{"id":4716,"date":"2011-08-05T07:39:23","date_gmt":"2011-08-05T12:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=4716"},"modified":"2011-08-05T07:39:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T12:39:23","slug":"before-the-open-aug-5-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=4716","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets got crushed. Every market dropped, most lost more than 3%. Europe is down across-the-board. Losses aren’t as bad as Asia, but they’re still pretty stiff. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open, but I’m writing this prior to the employment numbers.
\n<\/span>
\nWhen I stated my SPX target was 1200, I figured it would take a couple weeks to get there. No way did I think we’d be there in one week. Here’s the chart…<\/span>
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\nI looked at many charts last night. They are more destroyed than I can ever remember – even during the financial crisis. So many stocks have not just broken down, but have free-falled. Some stocks (with no news) have literally lost two years worth of gains in two weeks. Obviously the market is not healthy. It’s due for a bounce, but a bounce will get sold into. Absent the Fed stepping in, the market has no chance of just bottoming and moving up. Sure it’ll bounce, but there are too many bag holders wishing they would have sold at the beginning of last week. <\/span>
\nHere are the employment numbers: <\/span>
\nunemployment rate: 9.1% (from 9.2%)<\/span>
\nnonfarm payrolls: up 117K (vs. 84K estimated)<\/span>
\nprivate payrolls: 154K <\/span>
\naverage workweek: will post when I see the number<\/span>
\nhourly earnings: up 10 cents, or 0.4%<\/span>
\nThe market’s reaction was straight up. Let the good times roll. I think 120K jobs is needed just to keep up with population growth…and of course lots more to bring the unemployment rate down. So things aren’t really better, they’re less bad, and that’s a reason to be optimistic? S&P futures went from being up a point to up 20 and now are up about 11. I expect today to be a busy day. I’ll have more to say 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>
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