Before the Open (Dec 4)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China closed up; Australia and Indonesia closed down. Europe is currently mixed. France, Amsterdam and Switzerland are doing well; Norway and Greece are not. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are getting hit hard.
Here are the key headlines…
The yield on Italian 10-year sovereign bonds hit its lowest level in 2 years.
The Reserve Bank of Australia cut its key benchmark interest rate from 3.25% to 3.00%.
Autozone (AZO) is down 1.5%, Pep Boys (PBY) is down 6.4% – both earnings related.
Toll Brothers (TOL) is up 3.6%…earnings related.
Baxter (BAX) is buying privately-held Gambro AB (Sweden) for $4 billion.
Vail Resorts (MTN) said its Q1 loss widened and it will be more difficult than anticipated to meet their prior growth goals. The stock is down 7.3%.
Big Lots (BIG) posted a loss that was less than expected. The stock is up 12%.
MetroPCS (PCS) is down 5.9%…rumor is Sprint Nextel (S) won’t make a counteroffer.
Pandora (P) is up 5.9%.
Yesterday the market gapped up and then stair-stepped down all day. Thanks to the opening print, losses weren’t great, but the intraday was a little painful for the bulls. Heading into the day and week I was looking for a mini correction or at least some sideways movement to allow the charts to re-set. Here’s the video I posted.
My opinion of the market hasn’t changed. In the very near term I’m looking for more weakness. In the intermediate term, the market rallied nicely off its lows (the easy move) but still has work to do to prove that the downtrend which began in September is over and a new uptrend underway. I’m cautiously optimistic the market will leg up again, but I’m not going to trade under the assumption it will happen. As I said the market has some proving to do. For now I’m looking for more weakness. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers