{"id":6669,"date":"2013-05-15T07:22:58","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T12:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6669"},"modified":"2013-05-15T07:22:58","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T12:22:58","slug":"before-the-open-may-15-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6669","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (May 15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. India and Japan closed up better than 2%; Hong Kong and Taiwan also did well. Australia dropped 0.6%. Europe is currently mostly up. Greece is up 2.4%; Switzerland and the Czech Republic are also doing nicely. Futures here in the States point towards a slightly down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.<\/span>
\nThe market continues to be on a tear. The indexes keep going and going and going. It’s the Energizer Bunny market. Here are the daily charts. <\/span>
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\nThere are many ways the market is acting like it rarely acts. The most consecutive up months…the number of consecutive up months to start the year…the length of time between 5% corrections – all of these number put the current state of the market is a category it rarely enters. It won’t last forever, but I’m not about to guess when it’ll end. <\/span>
\nStock news from barcharts.com…<\/span>
\nNoble Energy (NBL +1.69%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Hold” at Stifel with a price target of $140.<\/span>
\nMorgan Stanley raised its price target on Google (GOOG +1.09%) to $996 from $932 and keeps an “Overweight” rating on the stock.<\/span>
\nDiscover (DFS +3.03%) reported April net charge-offs of 1.94% vs. 2.13% last month and an April delinquency rate of 1.65% vs. 1.73% in March.<\/span>
\nDeere & Co. (DE +1.29%) tumbled 11% in pre-market trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $2.76, better than consensus of $2.72, but said global financial pressures, weather add caution to its outlook.<\/span>
\nNorthrop Grumman (NOC +1.81%) increased its dividend to 61 cents a share from 55 cents.<\/span>
\nPolaris Industries (PII +1.42%) has been awarded a $382.5 million government contract for fire and emergency vehicles.<\/span>
\nSafeway (SWY +3.25%) announced that it will increase to its regular quarterly cash dividend from 17.5 cents per share to 20 cents per share.<\/span>
\nPandora (P +6.82%) fell 4% in pre-market trading after the WSJ reported that Google (GOOG +1.09%) will launch a a paid, Spotify-like music streaming service.<\/span>
\nAgilent (A +2.16%) lowered guidance on fiscal 2013 to $2.70-$2.85, below consensus of $2.88, and said it will initiate a restructuring program that is expected to cut approximately 450 regular employees, or approximately 2% of its global workforce.<\/span>
\nApollo Investment (AINV +0.91%) fell over 3% in after-hours trading after it filed to sell 18 million shares of common stock.<\/span>
\nThe market has a mind of its own right now. Don’t fight it. 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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