{"id":10099,"date":"2016-12-16T08:49:19","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T13:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=10099"},"modified":"2016-12-16T08:49:19","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T13:49:19","slug":"before-the-open-dec-16-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=10099","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 16)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Quad Witching Day<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific<\/strong> markets closed mixed and little changed. Japan, China and Singapore moved up; Hong Kong, Indonesia and Taiwan moved down. Europe<\/strong> is currently mostly up, but gains are small. Greece is up 2.1%; Austria, Norway, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and the Netherlands are also doing well. Futures in the States<\/strong> point towards a positive open for the cash market. <\/span>
\n—————
\nJoin our email list<\/a> – get technical research reports sent directly to you.<\/strong>
\n—————<\/span>
\n The dollar is flat. Oil is up; copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up. <\/span>
\n If the market closes today where it is right now, most of the indexes will sport one of the smallest bodies on their weekly candlestick chart going back a few months. So despite this being Fed week, we haven’t gotten too much change between Monday’s open and today. <\/span>
\n Options expire today. Not just stock options, also index futures, index options and stock futures.<\/span>
\n I don’t see anything overly alarming with regards to the big picture. The trend is solidly up; volume has been very good; and longer term indicators are in good shape, meaning even if a top were to form, it would take several months for the indicators to lay the ground work.<\/span>
\n In the near term there are a few warnings. Several indicators are starting to diverge from their underlying price action. If this remains the case, I can definitely see a correction in the next couple weeks. But until proven otherwise, I’ll be treating it like a correction within an uptrend – not something to short…something to buy. <\/span>
\n Be patient with trades right now. We don’t have a huge list to work with. The market is resting. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n AvalonBay Communities (AVB -0.25%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Mizuho Securities USA with a 12-month target price of $190.<\/span>
\n Waste Management (WM +0.09%) boosted its quarterly dividend to 41.5 cents a share from 41 cents, and authorized a stock buyback of up to $750 million.<\/span>
\n Scientific Games (SGMS +2.64%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ a Macquarie Research.<\/span>
\n Adobe Systems (ADBE -0.67%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 87 cents, above consensus of 85 cents, although Q1 revenue of $1.625 billion was less than consensus of $1.65 billion.<\/span>
\n Las Vegas Sands (LVS -2.63%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $68.<\/span>
\n Oracle (ORCL -0.05%) slid 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted revenue of $9.07 billion, below consensus of $9.12 billion.<\/span>
\n Jabil Circuit (JBL +0.33%) climbed 10% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 core EPS of 69 cents, higher than consensus of 64 cents.<\/span>
\n Finisar (FNSR +4.57%) dropped over 6% in after-hours trading after it proposed a $450 million offering of convertible senior notes due 2036.<\/span>
\n Merck (MRK +0.92%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after it won a $2.54 billion patent judgement against Gilead in Hepatitis C royalties. Gilead (GILD -0.21%) fell over 1% on the news.<\/span>
\n Centene (CNC +1.96%) slid over 1% in after-hours trading after it said it sees 2017 adjusted EPS of $4.40-$4.85, lower than the consensus range of $4.56-$5.04.<\/span>
\n Eagle Bulk Shipping (EGLE +16.83%) jumped 10% in after-hours trading after Goldentree, the second-largest holder of Eagle Bulk Shipping stock, entered into a pact to buy 2.5 million shares of the company’s stock.<\/span>
\n Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO +5.33%) slumped 20% in after-hours trading after it ended development of its AG-519 drug for early-stage anemia after the FDA put the program on a clinical hold due to safety concerns.<\/span>
\n Today’s Economic Calendar<\/strong>
\n 8:30 Housing Starts
\n 10:00 Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations
\n 12:30 PM Fed’s Lacker speech
\n 1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nToday’s Earnings here<\/a><\/span>
\nOther<\/strong>…<\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a> from briefing.com<\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Quad Witching Day The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed and little changed. Japan, China and Singapore moved up; Hong Kong, Indonesia and Taiwan moved down. Europe is currently mostly up, but gains are small. Greece is up 2.1%; Austria, Norway, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and the Netherlands are also doing well. […]<\/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":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}