{"id":4696,"date":"2011-08-01T07:25:10","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T12:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=4696"},"modified":"2011-08-01T07:25:10","modified_gmt":"2011-08-01T12:25:10","slug":"before-the-open-aug-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=4696","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed up across the board. Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea rallied more than 1%. Europe is currently up across the board. Austria, Amsterdam and London are up more than 1%. Futures here in the States are up big. <\/span>
\nThe dollar is down a small amount. Gold and silver are down. Crude oil is up a buck.<\/span>
\nSo Congress has finally reached an agreement regarding raising the debt ceiling and cutting spending. I was kind of hoping they wouldn’t. I was hoping we’d default on our debt and the sh#t would hit the fan. Why? Because Congress never does anything until something very bad happens. They don’t enact laws protecting miners until after there’s a mine explosion and many people die. Congress is always reactionary. They don’t do jack until they have to, and even though we have massive amounts of debt, we’ve never defaulted and we’ve always maintained our AAA rating. Kicking the can down the road is an appropriate analogy. Leave it to the next person who wins a seat. Leave it to the next generation. They’re always spending money like crazy now and leaving a mess to the next guy. I figured if the sh#t hit the fan, they’d have no choice but to act now rather than continue the downward spiral. Oh well. I just hope the agreement at least sets us on the right course, and I don’t think these comments are overly political. It doesn’t matter what party you affiliate with, you can’t deny the financial path we are on is unsustainable and will eventually lead to total destruction.<\/span>
\nBesides this I don’t have anything to add to my weekend report. Today and tomorrow will be big. The market has been weak for one reason and one reason only…the lack of an agreement in Congress. If the market can’t right itself now, it’s in trouble. More after the open.<\/span>
\nheadlines at Yahoo Finance<\/a><\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a><\/span>
\nyesterday’s sector performance<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
\n