held onto their gains near resistance very well.
• Bit of a mixed bag in energy this morning, with WTI Crude down slightly and distillates are up.  (Heating Oil made new 52 week high overnight).  Nothing really to note here in early trading.
• Chicago grains are up this morning, possibly looking to extend their recent bull runs.  Do not assume these will have followthrough to the major Ag stocks we follow on a day to day basis though.
• Still hard to find compelling sector plays, or to justify too much time on sector/market plays with so many good opportunities in individual names.  Watch the stocks that reported today, of course, but also PLCM, TPX, STI, JRCC, BEXP and ACOR (not an exhaustive list) for second day followthrough.
• I will tweat the In Play list early this morning… always some good opportunities on that list.

Good trading,