{"id":6052,"date":"2012-10-12T07:45:09","date_gmt":"2012-10-12T12:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6052"},"modified":"2012-10-12T07:45:09","modified_gmt":"2012-10-12T12:45:09","slug":"before-the-open-oct-12-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6052","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Oct 12)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. Hong Kong and Indonesia moved up the most; India moved down the most. Europe is currently mixed. Greece is up 3%; there are no other big winners or losers. Futures here in the States point towards a gap up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is down. Oil is up, copper down. Gold is flat, silver down.<\/span>
\nI’ve said several times this week the market is not a very interesting place to be. The intermediate term trends remain in place, but things are not clear in the near term. As of now, the market is set to close its biggest down week since the rally off the summer lows began. One big down week doesn’t change the big picture, but it does change how we trade. I’ve been mostly laying low. <\/span>
\nBuilding your account is a two step process. 1) You gotta seize opportunities when they’re given – make money when making money is easy. 2) Don’t give profits back when the personality of the market shifts and trading becomes much more difficult. There are no bonus points to navigating a difficult market. Most traders would be better off heading to the sidelines when the market changes. It’s the baseball equivalent of “swing at good pitches, don’t swing at bad pitches.” <\/span>
\nThere are a few earnings reports out today, but the season doesn’t pick up until next week. <\/span>
\nJP Morgan posted record profits in the most recent quarter – not a surprise, the stock has done very well.<\/span>
\nWFC is also out with earnings – stock is down 2.7%<\/span>
\nIGTE is up 3.8% after earnings.<\/span>
\nAMD is down almost 9% – warned that \u201cweaker-than-expected demand across all product lines\u201d would yield a revenue shortfall for the third quarter.<\/span>
\nSTM is up almost 13%.<\/span>
\nWeyerhaeuser (WY) is upping their dividend by 13%. <\/span>
\nEcolab (ECL) is buying privately held Champion Technologies.<\/span>
\nBeazer Homes (BZH) is doing a 1-for-5 reverse stock split today.<\/span>
\nJB Hunt (JBHT) did well with earnings…stock is up 5.4% in premarket trading.<\/span>
\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