{"id":7052,"date":"2013-09-30T07:32:39","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T12:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7052"},"modified":"2013-09-30T07:32:39","modified_gmt":"2013-09-30T12:32:39","slug":"before-the-open-sep-30-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7052","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Sep 30)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Indonesia and Japan dropped > 2%; Australia, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand and Singapore fell > 1%. China is currently down across the board. Belgium, France, Germany, Stockholm, Italy, Spain and Greece are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a big gap down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is down. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. <\/span>
\n It’s all about the impending government shut down. Simple as that. Unless Congress compromises today, a partial shutdown will take place at midnight tonight, and nonessential employees (about 800,000 of them) will be told not to show up for work tomorrow. <\/span>
\n News trumps the charts, so throw out everything I stated over the weekend in the weekly report. Until the circus in Washingon ends, the market will be paralyzed and held hostage. <\/span>
\n There is an option for Congress to pass legislation that would cover government financials for a few extra days to give the sides more time to negotiate. In my opinion, this is the worst of all worlds. They’ve had plenty of time to negotiate. The pressure needs to be kept on.<\/span>
\n When the fiasco in Washington ends, my first downside S&P target is 1680 (via the daily chart),<\/span>
\n\"\"
\n and then 1650 (via the weekly chart).<\/span>
\n\"\"
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Johnson Controls (JCI -1.07%) was downgraded to “Underweight” from “Overweight” at Morgan Stanley.<\/span>
\n Morgan Stanley upgraded Colgate-Palmolive (CL -0.76%) to “Overweight” from “Equal Weight.”<\/span>
\n Cal-Maine Foods (CALM -1.09%) reported Q1 EPS of 36 cents, right on consensus.<\/span>
\n Piper Jaffray reiterated its “Overweight” rating on Regeneron (REGN +0.04%) and raised its price target on the stock to $360 from $336.<\/span>
\n J.M. Smucker (SJM -0.85%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Neutral” at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Honeywell (HON -0.56%) was awarded a $485.46 million government contract to perform acquisition and sustainment for the Embedded Global Positioning System Inertial Navigation System.<\/span>
\n Northrop Grumman (NOC -0.12%) has been awarded a $795.92 million contract modification to a previously awarded contract for contractor logistics support services in support of Air Mobility Command aircraft.<\/span>
\n Raytheon (RTN -1.33%) was awarded a $243.48 million modification to a previously awarded contract for procurement of 89 Standard Missile-6 Block I All Up Rounds, spares, containers, and round design agent services.<\/span>
\n Lockheed Martin (LMT -0.47%) was awarded a $3.41 billion government contract modification to a previously awarded contract for Low Rate Initial Production Lot VII F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft production.<\/span>
\n Eminence Capital reported a 5.4% passive stake in Aeropostale (ARO -0.83%) .<\/span>
\n Reuters reported that Vietnam Airlines will buy 19 Boeing (BA -0.54%) Dreamliners, a deal with more than $4 billion at list price.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 9:45 Chicago PMI
\n 10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: CALM<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: DMND, PAYX<\/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