{"id":5053,"date":"2011-11-22T08:15:30","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T13:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5053"},"modified":"2011-11-22T08:15:30","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T13:15:30","slug":"before-the-open-nov-22-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5053","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Nov 22)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. Indonesia gained 1.5%; it was the only 1% mover. Europe is currently mostly up; there are no noteable movers. Futures here in the States are mixed with perhaps a slight bullish bias.
\n<\/span>
\nBorrowing costs continue to climb in Spain. Interest on 3- and 6-month bonds jumped to 5.1% (from 2.3%) and 5.2% (from 3.3%). This comes on top of the nearly 7% Spain had to pay on a 10-year auction last week. These rates are unsustainable. How can a country that is already struggling continue paying higher and higher rates? That’s like a homeowner here in the States who has a variable rate mortgage see his monthly payments climb at the same time he’s having a hard time making the payment. It’s unsustainable. <\/span>
\nCloser to home the Super Committee failed to agree on ways to cut the deficit. This functions to kick the can down the road and add to the uncertainty. The market is good at dealing with bad news, but it has to know what that bad news is. The failure of the committee to agree allows the situation to linger – exactly what Wall St. hates.<\/span>
\nTechnically the indexes are no longer in consolidation patterns within short term uptrends. In some cases enough damage has been done to render the charts unsalvagable in the near term absent very good news. Time is needed for the charts to reset themselves. Personally I’d rather see a washout that pushes the indicators to exteme levels. Here’s an example – it’s the S&P 500 vs. the 10-day MA of the put\/call ratio. I’d like to see enough selling take place to push the PC to the levels hit at the Aug and early-October lows.<\/span>
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\nI remain in conservative mode.<\/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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