{"id":5234,"date":"2012-01-12T08:26:01","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T13:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5234"},"modified":"2012-01-12T08:26:01","modified_gmt":"2012-01-12T13:26:01","slug":"before-the-open-jan-12-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5234","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jan 12)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down, but the only 1% mover was South Korea which moved up 1%. Europe is currently mostly up. Germany, Norway and Stockholm are up more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is down slightly; it’s been consolidating over the last week. Oil and copper are up. Oil has been consolidating too while copper is trying to break out. Gold and silver are both up.<\/span>
\nThe market has traded slowly and within a tight range this entire year. The only gains have come in the form of two gaps; otherwise the indexes are mostly unchanged since the end of December. Despite this we’ve had many very good trades. The indexes are going nowhere but individual groups and stocks are moving. I guess it pays to be more of a bottom-up analyst than a top-down.<\/span>
\nI don’t think the slow market continues for long…but I’ve been saying that for a couple days. Sooner or later we get resolution. We’ll either get 1) a surge up (don’t short a dull market), 2) a false breakout to the upside followed by a stiff move down or 3) a sell-off which seems to come without warning. Be on you toes. There are times you can sit back and let the market do its thing because the dominant trend is obvious, and the psychology feels right. Other times the risk\/reward isn’t great, so you gotta be a little more careful. The later is the current state of things. <\/span>
\nHere’s an update of the 30-min S&P chart. Today’s open (as of this writing) will be about 6 points above yesterday’s close which was right at the top of the wedge and very close to the October high. Is today the day the market makes a decision? We’ll see. Be ready. More after the open.<\/span>
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\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