Benzinga Market Primer: Friday May 24

The buy on the dip mentality seems to be alive and well in this market as the Dow erased a loss of more than 120 points to end close to flat on the day. Let’s not forget that this is a market that found a way to attract buyers on a day when the Nikkei was down more than 7 percent and took most of the global markets with it.

This morning, markets around the world are quiet with most major averages near the flat line.

Morning News

S&P 500 futures are down nearly 3 points to 1647.25

The EUR/USD was up at 0.38 percent to 1.2984

German 10-year government bond yields are unchanged at 1.466 percent.

Italian 10-year government bond yields rose nearly 1 basis point to 4.014 percent.

Gold was down 0.47 percent to $1,386.60 per ounce.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told CNBCthat inflation needs to move closer to target before QE is tapered.

The Nekkei saw extreme volatility once again. Up more than 2 percent close to its open, it closed up just shy of 1 percent.

ECB head, Mario Draghi said that the euro zone was more stable than one year ago and that the region needed more integration with the U.K. as a part of that, according to CNBC.

Asia Pacific Markets

The Nikkei rebounded from Thursday’s plunge by gaining at the open but couldn’t find the continued buying interest. It ended up 0.89 percent to close at 14612.45.

Other markets were mostly up. The Kopsi was up 0.22 percent, the Shanghai composite was up 0.57 percent, and the ASX 200, the Australian index, was down 1.56 percent.

European Markets

European markets were up this morning. The Spanish Ibex Index was unchanged and the Italian FTSE MIB Index was up 0.35 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX was up 0.15 percent and the French CAC 40 was up 0.62 percent while the U.K. market was down 0.19 percent.

Commodities

Commodities followed other market cues and remain mostly flat. WTI Crude futures fell 0.07 percent to $94.28 per barrel while Brent Crude futures were up 0.05 percent to $102.49 per barrel. Copper futures were up 0.30 percent to $331.40 and silver futures were down 0.12 percent to $22.48 per ounce.

Currencies

The Japanese Yen was stronger against the dollar gaining 0.34 percent at101.66. The GBP/USD was down 0.02 percent at 1.5104, and the EUR/USD was up 0.38 percent to 1.2984

Earnings Reported Thursday

Sears HoldingsSHLD reported EPS of -$1.29 with revenues of $8.45 billion. Analysts expected EPS of $-0.65.

Gap, Inc.GPS reported EPS of $0.71 with revenues of $3.73 billion

Salesforce.com Inc.CRM reported EPS of $0.10 with revenues of $839 million.

Marvell TechnologyMRVL reported EPS of $0.19 with revenues of $734 million.

Pandora P reported EPS of -$0.10 on revenues of $125.05 million.

Friday’s Earnings

Abercrombie & FitchANF is expected to report EPS of -$0.05 with revenues of $942.86 million.

FootlockerFL is expected to report EPS of $0.87 with revenues of $1.63 billion.

Pre-Market Movers

Markets are clearly taking a breather this morning prior to the open, following the cue of world markets.

Procter & Gamble PG was up 1 percent on news that A.G. Lafley is taking over as CEO.

ComericaCMA was up 0.67 percent. The company was recently downgraded by Oppenheimer.

Gap was down 2.08 percent on disappointing earnings

Economics

Today, durable goods will be reported at 8:30 am EST.

Have a great day and remember to not only watch the major indices but also the breadth of the market. How are the sectors within the market acting?