A Busy Week Ahead

Good morning. Premarket futures have been volatile this morning as traders prepare for upcoming earnings, react to another drop in oil prices, and even more chatter for expectations of increased M&A for a variety of stocks and sectors. The release of the Empire State manufacturing report, which came in much weaker than expected, diminished some of the premarket optimism.

Gainers of interest this morning include ZVXI, AMTD, NFLX, PWEI, HIHO, VRA, HNAB, SPIR, HEPH, HSOA, TSTC, BRNC, YRCW, SHPGY, DNDN, ERIC, MRVC, STTS, FFHL, BIDU, CHINA, TISA, OPWV, BCRX, and RFMD. Premarket losers are SYMC, INWK, AMLN, EPEX, NVLS, CNE, KLAC, RIMM, and CBRL.

Although seasonal trends have not been particularly excellent tells recently, there is some historical precedent to see strength ahead of the holiday (like we did last week) followed by weakness after. Clearly, how investors respond to earnings reports (Intel's report tonight will help set the tone) will be extremely important. Given that we're set to have a 4-day trading week with options expiration on Friday, it's time to buckle up, roll up our sleeves and get to work. It's going to be a very busy week ahead - let's make it count!