{"id":12517,"date":"2018-12-21T08:54:39","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T13:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=12517"},"modified":"2018-12-21T08:54:39","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T13:54:39","slug":"before-the-open-dec-21-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=12517","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 21)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Options Expiration Day. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific<\/strong> markets closed mostly down. Malaysia did well, but Japan, China, India, New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines were weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East<\/strong> are currently mostly down. Poland, the UK, Russia, Kenya, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Israel, Austria, Sweden and Saudi Arabia are down; South Africa is up. Futures in the States<\/strong> point towards a down open for the cash market. <\/span>
\n—————
\n VIDEO: <\/strong>How the AD Line Progresses at Market Bottoms<\/a>
\n—————<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are mixed. <\/span>
\n Overnight Stock Movers<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Facebook (FB +0.12%) is down -0.5% in pre-market trading after DZ Bank downgraded it to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ with a price target of $115.<\/span>
\n Altria Group (MO -1.87%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Citigroup with a price target of $45.<\/span>
\n NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI +0.90%) was rated a new ‘Overweight’ at Piper Jaffray with a price target of $100.<\/span>
\n Applied Materials (AMAT -2.00%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Needham & Co with a price target of $45.<\/span>
\n Cintas (CTAS -3.65%) climbed more than 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 revenue of $1.72 billion, better than consensus of $1.70 billon, and then forecast full-year revenue of $6.87 billion to $6.91 billion, stronger than consensus of $6.84 billion.<\/span>
\n Nike (NKE -2.09%) rallied more than 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 52 cents, higher than consensus of 46 cents.<\/span>
\n CyberArk Software Ltd (CYBR -2.39%) rose more than 2% in after-hours trading after it was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Deutsche Bank.<\/span>
\n Gritstone Oncology (GRTS -17.00%) jumped 10% in after-hours trading after the FDA granted FAST TRACK designation for its Granite-001 drug for the treatment of colorectal cancer.<\/span>
\n CalAmp (CAMP -2.31%) dropped 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 25 cents, weaker than consensus of 28 cents, and then forecast Q4 adjusted EPS of 23 cents to 29 cents, below consensus of 30 cents.<\/span>
\n Uxin Ltd (UXIN -18.22%) fell 6% in after-hours trading in continuation of Thursday\u2019s record 18% plunge.<\/span>
\n Thursday’s Key Earnings<\/strong>
\n Accenture (NYSE:ACN) -4.9% on light revenue outlook.
\n BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) +2.7% with software, services growth.
\n Carnival (NYSE:CCL) -9.5% giving downside guidance.
\n ConAgra (CAG) -16.5% posting light forecast for 2019.
\n Nike (NYSE:NKE) +7.9% AH crushing earnings expectations.
\n Walgreens (NASDAQ:WBA) -5% seeing big restructuring charges.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Today’s Economic Calendar<\/strong>
\n 8:30 Durable Goods
\n 8:30 GDP Q3
\n 8:30 Corporate profits
\n 10:00 Personal Income and Outlays
\n 10:00 Consumer Sentiment
\n 11:00 Kansas City Fed Mfg Survey
\n 1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nOther<\/strong>…<\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a> from briefing.com<\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span> from Morningstar
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers\/Reports<\/a><\/span> powered by ECONODAY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Options Expiration Day. The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Malaysia did well, but Japan, China, India, New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines were weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mostly down. Poland, the UK, Russia, Kenya, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Israel, Austria, Sweden and Saudi Arabia are […]<\/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\/12517"}],"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=12517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}