{"id":746,"date":"2008-11-21T06:30:11","date_gmt":"2008-11-21T11:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=746"},"modified":"2008-11-21T06:30:11","modified_gmt":"2008-11-21T11:30:11","slug":"before-the-open-169","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=746","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. It\u2019s options expiration day.
\nFor the most part, the world markets are brushing aside the extreme weakness from the US.
\nAsia\/Pacific<\/b> is trading mostly up, and there are some big winners. India and Seoul closed up more than 5%. Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong gained almost 3%. Australia and Taiwan almost 2%. China and Indonesia fell slightly.
\nIn Europe<\/b>, Spain and Norway are up more than 1% while France Germany, Italy, Stockholm and the Swiss market are down more than 1%. London is flat.
\nFutures here in the States indicate a gap up open for the cash market, but considering yesterday huge late-day sell-off, the market is hardly in good shape. Nevertheless, 30-min before the open, the Nas 100<\/b> is up 17.25 (1.66%) to trade at 1056.75 while the SPX<\/b> is up 20.25 (2.71%) to trade at.768.50.
\nLots of extremes are being hit. SPX<\/b> is at an 11-year low. Jobless claims<\/b> surged to a 16-year high. The number of people collecting unemployment benefits<\/b> has reached its highest level since 1982. The demand for a safe storage place has pushed US Treasuries<\/b> down to a 3% yield. The S&P financials index<\/b> dropped to a 13-year low.
\nSupposedly the big 3 auto makers<\/b> have reached an agreement with a group of senators on a bailout package, but such would still have to be voted on, and yesterday it was clearly stated the auto makers aren\u2019t getting any money until they first produce a game plan as to how it would spent.
\nHeinz<\/b> (HNZ) profit rose 22% in Q2, boosted by frozen food sales and currency hedging.
\nDell<\/b> (DELL) Q3 profit dropped 5% as business spending on PC fell.
\nBank of New York Mellon<\/b> (BK) is cutting 1,800 jobs or about 4% of its workforce.
\nAnn Taylor<\/b> (ANN) swung to a loss in the third quarter due to restructuring charges and a consumer spending drop off, and said it would curtail capital spending to combat the weak environment.
\nJ.M. Smucker <\/b> (SJM) Q2 profit rose 3% and they maintain their full-year profit outlook.
\nCitigroup<\/b> (C) is finally admitting they may sell part or all of the company.
\nDick\u2019s Sporting Goods<\/b> (DKS) is slowing their store expansion because people are spending less on sports equipment in this sluggish economy.
\nThe New York Times <\/b> (NYT) cut its dividend 74%, and an analyst cut its price target to $7.50 from $12.
\nImage Entertainment <\/b> (DISK) is selling itself to San Francisco investment group Nyx Acquisitions for cash.
\nMoody\u2019s lowered Nordstrom\u2019s<\/b> (JWN) outlook to negative from stable, citing the retailer\u2019s Q3 same-store sales decline.
\nHonda<\/b> (HMC) is cutting global output amid slowing demand. Production will be reduced by 140,000 vehicles worldwide.
\nJP Morgan <\/b> (JPM) is cutting 10% of its investment banking staff.
\nNike<\/b> (NKE) is boosting its quarterly dividend 9% to 25 cents.
\nGold<\/b> is up 2.95%…silver<\/b> up 5.16%.
\nCrude oil<\/b> is flat and trading at $48.70 \u2013 first time in 3 years oil is below $50.
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UPGRADES<\/b><\/td>\nGPS, BXS, HCSG, CRM, SWC, PEC, OSG, NIHD, NVTL, CYBX, INTU, MCHX, FSS, FARO, DISCA, CXG, CLF, E, DRI, MYGN, BMRN, LTD, WSH, ARBA, MSFT <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DOWNGRADES<\/b><\/td>\nTD, TNL, PEIX, LEE, HBI, GVA, CCRN, BKR, AVX, ZUMZ, DELL, VMW, MCHP, CE, SPR, GR, BEAV, SOL, ADSK, ORCL <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
EARNINGS<\/b>
\n<\/tr>\n
before the open<\/td>\n ANN, HNZ, SJM, KIRK<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
during trading<\/td>\n none<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
after the close<\/td>\n ANSV<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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

Good morning. Happy Friday. It\u2019s options expiration day. For the most part, the world markets are brushing aside the extreme weakness from the US. Asia\/Pacific is trading mostly up, and there are some big winners. India and Seoul closed up more than 5%. Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong gained almost 3%. Australia and Taiwan almost […]<\/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\/746"}],"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=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}