{"id":706,"date":"2008-12-24T06:30:11","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T11:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=706"},"modified":"2008-12-24T06:30:11","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T11:30:11","slug":"before-the-open-148","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=706","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
\nToday is a half-day\u2026.tomorrow the market is closed\u2026.Friday is a full day, but we don\u2019t expect many traders to show up to work.
\nThe Asian\/Pacific<\/b> markets which were open closed mostly down. Seoul, Japan, India and China each lost more than 1%.
\nMany of the European<\/b> markets were closed. The few that were open lost ground. London, Belgium, France, and Amsterdam each lost ground.
\nFutures here in the States lean to the upside. 35 minutes before the open, Nas 100 futures<\/b> are up 3.75 (0.32%) to trade at 1188.25 while SPX futures<\/b> are up 2.5 (0.29%) to trade at 861.
\nJapan\u2019s Cabinet<\/b> approved a budget proposal Wednesday that, if passed by lawmakers, will push spending to record levels as the country battles a rapidly worsening recession.
\nRussia<\/b> will run a budget deficit in 2009 for the first time in a decade as low oil prices take their toll on government revenue, a Kremlin official said Wednesday, the state RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
\nMore news from Toyota<\/b> (TM). Their global vehicle sales plunged 21.8% in Nov \u2013 its worst drop in 8 years.
\nToshiba<\/b> said Wednesday it would build a new factory to boost production of advanced rechargeable batteries that can be used in hybrid cars and electric vehicles.
\nMusic, games and DVD retailer Zavvi<\/b>, Britain\u2019s largest independent entertainment retailer, files for bankruptcy protection, stores to remain open
\nWal-Mart<\/b> (WMT) settled a class-action lawsuits over wage-and-hour violations \u2013 it\u2019ll pay $640 million.
\nFitch<\/b>, citing weak performance and troubled financial unit, lowers Textron’s<\/b> (TXT) ratings to ‘BBB+’
\nAn investor who lost more than $1 billion in Madoff scandal commits suicide in Manhattan office
\nQuaker Chemical<\/b> (KWR) is cutting 10% of its workforce and declared a 23-cent Q4 dividend.
\nNavistar<\/b> (NAV) said it will restate earnings for the 9-month period ending Jul 31. This will boost earnings for the period.
\nCadbury PLC<\/b> (CBY) agrees to sell Australian drinks business to Asahi Breweries Ltd.
\nRyder<\/b> (R) agrees to buy Edart Leasing’s assets.
\nBritain’s Cambrian Mining<\/b> agrees to all-share takeover by Canada’s Western Canadian Coal<\/b>.
\nLockheed Martin<\/b> (LMT) agrees to buy Universal Systems; deal expected to close by early 2009
\nMicron<\/b> (MU) reported a fiscal Q1 net loss of 91 cents per share \u2013 analysts expected a loss of 45 cents per share.
\nStarbucks<\/b> (SBUX) will no longer guarantee a matching company contribution for employee 401k plans in 2009.
\nGold<\/b> is down 0.23% and Silver<\/b> is up 0.29%.
\nCrude oil<\/b> is down 1.86 to trade at 37.12.
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UPGRADES<\/b><\/td>\n SUPX, PLD, SLF, PLD <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DOWNGRADES<\/b><\/td>\n RCL, CCJ <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
EARNINGS<\/b>
\n<\/tr>\n
before the open<\/td>\n none <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
during trading<\/td>\nnone <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
after the close<\/td>\n none <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-
\nECONOMIC RELEASES<\/b>
\n8:30 Durable Orders
\n8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
\n8:30 Personal Income
\n8:30 Personal Spending
\n10:35 Crude Inventories
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday. Today is a half-day\u2026.tomorrow the market is closed\u2026.Friday is a full day, but we don\u2019t expect many traders to show up to work. The Asian\/Pacific markets which were open closed mostly down. Seoul, Japan, India and China each lost more than 1%. Many of the European markets were closed. The few […]<\/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\/706"}],"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=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}