{"id":6958,"date":"2013-08-30T07:32:48","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T12:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6958"},"modified":"2013-08-30T07:32:48","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T12:32:48","slug":"before-the-open-aug-30-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6958","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 30)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Indonesia rallied 2.2%; Australia, India, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan also did well. Europe is currently mostly down. Belgium is down 2.7%; France, Germany, Amsterdam, Norway, Spain and Italy are also weakish. Greece is up 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up slightly. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. <\/span>
\n It’s the last day of August. Barring a ridiculous and unexpected rally, the market will close with its biggest monthly loss since June 2012. <\/span>
\n For long term investors this is not a huge concern. They can’t expect the market to indefinitely go up month after month. They should manage positions wisely, but they should not panic because if they wish to nail the big moves, they have to be comfortable holding through minor corrections. <\/span>
\n For shorter term traders, holding through a correction is flat out stupid unless you happen to be in a stock that has held up great. Otherwise you get flat and wait to buy a dip, or you get flat and go short.<\/span>
\n Since I’m a swing trader (that means, under ideal conditions I hold for a couple weeks and let charts play out) I’ve been laying low. I see no point in forcing trades. I’m ok with sitting tight, doing a short term trade here and there to stay in the game, or otherwise waiting for the conditions to improve. <\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Intel (INTC -0.99%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Hold” at Argus.<\/span>
\n Staples (SPLS -0.50%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Overweight” at JPMorgan.<\/span>
\n Apache (APA -0.67%) was upgraded to “Outperform” from “Sector Perform” at RBC Capital.<\/span>
\n Big Lots (BIG +1.52%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 31 cents, better than consensus of 24 cents.<\/span>
\n Carl Icahn reported a 16.9% stake in Nuance (NUAN -1.03%) .<\/span>
\n Esterline (ESL +1.38%) reported Q3 EPS ex-items of $1.65, well ahead of consensus of $1.53.<\/span>
\n SAIC (SAI +1.06%) was awarded a NASA contract valued at approximately $1.8 billion to provide a broad range of support services to the agency’s Johnson Space Center Human Health and Performance directorate and the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate Human Research Program.<\/span>
\n S.A.C. Capital reported a 5.5% passive stake in NQ Mobile (NQ +0.06%) .<\/span>
\n Krispy Kreme (KKD +4.45%) fell over 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 14 cents, lower than consensus of 16 cents.<\/span>
\n Salesforce.com (CRM +2.03%) rose over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 9 cents, better than consensus of 7 cents, while the stock was added to the short-term buy list at Deutsche Bank.<\/span>
\n Earnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
\n 9:45 Chicago PMI
\n 9:55 Reuters\/UofM Consumer Sentiment
\n 3:00 PM USDA Ag. Prices<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: BIG, SOL, YGE<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: none<\/span>
\nOther<\/strong>…
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a> from briefing.com<\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
\n