{"id":7371,"date":"2014-02-07T08:44:28","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T13:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7371"},"modified":"2014-02-07T08:44:28","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T13:44:28","slug":"before-the-open-feb-7-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7371","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Feb 7)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed up across the board. Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan led the way. Europe is currently mostly up. Norway rallied 1.4%; Austria also did well. Most gains are small. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market, but this is likely to change when the employment numbers are released.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold is up, silver is down. <\/span>
\n The S&P has rallied right back to the former support level. Funny how the market magically moves to a key level into an important announcement. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n Here are the employment numbers\u2026<\/span>
\n unemployment rate: 6.6% (was 6.7% last month)
\n nonfarm payrolls: +113K
\n private payrolls:
\n average workweek: flat at 34.4
\n hourly wages: up 5 cents to $24.21
\n labor participation rate drops to 63.0%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n The market’s initial knee-jerk reaction was down (S&P futures dropped about 15), but it has re-captured about half the losses. <\/span>
\n The numbers aren’t great, but the unemployment rate (which I’ve said many times involves some funny math and some impossible-to-quantify variables) dropped closer to the Fed’s magical 6.5% level. More likely than not this will continue the tapering process, but there will be another report next month before the next Fed meeting. <\/span>
\n The market is in no-man’s land. It fell a bunch and then rallied back some. My overall bias remains to the downside. Near term though, I still think 1800 is doable for the S&P. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Moody’s (MCO +2.98%) reported Q4 EPS of 85 cents, higher than consensus of 76 cents.<\/span>
\n Towers Watson (TW -8.25%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at JPMorgan.<\/span>
\n Cigna (CI +0.35%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.39, below consensus of $1.49.<\/span>
\n AOL (AOL -0.88%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA\/Merrill.<\/span>
\n Fitch Ratings said it has downgraded the long-term ratings of McKesson (MCK +2.24%) , including the long-term Issuer Default Rating, to ‘BBB+’ from ‘A-‘<\/span>
\n WellCare (WCG -0.40%) signed a contract to provide medicaid services to Medicaid recipients in eight Florida regions as part of the state’s Managed Medical Assistance program.<\/span>
\n Illinois Tool Works (ITW +0.68%) announced that it will sell its Industrial Packaging Segment to The Carlyle Group (CG +4.81%) for $3.2 billion.<\/span>
\n Republic Services (RSG +1.01%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 53 cents, better than consensus of 46 cents.<\/span>
\n ON Semiconductor (ONNN +2.59%) reported Q4 EPS of 17 cents, better than consensus of 14 cents.<\/span>
\n News Corp. (NWSA +2.63%) rose 2% in European trading ater it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 31 cents, well ahead of consensus of 20 cents.<\/span>
\n Activision Blizzard (ATVI +1.66%) climbed 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 79 cents, stronger than consensus of 73 cents.<\/span>
\n LinkedIn (LNKD +4.24%) slid over 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 39 cents, higher than consensus of 38 cents, but then lowered guidance on its fiscal 2014 revenue estimate to $2.02 billion-$2.05 billion, below consensus of $2.16 billion.<\/span>
\n Expedia (EXPE +1.89%) jumped 13% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 92 cents, better than consensus of 86 cents.<\/span>
\n Lionsgate (LGF +3.42%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 70 cents, well above consensus of 44 cents.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:30 Non-farm payrolls
\n 3:00 PM Consumer Credit<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: APO, AXL, BPL, CBOE, CI, FLIR, GSM, IMN, LH, LQDT, MCO, MSG, MT, SIRO, UFS, WYN<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: CCJ<\/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