{"id":6248,"date":"2012-12-18T08:34:19","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T13:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6248"},"modified":"2012-12-18T08:34:19","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T13:34:19","slug":"before-the-open-dec-18-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6248","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 18)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed and with an upward slant. Japan, Malaysia and South Korea moved up. Europe is currently up across-the-board (except for Greece). Austria and the Czech Republic are leading the way; Belgium, Germany and London are doing well too. Futures here in the States point towards a gap up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is down a small amount. Oil is up, copper down. Gold is flat, silver is up.<\/span>
\nYesterday’s solid move up was largely due to news from Washington the two sides of the fiscal cliff talks were getting closer by conceding a few things. Today we’re getting more of the same type of news. Supposedly Obama is willing to raise his upper threshold from $250K to $400K and he’s agreed to cut spending $1.2T.<\/span>
\nFacebook (FB) is in the news again with its new Terms or Service. Apparently they’re granting themselves permission to sell your name, location, comments and photos to 3rd parties. <\/span>
\nBoeing (BA) is raising its quarterly dividend 10% and is buying back $3.6B in stock.<\/span>
\nNielson (NLSN) is buying Arbitron (ARB) for a 25% premium over yesterday’s closing price.<\/span>
\nSanderson Farms (SAFM) is up almost 5% in premarket…earnings related.<\/span>
\nHere’s an update of the daily index charts. With the Nas matching its previous high and then registering a higher low, it’s setting up in an ascending triangle pattern in the middle of its September high and November low. The Dow, S&P and Russell have made higher highs and higher lows for about four weeks, and yesterday’s candle makes last week’s weakness look like innocent pullbacks within uptrends. There’s still lots of resistance overhead, and with the market pricing in a fiscal cliff agreement, we have to start thinking about the possibility of selling pressure, not buying pressure, after an agreement is officially made. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\nI remain cautiously optimistic. 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