Kick Off Time!

Markets are testing the downside in choppy morning trade as investors approach the kick off to a mass of earnings releases this week with caution. Over 800 companies and half of the Dow components release earnings results this week.

Preliminary earnings have given participants little to cheer, so far, with early results coming in no more than one or two cents above views, despite heavy downward guidance in the prelude to earnings’ releases.

The Dow is down 37 at 10,500, the Nasdaq is down 45.59 at 2039, and the S&P 500 is off 9.69 at 1205.91.

Selected financials and banks are getting a boost following Citigroup’s
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announcement that profits rose by 13%. Citigroup gapped open and rallied early in the session but found resistance at its overhead 200-day moving average. Still up .82 at 49.68, Citigroup is filling the morning gap, but is still one of the strongest stocks on the Dow.

SBC Communications
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is extending off an expansion bar traced last Wednesday and is trading at fresh one-month highs to hand in the best percentage gain on the Dow. SBC is up .95 at 45.90.

Biotech
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is very weak today. Dave Landry in his “Stock Trading Outlook” column pointed out that stocks in the sector such as Protein Design Labs
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and Human Genome Sciences
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looked vulnerable and were possible (follow-through) shorting opportunities. Both are down and trading near multi-month lows.

Also in this group, Landry pointed out that Abgenix
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“may have put in a major top and looks poised to breakdown out of a Bow Tie.” Bow Ties are a setup Landry shares in his book Dave Landry On Swing Trading. ABGX is off 11% at 29.45.

No sector is up more than 1%, while oil services
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—6.33%, biotech
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—5.80%, semiconductors
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—4.69%, and the Pacific High Tech index
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—3.08% are pressuring the to the downside.