{"id":5737,"date":"2012-06-19T07:35:34","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T12:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5737"},"modified":"2012-06-19T07:35:34","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T12:35:34","slug":"before-the-open-jun-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5737","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jun 19)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. Not one index moved more than 1%. Europe is currently up across the board. Greece is up almost 4%, Austria 2%, Stockholm, Switzerland and London just under 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold is up, silver flat.<\/span>
\nThere isn’t much important or market moving news out this morning. <\/span>
\nSpanish 10-year yields remain above 7% while Denmark recorded a negative yield on 2-year debt.<\/span>
\nChina is contributing $43B to the IMF. Mexico, Brazil, Russia and India are pledging $10M.<\/span>
\nWalgreens is taking a 45% stake in Alliance Boots, a pharmacy-led health and beauty group, for $6.7 billion. This means WAG is following in CVS’s footsteps.<\/span>
\nJamie Dimon is speaking before the House Financial Services Committee.<\/span>
\nMicrosoft’s big news yesterday was that they’re launching their own tablet. I don’t know. It seems a little too late. For years they were obsessed with Google, and Apple ran off and became the biggest company on the planet. Now they’re pivoting and focusing on Apple’s business. The problem is Microsoft has always been able to out-muscle everyone with subpar products; now quality matters a lot. The cards are stacked against them, but from a consumer standpoint, it’s nice to have another major player in the space. Besides having a great product, their biggest hurdle will be convincing app developers to develop apps for the tablet – no small feat because app developers will only develop if there is a big market. <\/span>
\nTomorrow of course if FOMC day. In the past nobody expected anything. Now a greater percentage of Wall St expects QE3 or at least language that suggests the Fed is standing by ready to act if needed. This sets up the market for a possible stiff sell-off if it doesn’t get what it wants. <\/span>
\nHere are the daily index charts. The Dow and S&P broke out last week. The Nas joined the party yesterday. The Russell needs to catch up.<\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMore 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