{"id":7335,"date":"2014-01-23T07:47:58","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T12:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7335"},"modified":"2014-01-23T07:47:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-23T12:47:58","slug":"before-the-open-jan-23-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7335","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jan 23)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore dropped more than 1%. Europe is currently mixed. Greece is down 1.5%, Austria 0.6% and Norway 0.5%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.
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\n The dollar is down 0.4% – a relatively big drop. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\n Yesterday was an inside day; all the movement took place within the high and low of the previous day. The range was small, and neither the bulls nor bears could force a directional move for very long. Here’s the 15-min S&P chart. It’s a good old-fashioned consolidation pattern. After hitting over-bought levels in December, the market has corrected with time, not a price drop. <\/span>
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\n Solar is the market’s strongest group right now. We’ve had several good trades the last few months, and now several are setting up again (we’ve played these in the past; it’s time to play them again).<\/span>
\n TSL<\/strong>, YGE<\/strong> and SUNE<\/strong> look ready to go. <\/span>
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\n This is in addition to SCTY<\/strong> and CSIQ<\/strong>, which have already done great. <\/span>
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\n There’s a bull market somewhere, right? More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB +0.46%) reported Q4 EPS of 41 cents, weaker than consensus of 42 cents.<\/span>
\n Precision Castparts (PCP +0.14%) reported Q3 EPS of $2.95, below consensus of $3.03.<\/span>
\n Lockheed Martin (LMT +1.65%) reported Q4 EPS of $2.38, well ahead of consensus of $2.11.<\/span>
\n IBM (IBM -3.28%) rose +0.4% in pre-market trading after it announced that Lenovo Group Ltd. will buy its server business for $2.3 billion.<\/span>
\n Microsoft (MSFT -0.66%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Deutsche Bank who also raised their price target on the stock to $40 from $32.<\/span>
\n Oracle (ORCL -0.34%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Deutsche Bank who also raised their price target on the stock to $45 from $33.<\/span>
\n Salesforce.com (CRM +0.31%) and Citrix (CTXS -0.47%) were both downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Deutsche Bank.<\/span>
\n Raymond James (RJF -0.83%) reported Q1 EPS of 81 cents, well ahead of consensus of 73 cents.<\/span>
\n United Rentals (URI +0.10%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.59, better than consensus of $1.47.<\/span>
\n Western Digital (WDC -0.88%) fell 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $2.19, stronger than consensus of $2.08, but then lowered guidance on Q3 EPS to $180-$1.90, below consensus of $1.95.<\/span>
\n eBay (EBAY +0.48%) gained over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 81 cents, higher than consensus of 80 cents, although Q4 revenue of $4.53 billion was slightly below consensus of $4.54 billion.<\/span>
\n SanDisk (SNDK +0.42%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.71, well ahead of consensus of $1.58.<\/span>
\n Varian Medical (VAR +0.77%) reported Q1 EPS of 91 cents, stronger than consensus of 90 cents.<\/span>
\n Stryker (SYK -0.01%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.23, higher than consensus of $1.22.<\/span>
\n Netflix (NFLX +1.53%) rallied 17% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 79 cents, much better than consensus of 66 cents.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
\n 9:00 PMI Manufacturing Index Flash
\n 9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
\n 10:00 Existing Home Sales
\n 10:00 FHFA House Price Index
\n 10:00 Leading Indicators
\n 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
\n 11:00 EIA Petroleum Inventories
\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: ABC, ACAT, ALK, AVT, BAX, BGG, BKU, BPOP, CSH, CY, DLX, FCS, FITB, GMT, JBHT, JCI, JNS, KEY, LMT, LUV, MCD, MTG, NOK, ORI, PCP, QSII, TDY, TZOO, UNP<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: ALTR, AMCC, CBST, CE, CPWR, CYN, DFS, DLB, ETFC, FII, HXL, IGT, INFA, ISRG, JNPR, KLAC, LEG, MSCC, MSFT, MXIM, OTEX, RMD, SBUX, SHOR, SIVB, SYNA, WAL<\/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>
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