{"id":6737,"date":"2013-06-07T07:38:57","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T12:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6737"},"modified":"2013-06-07T07:38:57","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T12:38:57","slug":"before-the-open-jun-7-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6737","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jun 7)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Indonesia dropped almost 3%; China, Hong Kong and South Korea dropped more than 1%. Europe is currently down. Austria is up 1%; Belgium is down 1.6% while Norway, Stockholm, Greece and the Czech Republic are down noticeably. Prior to the release of the jobs numbers, futures here in the States suggested a flat open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is down. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are down.<\/span>
\nThe market staged an impressive comeback yesterday. It dropped to a new 1-month low and then rallied all the way back to its previous support level. The S&P moved about 25 points off its low. Here’s the 15-min SPX chart. The near term trend remains down. Yesterday’s bounce doesn’t look much different than any other bounce that have played out the last couple weeks. The onus is still on the bulls to reverse this move.<\/span>
\n\"\"
\nHere are the employment numbers\u2026<\/strong><\/span>
\nunemployment rate: 7.6% (was 7.5% last month)
\nnonfarm payrolls: +175K
\nprivate payrolls:
\naverage workweek: 34.5 (unchanged)
\nhourly wages: up 1 cent to $23.89<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nMarch raised from 138K to 142K
\nApril was lowered from 165K to 149K<\/span><\/span>
\nAs I mentioned yesterday, the reaction to the numbers is more important and telling than the numbers themselves. We’ll see what happens. The initial knee-jerk reaction was up.<\/span>
\nHere are stock-specific stories from barchart.com…<\/span>
\nOppenheimer keeps an “Outperform” rating on Microsoft (MSFT +0.52%) and raises its price target on the stock to $39 from $34.<\/span>
\nIron Mountain (IRM +0.91%) was downgraded to “Hold” from “Buy” at Stifel.<\/span>
\nJPMorgan (JPM +0.89%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Outperform” at Macquarie.<\/span>
\nAbercrombie & Fitch (ANF +0.59%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Neutral” at BofA\/Merrill.<\/span>
\nDun & Bradstreet (DNB +1.48%) was upgraded to “Neutral” from “Underweight” at JPMorgan.<\/span>
\nStandard & Poor’s Ratings Services said it revised the outlook on its long-term ratings on Brazil to negative from stable.<\/span>
\nThe U.S. Department of Justice has settled two lawsuits against PG&E (PCG +2.27%) and its contractors who will pay $50.5 million for wildfires that scorched 18,000 acres of national forest.<\/span>
\nTake-Two (TTWO +0.63%) initiated with a Buy at Stifel with a price target of $21.<\/span>
\nThor Industries (THO +0.32%) reported Q3 EPS of 97 cents, stronger than consensus of 88 cents.<\/span>
\nQuiksilver (ZQK +4.50%) reported an unexpected Q2 EPS loss of -12 cents, much weaker than consensus of a 4 cent gain.<\/span>
\nMyriad Genetics (MYGN +1.94%) initiated with a “Buy” at Cantor with a price target of $40.<\/span>
\nCooper Companies (COO +1.92%) reported Q2 EPS ex-items of $1.50, stronger than consensus of $1.38, and raised guidance on fiscal 2013 EPS to $6.15-$6.25 from $5.95-$6.10, stronger than consensus of $6.05.<\/span>
\nVail Resorts (MTN -1.29%) reported Q3 EPS of $2.66, weaker than consensus of $2.74.<\/span>
\nGap (GPS +1.81%) climbed over 3% in after-hours traading after it reported May sales of $1.22 billion and that May Same-Store-Sales rose 7%, much better than consensus of a +3.7% increase.<\/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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