Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across the board. Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Australia are down the most. Europe is down across the board. Norway is down 2%; Austria, Stockholm, Switzerland, Prague, Russia and Greece are down around 1% or more. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
The dollar is down. Oil is up, copper is flat. Gold is down, silver are up.
The market pulled back hard yesterday…well, actually it wasn’t a hard pullback. None of the indexes dropped more than 1%, but because there’s been such a slow and steady bid under the market since the middle of last month, yesterday felt intense even though it wasn’t.
My stance remains the same. Over the weekend I stated I like the market long term but in the near term flat or down trading was likely given the divergences between the SPX and several breadth indicators I follow.
We got a slow day Monday and a down day Tuesday. No big deal. I’m hoping weakness lasts long enough to give us some lower entries on some strong stocks.
I’ve had a long bias for most of the last five years…it has served me and the Leavitt Brothers membership base well. It’s going to take a lot more than one measly down day to change this. Having an overall long bias doesn’t mean I’m all in and letting profits get wiped out. It just means that other than buying a couple inverse ETFs to make a couple bucks on the downside, I’m more interested in building a list of stocks to buy for the next leg up than aggressively going short. One of these days I’ll be wrong and the market really will top. That’s fine. I’d rather be on the wrong side once (after a 5-year run) than wrong constantly by trying to pick tops. More after the open.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Whole Foods Markets (WFM -0.74%) was initiated with an ‘Overweight’ at Morgan Stanley with a price target of $50.
Harley-Davidson (HOG -0.99%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at KeyBanc.
Walgreens (WAG -1.70%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Jefferies with a price target of $87.
General Mills (GIS -1.05%) reported Q4 EPS of 67 cents, below consensus of 72 cents.
Valmont (VMI -0.27%) lost 5% in after-hours trading after it lowered guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS view to $9.35-$9.65 from a prior view of $10.00-$10.50, well below consensus of $10.37.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems (LMT -0.88%) has been awarded a $1.86 billion government contract modification to a previously awarded contract for Space-Based Infrared Systems Geosynchronous Earth Orbit 5 and 6 satellites, including performance incentives and options for acoustic testing and launch operations.
Affiliated Managers (AMG -0.89%) will replace Forest Labs (FRX +1.31%) in the S&P 500 as of the close on June 30.
Bristol-Myers (BMY +0.62%) rose 2% in after-hours trading after it said that a Phase 3 study of its drug nivolumab given to patients with advanced melanoma conducted by the independent Data Monitoring Committee showed evidence of superior overall survival rates.
Gabelli reported a 5.39% stake in AMC Networks (AMCX -0.07%) .
Hibbett Sports (HIBB +0.07%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at BMO Capital with a price target of $64.
AK Steel (AKS -0.52%) said it will increase the base prices for for all of its stainless steel products, effective with shipments on July 6, by $40 per ton for automotive grades and by $200 to $300 per ton for all non-automotive grades, depending on the product.
Team (TISI -1.81%) pre-announced that it expects to report adjusted Q4 EPS of 60 cents, below the company’s previously issued adjusted earnings guidance for the current quarter of 65 cents-80 cents per share and below consensus of 71 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Durable Goods
8:30 GDP Q1
8:30 Corporate Profits
9:45 PMI Services Index Flash
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
1:00 PM Results of $13B, 2-Year FRN Auction
1:00 PM Results of $35B, 5-Year Note Auction
Notable earnings before today’s open: APOL, BKS, GIS, LNN, MON
Notable earnings after today’s close: BBBY, CWST, MLHR
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers
0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Jun 25)”
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Gabelli has an eye for value.
They were tricky yesterday: broke the resistance very soon after the bell, then didn’t hold the pullback which in a bullish move they’d have done. Instead they threatened the support, which they have broken overnight.
Right now they reacted to support at the SPX equivalent level of 1944.50. The absolute low of that support is 1941. If that is breached, then I’m not sure at the moment where they’ll stop.
Resistance overhead has been lowered. Now at 1956 up to 1960. If those levels hold, we’d be getting the signal that the upside might be over for a period of time.
Overnight futures were +2.50 to -6.0, at 915 -5.0.
ADDING AT 945
There was huge buying at the open. Watch resistance, and if broken, there will be a pullback. And it should hold 1952 to 1950. If it does, read bullish. If it doesn’t hold 1950 then they’re playing with us like yesterday.