{"id":6081,"date":"2012-10-19T07:45:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T12:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6081"},"modified":"2012-10-19T07:45:30","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T12:45:30","slug":"before-the-open-oct-19-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6081","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Oct 19)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Options Expiration Day.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed and with a bearish bias. Taiwan, South Korea, India and Indonesia dropped the most. Europe is currently mostly down. Austria is down 1.6%; France, Stockholm and the Czech Republic are also down noticeably. Futures here in the States point towards a negative open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is up. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are down.<\/span>
\nThe biggest story right now is the beating many stocks have taken after earnings. <\/span>
\nGoogle (GOOG) got clobbered yesterday. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\nIBM (IBM) got clobbered before that. <\/span>
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\nAbbott (ABT) too.<\/span>
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\nIt’s not uncommon for stocks to take big hits during earnings season, but it’s usually small caps, not well-established large caps.<\/span>
\nRight now Microsoft (MSFT), GE (GE), McDonalds (MCD) and Baker Hughes (BHI) are down a couple % in premarket trading…Chipotle (CMG) and Marvell Tech (MRVL) are down 12%. <\/span>
\nEarnings season has just started…there have been a lot more big downside moves than up side moves. <\/span>
\nBank of America has cut Google from to a neutral…it had a buy rating for six years. <\/span>
\nBe careful out there. Don’t be a hero. My stance has remained the same for a couple weeks…that the near term is unclear and this is a tough environment. 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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