{"id":5597,"date":"2012-05-07T07:46:59","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T12:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5597"},"modified":"2012-05-07T07:46:59","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T12:46:59","slug":"before-the-open-may-7-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5597","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (May 7)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan dropped more than 2%; Indonesia and Malaysia dropped more than 1%. Europe is currently mostly down. Greece is down an amazing 7%; Belgium and London are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.
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\nThe dollar is up. Oil is down and copper is flat. Gold and silver are down.<\/span>
\nThe big news this weekend comes from Europe where elections in France and Greece took place. Incumbents responsible for Greece’s austerity measures were punished, but no party won enough votes to form a government. Hence there’s a chance new elections will take place within a couple months – lots of uncertainty. In France, Sarkosy lost to the socialist candidate who wants to boost government spending.<\/span>
\nBershire Hathaway held its annual meeting this weekend. More than 40,000 die-hards made the treck to treat Buffett like a rock star even though the company’s stock has underperformed for several years.<\/span>
\nFacebook begins its road show today to promote its stock before going public later this month. How will the stock perform when it starts trading? The opposite of whatever sentiment is. If the public is skeptical, the stock will do great that first day. If the public is super excited, the stock won’t do as great as some anticipate.<\/span>
\nAs stated over the weekend the market is in a fragile place right now. For a couple months dips have gotten bought and rallies sold. Directional moves have been scarce. After last week’s drop it’s time for the bulls to step up. Heading into last week they had a cushion to work with, but that cushion is gone. Here’s the 60-min SPX chart. Support comes in at 1360 and 1340.<\/span>
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\nI’ve been playing it safe lately. That means smaller positions, and I’ve had less tolerance for moves against me. In this environment you can’t let a profit turn into a loss or a loss into a bigger loss. If that means you miss out on a move, so be it. 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>
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