Before the Open (Aug 12)

Good morning. Happy Wednesday. Happy Fed Day.
Today at about 2:15 ET the FOMC targets the overnight rate (rate at which banks borrow from each other) and sets the discount rate (rate at which banks borrow from the Fed). Both are at rock bottom levels and can’t be lowered, so the only question is whether rates are raised or kept the same and of course every word used in their “statement” will be over analyzed to the nth degree by CNBC. …
I don’t know anyone or any source that expects rates to be raised, so that would be a surprise. As far as their statement goes, the Fed has been nice to Wall St. the last several meetings, but given the market has rallied huge off its March lows, they have a cushion to work with. They could act tough knowing that a little sell-off won’t spell doom for the market.
The market tends to chop around after the Fed announcement and then trend into the close. But it also has a tendency to reverse the move the next day. If not for the Fed, I’d be expecting more downside. There are many negative divergences popping up on the daily charts, and the market no longer has that feel that it’ll be bought up no matter what. But with the Fed, you never know. A nice set up would be a rally today followed by a gap up and sell-off tomorrow.
Here’s the 15-day, 15-min chart I posted yesterday. It shows some levels that may act as support or resistance. More after the open.

headlines at Yahoo Finance
stocks to watch from MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
yesterday’s Sector Performance
this week’s Earnings Reports
this week’s Economic Numbers