{"id":7042,"date":"2013-09-25T07:23:38","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T12:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7042"},"modified":"2013-09-25T07:23:38","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T12:23:38","slug":"before-the-open-sep-25-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7042","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Sep 25)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Australia and New Zealand did well; Indonesia and Japan fared the worst. Europe is currently mixed. Amsterdam and Stockholm are leading to the downside; Greece is doing ok to the upside. Futures here in the States point towards a small gap down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. <\/span>
\n The S&P has dropped 4 straight days for the first time since mid August and for only the second time this year. The points given up are reasonable and healthy for an index coming off a 100-point, 4-week rally. But you still have to manage positions wisely. Don’t let a big gain turn into a small gain and a small gain into a loss. When the big picture trend is up, there will always be mini swings in both directions. When the swings are up, you can give positions a little more time and space to play out. When the swings are down, you need to be content with smaller gains. Swing for singles and the occasional double, not homeruns. <\/span>
\n Here’s the SPX daily. My first downside target is 1675-1680 – that’s where the 50-day and middle band of the Bollinger Bands are. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n Keep it simple. We entered this week with the near term being unclear, and although the market closed down Mon and Tues, it hasn’t been a 1-way market. There have been some playable swings in the up direction. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Reliance Steel (RS -0.23%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at BofA\/Merrill.<\/span>
\n Nordstrom (JWN -0.39%) upgraded to “Outperform” from “Neutral” at Macquarie.<\/span>
\n Oppenheimer keeps an “Outperform” rating on Facebook (FB +2.67%) and raises its price target on the stock to $54 from $36.<\/span>
\n Ross Stores (ROST -0.08%) was upgraded to “Conviction Buy” from “Buy” at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\n Carnival (CCL -7.65%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at BofA\/Merrill.<\/span>
\n AutoZone (AZO -0.84%) reported Q4 EPS of $10.42, stronger than consensus of $10.34.<\/span>
\n Copart (CPRT -0.73%) reported Q4 EPS of 32 cents, below consensus of 40 cents.<\/span>
\n Northrop Grumman (NOC +0.09%) was awarded a $101.59 million government contract modification for the sustainment of the propulsion\/ground\/guidance\/reentry system reentry vehicle systems of the ICBM weapon system.<\/span>
\n Boeing (BA +1.27%) was awarded a $225 million government contract modification for the procurement of six operational flight trainers, six weapons tactics trainers, two part task trainers, one training systems support center, three 10-seat electronic classrooms, and one 20-seat electronic classroom in support of the U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon low rate initial Production IV and full rate Production I aircraft.<\/span>
\n Harris (HRS +0.09%) was awarded a $140.7 million government contract for the production of the Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular radio.<\/span>
\n Crown Holdings (CCK +0.16%) slid 6% in after-hours trading after it lowered its Q3 EPS view to $1.05-$1.10 from prior $1.15-$1.25, below consensus of $1.21.<\/span>
\n Fluor (FLR +0.58%) announced that it was awarded a new $95 million contract by Pemex to develop the first phase of the overall project to reconfigure the Miguel Hidalgo Refinery, located in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico.<\/span>
\n Ascena Retail (ASNA -1.65%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 34 cents, well ahead of consensus of 21 cents.<\/span>
\n SAC Capital reported a 5.1% passive stake in SunEdison (SUNE +0.51%) .<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
\n 8:30 Durable Goods
\n 10:00 New Home Sales
\n 10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
\n 1:00 PM Results of $35B, 5-Year Note Auction<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: AZO<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: BBBY, JBL, WOR<\/span>
\nOther<\/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