{"id":3878,"date":"2011-01-07T08:41:31","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T13:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=3878"},"modified":"2011-01-07T08:41:31","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T13:41:31","slug":"before-the-open-jan-7-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=3878","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jan 7)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed and with a bearish bias – India and Indonesia lost over 2%. Europe is currently mostly down, but losses aren’t bad. Prior to the employment numbers release, futures here in the States were flat. <\/span>
\nHere are the important employment numbers:<\/span>
\nunemployment rate: 9.4% (vs 9.8%)<\/span>
\nnonfarm payrolls: up 103K<\/span>
\nprivate payrolls: added 113K
\n<\/span>
\naverage workweek: 34.3<\/span>
\nhourly earnings: up 0.1% to $22.78<\/span>
\nThe futures market initial reaction was to sell off. In a twisted way, lukewarm numbers mean the Fed stays accomodative which is good for Wall St. Good numbers on the other hand increase the odds the Fed backs off. So if you’re bullish, best case is for lukewarm numbers so the Fed continues their POMO operations. <\/span>
\nOtherwise the market feels weak to me. We’ve gone a long time without a significant sell off. The overall trend remains up, but the list of warnings is growing. In addition to the indicators I discussed last week and over the weekend, we now have a rallying dollar and lagging small caps. You gotta wonder when all these warnings will at least cause enough of a pullback to get the bulls’ attention. <\/span>
\nI’m staying on my toes.<\/span>
\nheadlines at Yahoo Finance<\/a><\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings Reports<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
\n