{"id":6415,"date":"2013-02-22T07:28:30","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T12:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6415"},"modified":"2013-02-22T07:28:30","modified_gmt":"2013-02-22T12:28:30","slug":"before-the-open-feb-22-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6415","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Feb 22)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. China and Hong Kong dropped; Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Malaysia did well. Europe is currently mostly up. Austria, France, Germany, Stockholm and the Czech Republic are leading the way. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is flat. Oil and copper are up small amounts. Gold and silver are up.<\/span>
\nThe market followed through yesterday and posted moderate, across-the-board losses. Wednesday was the single worst day since the November bottom, so the combination of Wednesday and Thursday are easily the worst two days since the market fell apart the first half of November. <\/span>
\nBut keep two things in mind. 1) The selling has mostly been due to the FOMC Minutes which revealed some Fed officials would rather take the punch bowl away sooner rather than later. All it would take is a few officials to come out and say the minutes were misinterpreted, and they’re committed to keeping rates low until the unemployment rate drops for the market to rebound. 2) But let’s say a top is forming. History says tops take time to form – easily several weeks and more often several months. There are usually several up and down moves that give the pros a chance to dump shares on the public before a downtrend begins. <\/span>
\nMy point is be careful in the near and intermediate term. The market can rally for a week and then sell off for a week and then rally for a week. Sentiment has certainly shifted in the very near term. On an intermediate term basis, I’m calling the market neutral. The S&P is unchanged over the last month, and we could easily settle into a tug-of-war battle for the next month. Long term the trend is of course solidly up. It takes more than two down days to change that.<\/span>
\nKeep trades short term right now. Expect lots of up and down movement. More after the close. <\/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