Stocks’ Winning Streak, Lowe’s Earnings

Good morning contrarians! Welcome to the Daily Contrarian, our morning look at events likely to move markets. It is Tuesday, Aug. 20. The Bottom Line segment of today’s podcast starts at (2:55) for listeners who want to skip ahead.

State of Play

Stocks rallied yesterday with the Nasdaq leading major US indexes to officially escape from the correction territory it entered two weeks ago. As we look at our board of indicators for signs of direction at 0640, all is quiet:

• Stock index futures are flat as a board with no major US index moving at all from the break-even point;

• Commodities aren’t doing anything either, with WTI crude oil unchanged at $73.70/barrel and copper up just 0.3%;

• Cryptos are rallying, with Bitcoin up 5% to trade around $60,700;

• Bonds are unchanged. The 2-year yields 4.06% whilst the 10-year yields 3.88%.

Today’s Known Events

It’s another slow day. The Dog Days of Summer are officially upon us. No economic data releases to speak of. Not much in the way of earnings either.

Lowe’s (LOW 0.00%↑) just reported mixed results and lowered guidance but the stock is moving a bit higher in the pre-market, up 1% at the time of this writing.

That’s it for economically-sensitive stocks reporting earnings before the open. After the close we’ll hear from Toll Brothers (TOL 0.00%↑), La-Z-Boy (LZB 0.00%↑), and Coty (COTY 0.00%↑), among others.