{"id":5369,"date":"2012-02-21T08:37:55","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T13:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5369"},"modified":"2012-02-21T08:37:55","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T13:37:55","slug":"before-the-open-feb-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5369","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Feb 21)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday. Hope you enjoyed your long weekend. <\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets posted pretty good gains yesterday and are mostly up again today. Europe was mostly up yesterday too, but today is down across the board. Austria and Belgium are the sole 1% losers. Futures here in the States are flat relative to Friday’s close but down relative to yesterday’s action.<\/span>
\nThe dollar got hit hard yesterday and is slightly down today. Oil jumped yesterday and is off its high today. Copper was up yesterday and is getting some nice follow through today. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\nI don’t have anything to add to the comments I made over the weekend in the Weekly Report. The market remains in good shape. Last Friday the Dow and Nas closed at new highs. The S&P closed at a higher high but is still below its 2011 high. The Russell small caps are lagging overall. They’re the only group to not make a higher high last week. You can’t fight the movement. The market has had a 1-track mind since the end of November – it wants to move up, and it’s going to move up no matter what’s thrown in its path. Be long or be on the sidelines. Trading books will tell you to be a contrarian. That’s a bunch of crap. Money is made riding trends, not fighting them. <\/span>
\nThe big news is Greece is getting another round of bailout money and therefore will avoid defaulting on its debt – or at least they’ll delay defaulting on their debt. The market has anticipated a bailout would take place – although it was not known what the details would be – so this news is a sigh of relief that it has finally taken place, and it also puts the focus back on the market which no longer has a positive event to look forward to. <\/span>
\nLet’s see if the indexes can follow through from last week. Let’s see if the Russell can play catch up. Let’s also see if the breadth indicators improve. They need to or else the upside – in the near term – will be limited. 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