{"id":743,"date":"2008-11-26T06:30:07","date_gmt":"2008-11-26T11:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=743"},"modified":"2008-11-26T06:30:07","modified_gmt":"2008-11-26T11:30:07","slug":"before-the-open-166","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=743","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday and Happy early Thanksgiving. Today should be fairly normal the first couple hours, but then volume will die down after lunch. The market is closed tomorrow and is only open a half-day on Friday.
\nYesterday presented one of the most obvious no-brainer trades for day-traders we\u2019ve seen in a long time. After two solid up days, the gap up wasn\u2019t going to go unfilled. After it filled, the indexes chopped around and mostly closed up. But today\u2019s open will open the cash market near yesterday\u2019s lows.
\n30 min before the open, Nas 100 futures<\/b> are down 5 (0.4%) to trade at 1130.50 and SPX futures<\/b> are down 14 (1.64%) to trade at 839. Most of these losses have come since 7:30 am ET.
\nThe Asian\/Pacific<\/b> markets closed most up. Seoul rallied almost 5% and Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Singapore closed up more than 3%. Australia lost 2.68% and Japan fell 1.33%.
\nChina’s central bank<\/b> today slashed its key one-year lending rate by 108 bp to 5.58%.
\nSingapore manufacturing<\/b> plummeted 13 percent in October from a year earlier as demand for the city-state’s electronic and pharmaceutical exports dried up amid the global economic slowdown.
\nEurope<\/b> is down across the board. Losses are noticeable. Austria is down 5%, France is down more than 3% and Belgium, Germany, Amsterdam, Switzerland and London are down more than 2%. There are no up markets.
\nThe European Commission<\/b> wants EU governments to jointly combat the growing economic slowdown with a $256.22 billion stimulus plan to boost growth and confidence among consumers and businesses.
\nThe number of banks in the US categorized as \u201cproblem\u201d institutions<\/b> increased 46% in Q3 to the highest level in 13 years.
\nToyota<\/b> (TM) had its debt rating cut by Fitch Ratings to AA from AAA due to weak US auto sales. The stock is down almost 5% in Tokyo.
\nCisco<\/b> (CSCO) says it plans to close its North American offices for 5 days in order to save $1 billion in costs. It\u2019s an interesting concept. Instead of laying people off, have everyone take 5 days off (unpaid I\u2019m assuming).
\nTiffany<\/b> (TIF) posted better-than-expected Q3 profit but warned of worse-than-expected 2008 results as consumers cut back on spending amid a tough economy. They plan to reduce staffing and trim capital spending.
\nNew jobless claims<\/b> fell more than expected last week from a 16-year high, the government said Wednesday, though they remain at elevated levels due to the slowing economy. Initial requests for unemployment benefits<\/b> fell to a seasonally adjusted 529,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 543,000. That is lower than analysts’ expectations of 537,000.
\nOrders to US factories for durable goods<\/b> plunge by 6.2 percent, biggest decline in 2 years.
\nConsumer spending<\/b> falls by 1 percent in October, largest drop since terrorist attacks of 2001.
\nDiscount retailer and pharmacy chain Fred’s <\/b> (FRED) posted a 32% rise in Q3 profit on lower expenses, despite flat sales. The company reaffirmed its full-year profit outlook.
\nLandauer<\/b> (LDR) increases its regular quarterly dividend by 5 percent to 5.25 cents.
\nDillard’s<\/b> (DDS) says Q3 loss widens as weak economy keeps shoppers from department stores.
\nCanadian telecom company BCE<\/b> (BCE) said its $35 billion privatization deal may be in jeopardy, as a preliminary review has found the proposed acquisition may not meet solvency requirements.
\nJohnson & Johnson<\/b> (JNJ) said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected its new-drug application for ceftobiprole, an antibiotic for the treatment of complicated skin and skin-structure infections, including diabetic-foot infections.
\nConn’s<\/b> (CONN), seller of home appliances and consumer electronics, said it lost $7.7 million in its fiscal Q3 partly due to store shut-downs because of hurricanes, credit problems and charges for asset write-downs. The company also said it would not meet its profit targets for the year.
\nBusiness analytics firm Fair Isaac<\/b> (FIC) said its chief financial officer, Charles Osborne, will retire on July 31.
\nAn analyst has cut 2009 profit estimates for Jacobs Engineering <\/b> (JEC).
\nSpecialty fibers maker Buckeye Technologies<\/b> (BKI) said it will reduce production at two cotton specialty fiber facilities because of softening demand.
\nDeere’s<\/b> (DE) fiscal 4th-quarter profit sinks 18 percent on closing of facility, higher tax rate.
\nCentral Garden & Pet<\/b> (CENT) said its fiscal fourth-quarter loss widened to $13.9 million as it recorded a $27.8 million charge to write down certain assets.
\nSteve & Barry’s<\/b> said Wednesday liquidation sales of its 173 remaining stores across the country are beginning this week and expected to last five to seven weeks, with some stores closing sooner.
\nTitle insurer LandAmerica Financial Group<\/b> (LFG) said it will file for bankruptcy protection, while competitor Fidelity National Financial<\/b> (FNF) said it will acquire three of LandAmerica’s subsidiaries.
\nGold<\/b> is down 0.15%…I\u2019m getting a bad quote for silver<\/b> so I\u2019m not going to post it.
\nCrude oil<\/b> is down 44 cents to trade at 51.21.
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UPGRADES<\/b><\/td>\n CKR, ITC, ITRI, RTP, ARII, GOL, HLS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DOWNGRADES<\/b><\/td>\n DLTR, JCG, LIZ, CPB, EXM, DT, MPW, BHP, OMRI, CBE, CPRT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
EARNINGS<\/b>
\n<\/tr>\n
before the open<\/td>\n CONN, DE, FRED, SHMR, TIF, YGE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
during trading<\/td>\n THO<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
after the close<\/td>\n DDS, WEDC, ZOLT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-
\nECONOMIC RELEASES<\/b>
\n8:30 Durable Orders
\n8:30 Initial Claims
\n8:30 Personal Income
\n8:30 Personal Spending
\n9:45 Chicago PMI
\n10:00 Mich Sentiment-Rev.
\n10:00 New Home Sales
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday and Happy early Thanksgiving. Today should be fairly normal the first couple hours, but then volume will die down after lunch. The market is closed tomorrow and is only open a half-day on Friday. Yesterday presented one of the most obvious no-brainer trades for day-traders we\u2019ve seen in a long time. […]<\/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\/743"}],"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=743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}