{"id":5144,"date":"2011-12-16T08:40:52","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T13:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5144"},"modified":"2011-12-16T08:40:52","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T13:40:52","slug":"before-the-open-dec-16-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5144","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 16)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Quad Witching Day.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed and with a bullish bias. China gained 2% and Hong Kong and Indonesia gained more than 1%. India dropped more than 2%. Europe is currently mostly up, but there are no 1% movers. Futures here in the States point toward a moderate gap up open for the cash market.<\/span>
\nThe dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up.<\/span>
\nWe entered this week with the market being in decent shape. The indexes had rallied at the end of November and then settled into a consolidation period at the beginning of this month. Several signs suggested a year-end rally could materialized once the major news events were out of the way. But here we are 4 days later and things have changed. Three days of selling pressure have zapped the positive sentiment, and I’d call the market very neutral right now. The S&P is unchanged over the last two months and unchanged since the first week of August. We’ve gotten lots of up and down movement, lots of gaps, lots of news and in the end the indexes are unchanged. That’s not bad, but it hasn’t given us much to play with.<\/span>
\nI’ve been doing more watching than trading lately. I see no reason to allow the market to frustrate me with its lack of follow through and daily gaps. I’d rather preserve capital and maintain my emotional stability so when things get better, I’ll be ready to go. More after the open.<\/span>
\nheadlines at Yahoo Finance<\/a><\/span>
\nheadlines at MarketWatch<\/a><\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
\n