{"id":748,"date":"2008-11-19T06:30:13","date_gmt":"2008-11-19T11:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=748"},"modified":"2008-11-19T06:30:13","modified_gmt":"2008-11-19T11:30:13","slug":"before-the-open-171","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=748","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
\nDespite the strong finish by the US markets yesterday, the world markets did not follow through, and the US cash market is set to give back about half of yesterday\u2019s late-day gains.
\nIn Asia\/Pacific<\/b>, China rallied 6%, but everything else was down. India, Singapore and Seoul each lost more than 1%.
\nEurope<\/b> is currently down across the board. Germany, Norway and Stockholm are down more than 3%. Belgium, France, Amsterdam, Switzerland and London are down more than 2%. Everything else is down at least 1%.
\nHere in the States, 30 minutes before the open, Nas 100 futures<\/b> are down 25.25 (2.15%) to trade at 1148.75; S&P 500 futures<\/b> are down 19.5 (2.25%) to trade at 847.0.
\nUBS<\/b> is down 4% in Europe \u2013 JP Morgan cut its 2009 earnings estimates.
\nBASF<\/b> (German company) is temporarily closing 80 plants worldwide due to slumping demand and cut production at 100 others, moves that will affect 20,000 workers. They also abandon their 2008 forecast.
\nYesterday was the first time since 1958 the S&P500 dividend yield<\/b> (3.57%) moved above the 10-year T-note<\/b> (3.54%)
\nDetroit CEO\u2019s <\/b>are scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services committee on their request for a bailout (the testified before the Senate committee yesterday).
\nBest Buy\u2019s<\/b> (BBY) credit rating has been lowered by Standard & Poors due to the belief that BBY will be more challenged than previously expected by the current weak economic environment and that credit metrics will deteriorate as a result of a deepening spending pull-back by consumers.
\nMGM Mirage<\/b> (MGM) has announced the election of a new chairman and CEO.
\nRoyal Caribbean <\/b> (RCL) is discontinuing its common stock dividend.
\nToyota<\/b> (TM) is reducing production in the US and cutting about 250 temporary workers at their Georgetown, KY location.
\nGerman solar energy company SolarWorld AG<\/b> said it plans to offer $1.26 billion for some assets of car maker Adam Opel GmbH<\/b>, the German subsidiary of GM, through cash and credit.
\nBJ\u2019s Wholesale\u2019s<\/b> (BJ) Q3 profit rose 24%; the company raised its outlook for the year.
\nInsituform<\/b> (INSU) is cutting 35 positions as part of a cost-saving restructuring effort.
\nHewlett Packard<\/b> (HPQ) introduced the company’s first notebook computer with multi-touch technology, promising users the same fingertip navigation built into previous HP desktops and popularized by Apple’s iPhone. (now when will there be a touch screen trading terminal?)
\nOrbitz<\/b> (OWW) rating has been cut to negative by Moody\u2019s.
\nThe President and CEO of Savient <\/b> (SVNT) has resigned.
\nThe chief merchandizing officer of Bebe<\/b> (BEBE) is leaving the company.
\nTeva<\/b> (TEVA) has been granted approval by the US FDA for a generic version of AstraZeneca\u2019s <\/b> (AZN) child asthma medication.
\nRestaurant chain Jack in the Box <\/b> (JBX), which also owns the Qdoba Mexican Grill chain, said Q4 profit was essentially flat and expects its fiscal Q1 profit to fall below its year-ago results due to higher costs and volatile financial markets.
\nGold<\/b> is down 0.37%…silver<\/b> down 2.50%.
\nCrude oil<\/b> is down 49 cents to trade at $53.90.
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UPGRADES<\/b><\/td>\nTTGT, LPX, ED, VECO, UTHR, SAFM, COGT, PSUN <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DOWNGRADES<\/b><\/td>\nSOL, CENX, ARB, SUN <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
EARNINGS<\/b>
\n<\/tr>\n
before the open<\/td>\n BJ, EV, LDK, MENT, ROST, TSL, TWB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
during trading<\/td>\n none<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
after the close<\/td>\n CYBX, DBRN, EGLT, GYMB, HOTT, INTU, LTD, LDG, MW, PETM, PLNR, SMTC, TK, WGOV<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

—————————————————————————————-
\nECONOMIC RELEASES<\/b>
\n8:30 Building Permits
\n8:30 Core CPI
\n8:30 CPI
\n8:30 Housing Starts
\n14:00 FOMC Minutes
\n—————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday. Despite the strong finish by the US markets yesterday, the world markets did not follow through, and the US cash market is set to give back about half of yesterday\u2019s late-day gains. In Asia\/Pacific, China rallied 6%, but everything else was down. India, Singapore and Seoul each lost more than 1%. […]<\/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\/748"}],"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=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}