{"id":722,"date":"2008-12-08T06:30:44","date_gmt":"2008-12-08T11:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=722"},"modified":"2008-12-08T06:30:44","modified_gmt":"2008-12-08T11:30:44","slug":"before-the-open-156","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=722","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

y Monday.
\nThe market finished last week on a great note and it\u2019ll continue to sentiment this morning with a huge gap up. It\u2019s not how we\u2019d prefer to start the week, but it is what it is. Hopefully all the bullish patterns we posted over the weekend will still be playable after today\u2019s open.
\n30 min before the open, Nas 100 futures<\/b> are up 29.25 (2.48%) to trade at 1207.50 and SPX futures<\/b> are up 28 (3.21%) to trade at 900.50.
\nThe Asian\/Pacific<\/b> markets had fantastic days. Hong Kong rallied over 8%, Seoul better than 7%, Japan more than 5%, Taiwan 4% and Australia and China better than 3%.
\nEurope<\/b> is currently doing equally well. France and Amsterdam are up more than 7%, Germany better than 6%, Italy, Stockholm and London more than 5% and everything else isn\u2019t far behind.
\nCredit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s lowered Russia’s foreign currency sovereign credit rating<\/b> a notch on Monday, citing heavy outflows of capital amid the global financial turmoil.
\nPresident-Elect Obama<\/b> has promised to implement the largest infrastructure spending package<\/b> since the 1950\u2019s. This no doubt will help the industrial metals group (copper, aluminum, steel etc)
\nMetLife<\/b> (MET) has issued 2009 operating EPS guidance well below analyst consensus.
\n3M<\/b> (MMM) reduced its guidance for 2008 EPS and is cutting 1,800 jobs worldwide. Some workers will be ordered to take time off.
\nMcDonald\u2019s<\/b> (MCD) same store sales rise 7.7% in November worldwide\u2026.the number was 4.5% in the US.
\nDow Chemical<\/b> (DOW) is cutting 5,000 jobs and closing 20 plants in an attempt to save over $700 million.
\nReliant Energy<\/b> (RRI) said Friday it terminated a $300 million credit facility with a Merrill Lynch<\/b> (MER) unit as its board reviews strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of part or all of the company.
\nDisney<\/b> (DIS) is going to buy the outstanding shares of European media company Jetix.
\nChesapeake Energy<\/b> (CHK), the nation’s largest producer of natural gas, said it is canceling a plan to sell shares, cutting capital expenditures and output and will sell assets to raise up to $4 billion, while assuring investors that it has ample liquidity.
\nDeutsche Boerse<\/b> (Germany) rebuffs rumors on NYSE<\/b> (US) merger talks; flatly declares it has nothing to report
\nTribune<\/b> (TXA) is considering bankruptcy.
\nUBS<\/b> (UBS) is supposedly considering as many as 4,500 more job cuts (they\u2019ve already cut 9,000).
\nHSBC<\/b> (HBC) is planning to increase funding available for UK mortgage lending by 20% in 2009.
\nGold<\/b> is up 3.16% and silver<\/b> is up 8.25%.
\nCrude oil<\/b> is up 2.65 to trade at 43.46.
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UPGRADES<\/b><\/td>\n\n

CHK, KGC, SFD, NEW, DVN<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

DOWNGRADES<\/b><\/td>\n UTX, NX, AUY, JNPR, RHI, NFLX, DTG, BYD, MEOH, ELON, CBST, CSL, LECO, GDP <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
EARNINGS<\/b>
\n<\/tr>\n
before the open<\/td>\nnone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
during trading<\/td>\nnone <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
after the close<\/td>\n GMTN, HRB, LTRE, MIND, NSM, PBY <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-
\nECONOMIC RELEASES<\/b>
\nnone
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

y Monday. The market finished last week on a great note and it\u2019ll continue to sentiment this morning with a huge gap up. It\u2019s not how we\u2019d prefer to start the week, but it is what it is. Hopefully all the bullish patterns we posted over the weekend will still be playable after today\u2019s open. […]<\/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\/722"}],"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=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}