{"id":7061,"date":"2013-10-04T07:27:46","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T12:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7061"},"modified":"2013-10-04T07:27:46","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T12:27:46","slug":"before-the-open-oct-4-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7061","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Oct 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets close mixed. China posted the biggest gain (0.7%) while Australia, Indonesia and Japan dropped. Europe is currently mixed. Austria and Switzerland are down. France, Italy, Spain and Greece are doing well. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. <\/span>
\n Today is supposed to be employment numbers day, but due to the government shutdown, the numbers, along with many others, will not be released. <\/span>
\n So far the market has handled the government shutdown fairly well. The indexes are posting losses for the week, but the losses aren’t extreme, and most of the intraday selling pressure could be classified as “normal,” not extreme or intense. Still, the longer the shutdown persists, the higher the odds its constant weight eventually causes a little panic. <\/span>
\n But in my opinion, weakness will be buyable. The overall trend is up; the market is healthy. Most signs point towards a continuation of the trend, not a reversal of it. In fact, dare I say the current market weakness will turn out to be a blessing in disguise that will give us an opportunity to buy stocks at lower prices?<\/span>
\n Research reveals many more long set ups than short, but until the circus in Washington ends, I’d play it safe – especially on a Friday. If agreements are reached over the weekend, we’ll get a big gap up on Monday. No agreement might result in a “WFT, enough is enough” response and a big gap down. When unknown news looms, the charts matter less. Be careful.<\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Acuity Brands (AYI -1.33%) was upgraded to “Neutral” from “Underperform” at Sterne Agee.<\/span>
\n Phillips 66 (PSX +0.64%) , Valero Energy (VLO -0.81%) , and Marathon Petroleum (MPC -0.17%) were all downgraded to “Perform” from “Outperform” at Oppenheimer.<\/span>
\n Wynn Resorts (WYNN -0.43%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Outperform” at Credit Suisse.<\/span>
\n CSX (CSX -1.50%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Union Pacific (UNP -0.48%) said it sees Q3 EPS of $2.45-$2.48, below consensus of $2.56.<\/span>
\n Lone Pine Capital reported a 5.3% passive stake in Pandora (P -1.67%) .<\/span>
\n Twitter (TWTR) filed for an IPO initial registration amount of $1 billion.<\/span>
\n CVD Equipment (CVV -2.64%) announced that it received a $1.8 million order from a major aviation component supplier.<\/span>
\n Xyratex (XRTX +7.53%) reported Q3 EPS of 21 cents, much better than consensus of 5 cents.<\/span>
\n Celgene (CELG -2.12%) reported a 11.4% stake in Acceleron Pharma (XLRN +9.79%) .<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:30 PM Fed’s Fisher: Economy Policy<\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: none<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: none<\/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