{"id":5568,"date":"2012-04-27T07:35:51","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T12:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5568"},"modified":"2012-04-27T07:35:51","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T12:35:51","slug":"before-the-open-apr-27-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5568","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Apr 27)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed; there were no big movers. Europe currently leans to the upside. Austria is up 2.2%, France and Stockholm are up about 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is flat. Oil is flat and copper is up. Gold and silver are nearly flat.<\/span>
\nStandard & Poor’s has cut Spain’s sovereign credit rating to BBB+ from A. Spanish unemployment moved up to 24.4% in March – worse than the 23.8% expected.<\/span>
\nItaly’s borrowing costs are inching towards 6% again. <\/span>
\nAMZN is up almost 17% after earnings. PG, MRK and F did well with earnings, but PG is taking a hit in pre market trading.<\/span>
\nA week ago I argued the market was trading in a bearish wedge or flag having just moved through a longer term trendline (not shown below). Not any more. With the successful test of the low from two weeks prior and the forceful move up the last two days, the overall pattern has been neutralized. 1400 is still a level that needs to be dealt with, but the combination of the last couple days has been a step in the up direction. <\/span>
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\nI’ve had a defensive posture for a couple weeks. It’s mostly kept my stress level very low. If you’ve been bearish, you’ve seen paper profits either wiped out or significantly reduced. If you’ve maintained a bullish stance, you’re breathing easier now, but you felt a lot of heat for a couple weeks. And if you held into an earnings report, you’re nuts. Big moves have been the norm after companies have released this season.<\/span>
\nSince the overall trend remains up and the intermediate term trend has neutralized, I’ll have a bullish bias heading into next week – assuming nothing major happens today. <\/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>
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