{"id":7273,"date":"2013-12-30T08:33:15","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T13:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7273"},"modified":"2013-12-30T08:33:15","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T13:33:15","slug":"before-the-open-dec-30-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7273","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 30)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Indonesia rallied 1.5%; Australia, Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan also did well. Europe is currently mixed. There are no notable winners or losers. Futures here in the States point towards a slight up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is down. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. <\/span>
\n The market posted across-the-board gains last week in route to registering new highs…some indexes are at all-time highs, others are at multi-year highs. <\/span>
\n Many indicators cycled down and have curled up and are supportive of more gains. Others have hit extremely bullish levels and hint at a needed rest. <\/span>
\n Most key groups have also hit new highs, so there are no subtle hints weakness is brewing under the surface.<\/span>
\n The most bearish observation I can make is simply that the market has gone up so much recently, it’s in need of a rest because if the movement continues, the indexes will be in full-flown parabolic mode. This is entirely possible, just very rare. <\/span>
\n The long side is the only side I’m interested in. But in the near term the risk\/rewards for new entries isn’t great. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n GNC Holdings (GNC -0.55%) price target was raised to $71 from $64 at RW Baird who keeps its ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock.<\/span>
\n China’s Ministry of Culture has banned Electronics Arts’ (EA -2.11%) Battlefield 4, a portion of which centers on a Chinese military coup, reported Marbridge Daily.<\/span>
\n CME Group (CME -1.21%) could benefit from tapering, says Bernstein who keeps its ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock.<\/span>
\n Cooper Tire (CTB +2.23%) terminated its merger agreement with Apollo Tyres.<\/span>
\n Cal-Maine Foods (CALM -0.59%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.08, higher than consensus of $1.05.<\/span>
\n Disney (DIS -0.36%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Guggenheim.<\/span>
\n JMP Securities downgraded Myriad Genetics (MYGN -0.21%) to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform.’<\/span>
\n Citigrop raised its price target on Amazon.com (AMZN -1.56%) to $457 from $381 and it keeps its ‘Buy’ rating on the stock.<\/span>
\n Chemtura Corporation (CHMT +0.54%) has announced that it is raising the price of the products supplied by the polyalphaolefins business, the prices of the products supplied by the Urethanes Business, and price of certain specialty polyolester products supplied by the Industrial Performance Products Business effective Jan. 15.<\/span>
\n Lockheed Martin (LMT -0.48%) was awarded a $574.54 million government contract for the production of the Aegis Weapon System in support of the DDG 51 Shipbuilding Program and an option for Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 10:00 Pending Home Sales
\n 10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook
\n 3:00 PM Farm Prices<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: CALM<\/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