Earnings, More Bad News for Oil

Good morning contrarians! Welcome to the Daily Contrarian, our morning look at events likely to move markets. It is Tuesday, Oct. 15. The Bottom Line segment of today’s podcast and Stocks on the Contrarian Radar©️ feat oil majors and LRN 0.00%↑ start at (3:00) for listeners who want to skip ahead.

State of Play

Stocks gained ground again yesterday as the S&P 500 closed at fresh record highs. As we eye our board of indicators for signs of direction at 0655 all is quiet outside of commodities markets:

• Commodities are continuing to drop. WTI crude oil is down 5% this morning to trade around $70/barrel. The cause appears to be a report by the International Energy Agency that speaks to slowing demand. Copper is down 1.4%;

• Stock index futures are flat as a board with no major US index moving more than 0.1% from the break-even point;

• Cryptos continue to gain ground with Bitcoin up 1.5% to trade close to $66,000;

• Bond yields are steady. The 2-year yields 3.95% whilst the 10-year yields 4.07%.

Today’s Known Events

A bunch of earnings happen before the open at 0930:

• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 0.00%↑) beat top- and bottom line estimates and appears to have raised guidance a bit. The stock is rising in the pre-market, up 1.5% at the time of this writing;

• Bank of America (BAC 0.00%↑) beat top- and bottom-line estimates and kept loan-loss provisions unchanged while reporting a rise in tangible book value. The stock is up a bit in the pre-market;

• Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA 0.00%↑), a Stock on the Contrarian Radar©️ last week, is up at the top of the hour;

• Goldman Sachs (GS 0.00%↑), Citigroup (C 0.00%↑), and Charles Schwab (SCHW 0.00%↑) also report before the open.

After the close, we’ll hear from United Airlines (UAL 0.00%↑), J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT 0.00%↑), and Interactive Brokers (IBKR 0.00%↑) report.