{"id":4219,"date":"2011-04-19T07:22:34","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T12:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=4219"},"modified":"2011-04-19T07:22:34","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T12:22:34","slug":"before-the-open-apr-19-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=4219","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Apr 19)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down – Australia, China, Hong Kong and Japan lost more than 1%. Europe is mostly up – the Stockholm and Swiss markets are up more than 1%. Futures here in the States suggest a positive open for the cash market.
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\nThe market got hit hard yesterday after S&P lowered its outlook on the US’s long term debt from stable to negative. Everything moved down, but the closes were off the lows. It was bad, but it easily could have been worse. <\/span>
\nThe change in outlook means there’s a 33% chance the US will lose its AAA rating, which would result in having to pay highest interest rates on their debt. The dollar responsded with one of its biggest up days in a couple months. Here’s the chart. A falling dollar helps push stocks higher; a strengthening dollar has the opposite effect. <\/span>
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\nThe market is not looking great here, but it hasn’t completely fallen apart. It’s absorbed a lot of bad news the last month and has held up very well. Our list of good tradable set ups is not big – there really aren’t many good patterns out there, so for now, I’m maintaining my conservative stance because I have no problem waiting for better circumstances. More after the open.<\/span>
\nheadlines at Yahoo Finance<\/a><\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
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