{"id":5641,"date":"2012-05-21T07:42:01","date_gmt":"2012-05-21T12:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5641"},"modified":"2012-05-21T07:42:01","modified_gmt":"2012-05-21T12:42:01","slug":"before-the-open-may-21-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5641","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (May 21)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Indonesia dropped 1%; South Korea rallied 1%. Europe is currently mostly up. Belgium is down 1.4%; Austria, Germany, Norway and Stockholm are up 1% or more. Futures here in the States point towards moderate gap up open for the cash market.
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\nThe dollar is flat. Oil and copper are up a small amount. Gold and silver are down.<\/span>
\nLeaders of the G8 meet at Camp David this weekend, but they didn’t make any newsworthy announcements.<\/span>
\nYahoo is selling half its stake in Alibaba for $7.1 billion and then increasing its share buyback by $5 billion.<\/span>
\nLowe’s lowered its full year guidance by 2 cents.<\/span>
\nBloomberg is reporting the guy who oversaw risks in the JP Morgan unit that lost more than $2 billion was fired in 2007 by Canter Fitzgerald for money-losing bets that caused a regulatory santion against the firm. lol<\/span>
\nThe NYT is reporting Barclays is selling its $6.1 billion stake in Blackrock. <\/span>
\nThe market is in pretty bad shape right now, so in a twisted way, it may be close to a tradable bottom. That’s how Wall St. works. Once a downtrend begins, it’s better to get a complete washout before attempting to rally. There are many breadth indicators that are at an extreme level. If the market bounced here, it would be supported by a long list of technical indicators. But unfortunately news from Europe is dominating. Bad news regarding Greece and Spain will quickly push the market down. Good news could easily induce buying for several days or longer. <\/span>
\nHere’s an update of the daily S&P chart I posted a couple weeks ago when I established 1275-1300 as my downside target. <\/span>
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\nThe risk\/reward for entering new shorts is not good right now. Be defensive. The biggest up days occur within downtrends, so even an innocent 2-3 day bounce could push the indexes up 5%, and that means many stocks can move 10% or more. 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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