Before the Open (Jun 13)

Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across-the-board. Japan dropped more than 6%; China, Hong Kong and Taiwan dropped more than 2%; Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea dropped more than 1%. Europe is currently down across-the-board. Belgium, Germany, Stockholm, Switzerland and the Czech Republic are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a gap down open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are down. Gold is down, silver up.
The World Bank cut is global GDP forecast for 2013 from 2.4% to 2.2%.
The market feels like it’s on thin ice. Japan is down more than 20% off its recent high. Brazil is close to a 4-year low. China is at its lowest level since last fall.
Here’s an update of the 15-min SPX chart. Yesterday it lost the 1623-1625 zone I mentioned and suffered a stiff decline. The next support level is 1600; it’s a big one.

1600 was the April high and last week’s low…it’s also trendline support going back to the November low…and it’s pretty close to the 50-day MA. Here the daily chart.

I’m trying to give the bulls the benefit of the doubt. I’m giving them every opportunity to prove the market is still strong and worthy of being bought, but the bulls aren’t doing their job very well. Rallies aren’t lasting long or going far. Needless to say, the bulls are back on the clock. They no longer have much wiggle room. The must dig in and defend their turf.
Here are stock-specific stories from barchart.com…
Safeway (SWY -0.86%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at Citigroup.
The NY Post reported that California congresswoman Linda Sanchez has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Herbalife (HLF +4.36%) over allegations the company is a pyramid scheme.
Waste Management (WM -0.30%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at Goldman.
Ross Stores (ROST -0.49%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Neutral” at Sterne Agee with a price target of $75.
International Paper (IP -2.82%) was upgraded to “Conviction Buy” from “Neutral” at Goldman.
Reuters reported that Apple (AAPL -1.24%) is considering launching iPhones with bigger screens, as well as cheaper models in a range of colors, over the next year.
Gilead (GILD -2.42%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Hold” at Argus with a price target of $62 and Celgene (CELG -0.54%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Hold” at Argus with a price target of $140.
Gannett (GCI -1.59%) will acquire Belo (BLC -3.51%) for $13.75 per share, or approximately $1.5 billion.
Also, IBM is laying off thousands of workers worldwide.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers