{"id":704,"date":"2008-12-23T06:30:30","date_gmt":"2008-12-23T11:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=704"},"modified":"2008-12-23T06:30:30","modified_gmt":"2008-12-23T11:30:30","slug":"before-the-open-147","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=704","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
\nThe Asian\/Pacific<\/b> markets closed with sizeable losses. China fell 4.65, Hong Kong, India, Seoul and Taiwan more than 2% and Singapore more than 1%. Japan was closed.
\nEurope<\/b> is mostly up. Austria, Belgium and Amsterdam are up more than 1%. There are no other 1% movers. France, Germany and London are ups slightly.
\nFutures here in the States are mixed and flat. 40 min before the open, Nas 100 futures<\/b> are down 3.25 (0.22%) to trade at 1193.75 and SPX futures<\/b> are up 0.25 (0.03%) to trade at 871.50.
\nThe British economy<\/b> contracted 0.6% in the third quarter \u2013 more than expected \u2013 prompting expectations the Bank of England<\/b> may cut interest rates to near 0% in the coming year.
\nStandard & Poor\u2019s cut GM\u2019s<\/b> (GM) debt rating and Moody\u2019s cut Ford\u2019s<\/b> (F) debt rating.
\nStarwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide<\/b> (HOT) had its corporate-credit rating cut by Standard & Poor’s.
\nCIT<\/b> (CIT) received approval to convert to a bank holding company, which will allow the commercial finance lender to receive a capital injection from the Treasury as part of the TARP program. Word is they\u2019ll be receiving $2.33 billion.
\nTextron<\/b> (TXT) says it will eliminate 2,200 jobs and exit the finance business.
\nUnisys<\/b> (UIS) is cutting 1,300 jobs globally as part of an effort to cut costs by more than $225 million a year.
\nGlaxoSmithKline<\/b> (GSK) and Archemix Corp. <\/b> said Tuesday they will work together to develop drugs for inflammatory diseases in a deal that could be worth as much as $1.4 billion.
\nWynn Resorts <\/b> (WYNN) has opened the new $2.3 billion Encore casino in Vegas.
\nAmerican Greetings<\/b> (AM) said it swung to a third-quarter loss as hefty charges, a decline in sales, and a tough economy hurt quarterly results for the greeting card company.
\nAn official in California<\/b> says the state could be broke in 2 months if a budget deal isn\u2019t struck.
\nNational restaurant, hotel and casino company Landry’s Restaurants<\/b> (LNY) said late Monday it signed an $81 million credit agreement and is using the financing to refinance debt under a prior credit deal.
\nShareholders of PNC Financial Services Group<\/b> (PNC) will hold a special shareholders meeting to vote on issues related to a merger with National City<\/b> (NCC).
\nOld Dominion<\/b> (ODFL) cut its full-year earnings prediction on Tuesday, citing a steep slowdown in shipments, poor pricing and harsh winter weather.
\nWeyerhaeuser<\/b> (WY), a forest products company, said it completed a tender offer to repurchase $250 million in outstanding notes.
\nGold Fields<\/b> (GFI) reiterated its gold production forecast for its fiscal Q2 and sees lower costs from a favorable foreign exchange rate.
\nAlcoa<\/b> (AA) said it agreed to exchange equity stakes in certain Scandinavian businesses with Orkla ASA so the companies can play to their respective strengths.
\nRed Hat <\/b> (RHT) said that earnings for the third fiscal quarter grew nearly 20% despite a hit to revenue from unfavorable exchange rates.
\nTextron <\/b> (TXT) lowered its adjusted fourth-quarter earnings outlook and said it will trim about 5% of its worldwide workforce.
\nTibco Software<\/b> (TIBX) reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $32.3 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with a profit of $27.6 million, or 14 cents a share, for the year-earlier period.
\nGold<\/b> is down 0.79% and Silver<\/b> is down 2.04%.
\nCrude oil<\/b> is 5 cents to trade at $39.96.
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UPGRADES<\/b><\/td>\n RHT, PTI, AXYS <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DOWNGRADES<\/b><\/td>\n SINA, FE, WDC, KEG, RRR, VTIV, DYS, EPG <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
EARNINGS<\/b>
\n<\/tr>\n
before the open<\/td>\nAM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
during trading<\/td>\nnone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
after the close<\/td>\nFSII<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-
\nECONOMIC RELEASES<\/b>
\n8:30 Chain Deflator-Final
\n8:30 GDP-Final
\n10:00 Existing Home Sales
\n10:00 Mich Sentiment-Rev.
\n10:00 New Home Sales
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday. The Asian\/Pacific markets closed with sizeable losses. China fell 4.65, Hong Kong, India, Seoul and Taiwan more than 2% and Singapore more than 1%. Japan was closed. Europe is mostly up. Austria, Belgium and Amsterdam are up more than 1%. There are no other 1% movers. France, Germany and London are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}