{"id":5504,"date":"2012-04-04T07:26:12","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T12:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5504"},"modified":"2012-04-04T07:26:12","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T12:26:12","slug":"before-the-open-apr-4-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5504","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Apr 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan dropped more than 2%; Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan dropped more than 1%. Europe is currently down across the board. Stockholm is down 2.5%, and Belgium, France, Germany, Amsterdam, Norway and London are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a big gap down for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down a bunch.<\/span>
\nThe big news yesterday was the FOMC minutes. They were more hawkish than anticipated so it’s thought the odds of QE3 have declined. The news rallied the dollar and interest rates (see below) and put pressure on commodities.<\/span>
\n\"\"
\nIt’s pretty sad that Wall St. is so addicted to the Fed’s easy money policy that any hint of the punch bowl being taken away is reason to run for the hills.<\/span>
\nHere’s the 15-min S&P 500 chart. I’ve been neutral for a week and anticipating this range to continue through Friday’s employment report and possibly into the beginning of earnings season.<\/span>
\n\"\"
\nPlay good defense out there. Don’t be a hero while the market rests.<\/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