{"id":6521,"date":"2013-04-05T07:39:17","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T12:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6521"},"modified":"2013-04-05T07:39:17","modified_gmt":"2013-04-05T12:39:17","slug":"before-the-open-mar-5-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6521","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Apr 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. Hong Kong dropped 2.7% and South Korea 1.6%. Japan rallied 1.6%. Europe is currently mostly down. Austria is up 1%. France, Germany, Amsterdam, Norway, Stockholm, Switzerland and London are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a big gap down for the cash market, but this is likely to change after the unemployment numbers are released.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is flat. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are up.<\/span>
\nSo far this week we’ve had two up days, and the net for the S&P is down 0.6% – not very much damage but still the biggest weekly drop this year. We’ve had two other corrections since the November bottom – neither lasted very long or dropped very far. If there was a difference, this one carries the stigma of the small and mid caps underperforming. Here’s a 4-month chart comparing the indexes.<\/span>
\n\"\"
\nThis is my #1 indicator. The market will not recover its recent losses until the small and mid caps firm. <\/span>
\nHere are the employment numbers\u2026<\/span>
\nunemployment rate: 7.6% (was 7.7% last month)
\nnonfarm payrolls: +88K (the smallest gain in 10 months)
\nprivate payrolls:
\naverage workweek: up 0.1 to 34.6 hours
\nhourly wages: up 1 cent to $23.82<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nJanuary and February numbers were revised up.<\/span>
\nOn the news, futures sold off hard. S&P futures are now down almost 20. Yikes. This will open the market near its lowest level since early March. No biggie. We’ve been in a defensive posture all week. 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