{"id":6278,"date":"2012-12-31T08:35:47","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T13:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6278"},"modified":"2012-12-31T08:35:47","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T13:35:47","slug":"before-the-open-dec-31-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6278","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 31)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. China, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan rallied nicely; Singapore dropped. Europe is currently mixed. Belgium and France are up; Austria, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and London are down. Futures here in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is up. Oil is down, copper up. Gold is down, silver flat.<\/span>
\nToday is the last day of 2012, and then we get another day off tomorrow. This means it’s the last day for Washington to come to an agreement on the details that can avoid the fiscal cliff. Without a deal, taxes automatically go up, and spending goes down. Word is the two sides are very close, but who knows. I’m not counting anything until it happens.<\/span>
\nThere isn’t much news out. This is good because if companies want to release something negative, now is the time because most people aren’t paying attention.<\/span>
\nCal-Maine Foods’ (CALM) Q2 earnings fell 39%.<\/span>
\nS&P cut the rating of ConAgre to one notch above junk status.<\/span>
\nDuff & Phelps (DUF) is being acquired by a group of private equity firms.<\/span>
\nThe Tribune Co is emerging from bankruptcy after four years.<\/span>
\nLast week was the worst since the market bottomed in November, and Friday was one of the single worst days over the same time period. The good news is the small caps have out-performed. The bad news is a lot of technical damage has been done, and even if a fiscal cliff deal is struck, the bulls have their work cut out for them. The AD line signaled a move down last week. New highs have been non-existent. The put\/call has curled up. Fiscal cliff or not, none of these are bullish signs. If we don’t get a deal, the market is likely to continue deteriorating. If we do get a deal, there’ll be a quick knee-jerk reaction up, but after that it’ll be interesting to see if the indexes can hold their levels and the indicators can turn.<\/span>
\nHave a safe and happy New Years.<\/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