{"id":6978,"date":"2013-09-03T07:44:26","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T12:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=6978"},"modified":"2013-09-03T07:44:26","modified_gmt":"2013-09-03T12:44:26","slug":"before-the-open-sep-3-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=6978","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Sep 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday. Hope you had a nice weekend.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. India dropped 3.5%; Japan rallied 3%, and China, Hong Kong and Indonesia moved up more than 1%. Europe is currently mixed. Greece is up 2%, Belgium 1.1%. Futures here in the States point towards a big gap up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil is down, copper up. Gold is down, silver is up 3%.<\/span>
\n Over the weekend I painted a picture that leaned to the downside. Some indicators were ready to support a rally; others needed more time to move to an extreme level to support a rally. <\/span>
\n But the big wildcard I noted was Syria. Even though the technicals leaned to the downside, if good news was released regarding Syria, all bets were off; the market could easily rally hard. This is exactly what has happened. It’s not that something good happened in Syria, it’s that nothing bad happened. The US didn’t launch an attack, and the growing chorus of anti-war language is picking up steam. Even members of the military are voicing their disapproval. Maybe, just maybe, the US won’t get involved. <\/span>
\n News trumps the charts in the near term. All bets are off if the US announces they will no longer strike. Then after the initial knee-jerk reaction wears off, we’ll have to see if the weakish internals re-assert their influence or if the news is enough to permanently change the intermediate term.<\/span>
\n Don’t over-analyze. News trumps the charts, and the ultimate effect is yet to be seen . <\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Nokia (NOK -2.50%) was upgraded to “Perform” from “Underperform” at Oppenheimer.<\/span>
\n Vodafone (VOD +1.73%) was upgraded to “Market Perform” from “Underperform” at Bernstein.<\/span>
\n Constellation Brands (STZ -0.59%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Neutral” at Goldman.<\/span>
\n Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE -0.16%) was upgraded to “Conviction Buy” from “Neutral” at Goldman.<\/span>
\n Verizon (VZ -0.92%) was upgraded to “Outperform” from “Sector Perform” at RBC Capital.<\/span>
\n Williams-Sonoma (WSM -0.79%) was downgraded to “Hold” from “Buy” at Canaccord.<\/span>
\n Dean Foods (DF -0.36%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at Goldman.<\/span>
\n Green Mountain (GMCR -2.78%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at SunTrust.<\/span>
\n Apache (APA +8.95%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Neutral” at Mizuho.<\/span>
\n Microsoft (MSFT -0.45%) fell 1.3% in pre-market trading after it agreed to buy Nokia Oyj’s mobile-phone business and license its patents for $7.2 billion.<\/span>
\n Booz Allen (BAH -2.79%) filed to sell 20 million shares of class A common stock.<\/span>
\n Verition Fund Management reported a 12.3% stake in Acorn Energy (ACFN -2.76%).<\/span>
\n Earnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 9:00 PMI Manufacturing Index
\n 10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
\n 10:00 Construction Spending<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: none<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: GWRE, HRB, PIKE, SIGM<\/span>
\n Other<\/strong>…<\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a> from briefing.com<\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
\n