{"id":4787,"date":"2011-08-19T07:27:16","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T12:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=4787"},"modified":"2011-08-19T07:27:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-19T12:27:16","slug":"before-the-open-aug-19-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=4787","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 19)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. It’s not such a happy day for stocks around the world.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets got hit hard. South Korea dropped over 6%, Indonesia fell more than 4% and Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan lost over 3%. Europe is only slightly better off. It too is suffering across-the-board losses. And futures here in the States point towards another big gap down for the cash market.
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\nI keep seeing headlines about a double dip recession. Why does it matter if we meet the textbook definition of a recession or not? It doesn’t change anything. If you ask me, with 9% unemployment for three years, we never exited the last recession.<\/span>
\nOil is down a buck. Gold is making another new high. Silver is up. <\/span>
\nBank of America is cutting upwards of 10,000 jobs.<\/span>
\nWhat can I say that I haven’t said numerous times the last couple weeks. The selling off the high, in my opinion, will not constitute a pullback within an uptrend. Instad we are in the beginning stages of a downtrend. Bear markets don’t last as long as bull markets, but they can cover the same amount of ground. My first downside SPX target has already been hit (1200). My second target is 1000 which is last summer’s low and the bottom Bollinger Band on the monthly chart. Here it is…<\/span>
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\nUntil the market proves otherwise, I don’t see a reason to be long stocks. Yeah there will be ones that buck the trend, but it’s so much easier to trade in the direction of the dominant trend, which is down. You can short breaks of support with partial positions and dead cat bounces along the way. Bottom line is until the market improves significantly, the trend is down.<\/span>
\nheadlines at Yahoo Finance<\/a><\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
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