{"id":6804,"date":"2013-07-05T07:33:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-05T12:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6804"},"modified":"2013-07-05T07:33:12","modified_gmt":"2013-07-05T12:33:12","slug":"before-the-open-july-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6804","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (July 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day. Hope you enjoyed your day off. <\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed up across-the-board. Japan rallied 2.1%, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan rallied more than 1%. Europe is currently mostly up, but only Greece (up 2.5%) is up noticeably. Futures here in the States point towards a relatively big gap up for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nThe dollar is up. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are down. <\/span>
\nPrior to the employment numbers release, the S&P futures were up about 12 points. <\/span>
\nHere are the employment numbers<\/b>\u2026<\/span>
\nunemployment rate: 7.6% (was 7.6% last month)
\nnonfarm payrolls: +195K
\nprivate payrolls:
\naverage workweek: 34.5 (unchanged)
\nhourly wages: up 0.4$ to $24.01<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nApril job gain raised from 149K to 199K.
\nMay job gain raised from 175K to 195K.<\/span><\/span>
\nAfter the numbers were released, futures jumped a couple points. <\/span>
\nHeading into this week I was straddling the fence and open to a move in either direction. Now I lean a little to the upside, but overall think the odds of a summer range are growing. Rallies will continue to get sold, dips will continue to get bought. Two months from now everyone except short term traders who take profits sooner rather than later will be frustrated. <\/span>
\nThat’s it for now. Today will be dead. I’m ducking out early. <\/span>
\nHere are stock-specific stories from barchart.com…<\/span>
\nAlcoa (AA -0.76%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Overweight” at JPMorgan.<\/span>
\nOverstock.com (OSTK -0.37%) was downgraded to “Underperform” from “Buy” at BofA\/Merrill.<\/span>
\nComerica (CMA +1.24%) was upgraded to “Neutral” from “Sell” at Citigroup.<\/span>
\nIn a post on the Treasury’s website, the Obama administration is announcing that it will provide an additional year before the Affordable Care Act mandatory employer and insurer reporting requirements begin.<\/span>
\nBoeing (BA -1.71%) was awarded a $109.46 million government contract modification in support of the Royal Saudi Land Force Aviation Command in Saudi Arabia.<\/span>
\nLockheed Martin (LMT -1.54%) was awarded a $308.32 million government contract modification for the procurement of tactical missiles and launcher modification kits in support of Kuwait.<\/span>
\nStandard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its long-term counterparty credit ratings on Barclays (BCS -1.33%) , Credit Suisse (CS -1.25%) , and Deutsche Bank (DB -2.02%) to ‘A’ from ‘A+ on its opinion of the increasing risks that Europe’s large banking groups active in investment banking face as regulators and uncertain market conditions continue to make operating in the industry more difficult.<\/span>
\nBloomberg reported that Apple (AAPL +2.27%) is near a deal with Time Warner Cable (TWC -1.33%) that would give Time Warner subscribers access to channels via Apple TV.<\/span>
\nHasbro (HAS +0.39%) and Electronic Arts (EA +1.47%) announced a new agreement under which EA will develop several of Hasbro\u2019s best-selling gaming brands for mobile platforms globally.<\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a><\/span>
\n