{"id":4757,"date":"2011-08-12T07:26:40","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T12:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=4757"},"modified":"2011-08-12T07:26:40","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T12:26:40","slug":"before-the-open-aug-12-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=4757","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 12)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Heck of a week, huh?<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed and with a bullish bias, but India, South Korea and Taiwan lost more than 1%. Europe is currently trading mostly up. Switzerland is up over 4%; Belgium 3%; and France and Germany more than 2%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.<\/span>
\nLast night, the short selling of stocks in Belgium, France, Spain and Italy was banned. Many bank stocks hit their lowest levels since the financial crisis, so this is the response. Also, overnight borrowing jumped to its highest level in three months – a sign many banks may need cash. Banning short selling helps in the near term to boost prices and if the markets continues down, they’ll move down slower, but overall, it does nothing to change the pathetic balance sheets of the banks. It does nothing to deal with bad loans on the books and leverage that still exists. <\/span>
\nIf the market falls here in the States, the same thing will likely be done. It can’t happen now because it would signal things are monumentally worse than currently believed. But it will happen if a bear market fully materializes.<\/span>
\nIt’s been a heck of a week. The S&P has traded in a 50+ point range everyday. This is great for day trading but not so great for swing trading. If you’re long, you feel great one day and horrible the next. Same with those who are short. You go back and forth between feeling like you nailed it perfectly to feeling like you totally screwed up. Whatever you think will happen, just wait, it’ll happen eventually.<\/span>
\nThe charts are broken. My bias is to the down side, but I’m not short the market. I want a bounce. But if such a bounce comes with lots of energy and enthusiasm and good longs start to surface, I may have to change my mind. I’m not one for digging in and holding an opinion when it’s obviously wrong. Right now I’m looking to short a bounce, but I’m going to be flexible and open-minded and if the market wants to rally, by all means, let it rally. <\/span>
\nDon’t chop your account. 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