{"id":4802,"date":"2011-08-25T07:35:30","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T12:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=4802"},"modified":"2011-08-25T07:35:30","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T12:35:30","slug":"before-the-open-aug-25-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=4802","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 25)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. Taiwan lost more than 1%, but Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore gained more than 1%. Europe is currently mostly up; gains are not quite as big as in Asia. Futures here in the States point toward a positive open for the cash market.
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\nYesterday after the close Steve Jobs announced he was stepping down as Apple’s CEO but will be it’s Chairman of the Board. The stock lost a couple % in after-hours trading but right now is only down 7 bucks – no big deal. This is sad news. There aren’t many companies out there who innovate like AAPL does, and although there are lots of very smart people at AAPL, make no mistake about it, AAPL was his company. He was the visionary behind the products. He would not have stepped down if he was in good health, so we can only hope things aren’t too bad.<\/span>
\nAlso announced after yesterday’s close was that margin requirements on gold are being raised by the CME. Considering the rapid fire raising of silver margins the last two months, this news should come as no surprise. Between last night and this morning, gold is down about 100 and down about 175 from its high hit just two days ago.<\/span>
\nHere’s a repost of the short term S&P chart. We’ve had a nice move up the last two days (almost 60 points, geez). Half the gap has filled, and dare I say the intraday movement has felt like the market wants to move higher. <\/span>
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\nTomorrow is Ben Bernanke’s Jackson Hole speech. Will he say something about QE3? I hope not. QE1 boosted the market some. QE2 has much less effect. QE3 isn’t likely to do anything but cause a short term pop. And besides, it’s not like any of the QE has helped the economy. The money was supposed to trickle through the economy to give it a boost. I think it tricked to Wall St. and stayed there. <\/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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