{"id":5310,"date":"2012-02-03T08:35:54","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T13:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5310"},"modified":"2012-02-03T08:35:54","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T13:35:54","slug":"before-the-open-feb-3-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5310","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Feb 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed, and only India (up 1%) moved 1% from its unchanged level. Europe is currently mostly up. No market has moved more than 1%. Prior to the employment numbers being released futures here in the US were flat.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is flat. Oil and copper are up slightly. Gold and silver are down slightly.<\/span>
\nHere are the numbers…<\/span>
\nunemployment rate: 8.3% (from 8.5%)
\nnonfarm payrolls: 243up
\nprivate payrolls: 257up
\naverage workweek: unchanged to 34.5 hours
\nhourly earnings: up 0.2% to 23.29<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nThe market’s reaction was very positive. S&P futures went from being flat to being up 10.<\/span>
\nOver the last 10 days the market has been up 5 days and down 5 days, and thanks to the up days being more impressive, there has been a net gain.<\/span>
\nThis week the market has been up 2 days and down 2 days, and again, because the down days were small losses and one of the up days was a solid gain, we have a gain on the week. <\/span>
\nThe Energizer Bunny market continues. Opening gap downs get bought. Intraday dips get bought. Bad news get absorbed\/ignored. It’s been many weeks since we’ve had a truely solid down day. I don’t know when it will end, and I’m certainly not going to guess. I have no reason to change what I’m doing, so for now I remain cautiously bullish in the near term and bullish in the intermediate term. If something happens that forces me to re-evaluate, fine. But until that happens, it’s not wise to be in a state of deial.<\/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