Before the Open (Apr 15)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China, Hong Kong and Japan dropped more than 1%. Europe is currently down across the board. Austria is down 2%; Germany, Norway, Stockholm, London, the Czech Republic and Greece are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down slightly. Oil and copper are down (oil is below 90). Gold and silver are getting killed.
I don’t have anything to add to the comments I made over the weekend in the weekly report and video. The trend is super solid; the long side is the only side to be on. But I’m not entirely convinced last week’s breakout (the Russell did not breakout) is the real thing. In my opinion the market has some proving to do. Some key groups are lagging, and many breadth indicators are closer to multi-month lows than highs – odd considering the market just made a new high. I’m not bearish by a long shot. I’m just not ready to throw all caution to the wind and go all in.
Dish Networks (DISH) is making a bid for Sprint Nextel (S).
Other than mentioning the premarket movement, I never talk about gold, but it’s worth mentioning the metal is getting absolutely killed. It started last Friday above 1550. Today’s low is 1400. It’s a subtle reminder to not get married to a position. Gold has been a great performer for more than a decade; now it’s getting clobbered. AAPL was a great performer for most of the last eight years; now it’s down about 40%. My friend Gary talks about stocks and other positions as if they’re employees. They’re hired to do a job, and when they stop doing their job, he fires them and hires someone else. No emotional attachment whatsoever.
The market has some proving to do. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers