{"id":7089,"date":"2013-10-15T07:38:44","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T12:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7089"},"modified":"2013-10-15T07:38:44","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T12:38:44","slug":"before-the-open-oct-15-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7089","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Oct 15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. Australia, South Korea and Taiwan did well; there were no big losers. Europe is currently up across-the-board. Belgium and Greece are up more than 2%; Amsterdam and Switzerland are up more than 1%; Germany, Norway and London are also doing well. Futures here in the States point towards a flat-to-down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. <\/span>
\n Yesterday’s action was a hint the market has a lot of underlying strength. It gapped down because Washington had not a agreed on a budget over the weekend, but then it shook off the opening weakness and steadily climbed all day and posted moderate gains. Volume dropped – in fact it dropped for the third straight day – but the price action looked great. The market wants to move up. It wants last week’s low to be the<\/em> low, and it wants to make a new high. It just needs Congress and the White House to agree on something and the shutdown to end.<\/span>
\n Here are the daily index charts. The small and mid caps are at new highs. The Nas isn’t far behind. The S&P and Dow are lagging but doing well. Money has been rotating from the large cap, dividend-paying stocks into smaller, more speculative companies – a clear sign of market health. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Transocean (RIG +0.51%) was downgraded to “Hold” from “Buy” at Argus.<\/span>
\n Domino’s Pizza (DPZ +0.72%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 51 cents, weaker than consensus of 52 cents.<\/span>
\n Tesla (TSLA +0.57%) was upgraded to “Outperform” from “Neutral” at Wedbush.<\/span>
\n Texas Instruments (TXN +0.42%) was upgraded to “Neutral” from “Negative” at Susquehanna.<\/span>
\n Microsoft (MSFT +0.94%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Hold” at Jefferies who also raised their price target on the stock to $42 from $33.<\/span>
\n Omnicon Group (OMC +0.39%) reported Q3 EPS of 82 cents, better than consensus of 81 cents.<\/span>
\n Coca-Cola (KO +0.37%) reported Q3 EPS of 53 cents, right on expectations.<\/span>
\n Macy’s (M -0.14%) said it will open most stores nationwide at 8pm on Thanksgiving evening.<\/span>
\n Packaging Corp. (PKG +1.60%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 91 cents, better than consensus of 89 cents.<\/span>
\n Brown & Brown (BRO +1.21%) reported Q3 EPS of 39 cents, below consensus of 40 cents.<\/span>
\n Teradata (TDC -0.70%) fell 13% in after-hours trading after it said it sees Q3 EPS of 69 cents-70 cents, well below consensus of 81 cents, and cut its fiscal 2013 EPS view to $2.70-$2.80, below consensus of $3.05.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales
\n 8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
\n 8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: C, DPZ, FRC, JBHT, JNJ, KO, OMC<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: CSX, IBKR, INTC, LLTC, YHOO<\/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