{"id":5966,"date":"2012-09-13T07:33:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T12:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=5966"},"modified":"2012-09-13T07:33:03","modified_gmt":"2012-09-13T12:33:03","slug":"before-the-open-sep-13-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=5966","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Sep 13)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday. Happy FOMC Day.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. Malaysia moved up; Australia and China moved down. Europe is currently mostly down. Greece, the Czech Republic, France and Astria are down the most. Futures here in the States point towards a negative open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is down slightly. Oil is up, copper down. Gold is up, silver down.<\/span>
\nThe most important FOMC day in a long time is here. It’s not important because something drastically changed in the world. Instead it’s important because for some unknown reason, Wall St. expects QE3 to be announced. If the Fed was truly an independent body which did not listen to Wall St. and made decisions based soley on the stats they have access to, they wouldn’t consider doing QE3. Sure the unemployment rate is still above 8%, but it’s been up here for many months. Why would it suddenly motivate the Fed to do something. Europe is much better shape right now than they were a few months ago. Again, no reason to do anything. If I was the Fed, I’d keep some dry powder for the future. If Wall St. doesn’t like that, too bad. The market has rallied enough in the last three months to take a hit with destroying the progress.<\/span>
\nBut I don’t have a say-so. Wall St. expects QE3, and that means a couple things. 1) It’s possible the market’s rally was nothing more than traders buying in anticipation of QE3, and once they get it, a “sell the news” scenario will result. 2) Or if Wall St. doesn’t get QE3, there’d be no reason for many traders to hold positions. They, after all, only bought because they felt QE3 was in the pipeline. <\/span>
\nThe bottom line is be careful right now. The market is in the midst of a nice rally (greater than 10% the last three months). Building gains on top of gains is not easy. <\/span>
\nThe good news is this is the last of the major market-moving news items. After today – or after this week – the market can get back to being itself. No more dead movement for several days at a time waiting for a single announcement to be made. 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>
\n