{"id":7215,"date":"2013-12-05T08:32:21","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T13:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7215"},"modified":"2013-12-05T08:32:21","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T13:32:21","slug":"before-the-open-dec-5-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7215","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cyber Week Special<\/a><\/span>
\n Good morning. Happy Thursday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Australia, Japan and Singapore each dropped more than 1%; India rallied 1.2%. Europe is currently mixed. Austria, Czech Republic and Greece are leading to the downside; there are no big winners. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is flat. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are down. <\/span>
\n For only the second time since August the S&P has dropped four straight days. For short or intermediate term traders, it’s noteworthy. For longer term traders, it’s perfectly normal and healthy movement for a strong market in a solid uptrend. Volume increased yesterday, and the market closed well off its low, so perhaps we got a mini washout.<\/span>
\n Tomorrow, 60 min before the open, we get the latest employment figures. Since Wall St. is obsessed with the Fed and the Fed is obsessed with the data, the numbers are very important. Yesterday’s new home sales reaction was a preview of what may happen tomorrow in the futures market. <\/span>
\n Good news could be bad news (the Fed tapers sooner rather than later). Bad news could be good news (the Fed holds off tapering). The market’s reaction to news lately has not been consistent. Yesterday was a good example. The market liked the numbers…but then gave everything back. <\/span>
\n My stance remains the same. Long term I like the market. Short term things are less clear. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Union Pacific (UNP -0.66%) was upgraded to ‘Strong Buy’ from ‘Outperform’ at Raymond James.<\/span>
\n Tiffany (TIF +0.18%) was upgraded to ‘Conviction Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman.<\/span>
\n Kohl’s (KSS -1.57%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at BofA\/Merrill.<\/span>
\n Celgene (CELG +0.09%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS.<\/span>
\n CF Industries (CF +10.68%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Sell’ at Goldman.<\/span>
\n Exxon Mobil (XOM +0.30%) was downgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Strong Buy’ at Raymond James after recent shae price gains.<\/span>
\n Reuters reported that Ford’s (F +0.36%) November China auto sales jump 47% y\/y.<\/span>
\n Dollar General (DG -0.19%) reported Q3 EPS of 72 cents, better than consensus of 70 cents.<\/span>
\n Apple (AAPL -0.23%) rose nearly 2% in pre-market trading after three Chinese mobile phone carriers received government approval to start service on China’s 4-G wireless network. This will allow China Mobile Ltd., the world’s largest phone company, to beging selling Apple’s iPhone to its 759 million subscribers.<\/span>
\n General Growth Properties (GGP +0.10%) jumped over 3% in pre-market trading after it was anoounced that it will replace Molex (MOLX +0.13%) in the S&P 500 as of the 12\/9 close.<\/span>
\n Safeway (SWY -2.17%) fell nearly 3% in pre-market trading after Jana Partners LLC said it reduced its holdings in the stock to 4.1% from 6.2%.<\/span>
\n Citigroup (C -0.17%) and Morgan Stanley (MS +0.52%) were both downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Deutsche Bank.<\/span>
\n Avago (AVGO -0.63%) reported Q4 EPS of 89 cents, well above consensus of 82 cents.<\/span>
\n Synopsys (SNPS -0.46%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 56 cents, higher than consensus of 55 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2014 adjusted EPS to $2.55-$2.60, above consensus of $2.54.<\/span>
\n Guess (GES -1.62%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 42 cents, higher than consensus of 38 cents.<\/span>
\n Aeropostale (ARO -3.90%) reported a Q3 EPS ex-items loss of -29 cents, a wider loss than consensus of -24 cents.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n Chain Store Sales
\n 7:30 Challenger Job-Cut Report
\n 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
\n 8:30 GDP Q3
\n 8:30 Corporate Profits
\n 9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
\n 10:00 Factory Orders
\n 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
\n 4:30 PM Money Supply
\n 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: CONN, DG, FRAN, JOSB, KR, MEI, RY, SOL, TD, TITN<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: AMBA, COO, DMND, FIVE, FNSR, PSUN, ULTA, ZUMZ<\/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