{"id":7378,"date":"2014-02-10T08:36:35","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T13:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7378"},"modified":"2014-02-10T08:36:35","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T13:36:35","slug":"before-the-open-feb-10-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7378","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Feb 10)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed and with a bullish lean. China rallied 2%; Australia and Japan rallied more than 1%. Europe is currently also trading with a bullish slant, but Belgium is the index posting a decent gain; Spain is down almost 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a gap down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is down slightly. Oil is down, copper up. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\n The market finished last week with two big up days that put the S&P up on the week…despite starting the week with one of the biggest down days of the last year. <\/span>
\n Now things get very interesting. The market has rallied back about 50% of its move down – a normal amount – on lighter volume. The first move off a low is the easy move because supply\/demand and sentiment shift away from the bear’s corner. But then institutions need to step up in order for the gains to continue. Said another way, buying 50 S&P points ago wasn’t hard for big funds; buying now is more difficult because many stocks have already popped off low levels. If big funds come and continue buying, it’s a very good sign. <\/span>
\n A few indicators have reversed and now support more upside, but they have to continue. A few other indicators are at extreme levels but haven’t reversed. They will need to.<\/span>
\n The 100-point move down wiped out most of the good looking charts and zapped the enthusiasm of the bulls; the 50-point rally wiped out many good looking bearish charts and is dampening the bear’s enthusiasm for going short. <\/span>
\n The next few days will be key. The indexes are in no-man’s land, and both the bulls and bears are on the edge of their seats. Short term I don’t have a bias. Long term I lean to the downside. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Loews (L +0.98%) reported Q4 EPS of 65 cents, below consensus of 70 cents.<\/span>
\n ArcelorMittal (MT +1.29%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA\/Merrill.<\/span>
\n Urban Outfitters (URBN +1.80%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Brean Capital.<\/span>
\n Hasbro (HAS +0.87%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.12, weaker than consensus of $1.22.<\/span>
\n Whole Foods Markets (WFM +0.18%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at BB&T.<\/span>
\n Apollo Global (APO +0.38%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Bristol-Myers (BMY +2.76%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital with a price target of $50.<\/span>
\n Texas Roadhouse (TXRH +2.52%) was upgraded to ‘Strong Buy’ from ‘Outperform’ at Raymond James.<\/span>
\n Piper Jaffray reiterated its ‘Overweight’ rating on athenahealth (ATHN +25.06%) and raised its price target on the stock to $220 from $170.<\/span>
\n Jennison Associates reported a 5.9% passive stake in Michael Kors (KORS +2.97%) .<\/span>
\n Polar Securities reported a 5.7% passive stake in Kirkland’s (KIRK -1.00%) .<\/span>
\n Aisling Capital II reported a 13.8% passive stake in Esperion Therapeutics (ESPR +11.37%) .<\/span>
\n Elon Musk reported a 23.1% stake in SolarCity (SCTY +3.68%) .<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n No events scheduled.<\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: BWP, CNA, CYOU, HAS, L, MCY, MNTA, SFUN, SOHU, TTI<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: ACAS, AMKR, BNNY, CAP, CMP, CRK, CYS, KS, MAS, MERU, MKL, MODN, MOH, NUAN, OMI, OTTR, PRI, PSE, PXD, QLYS, RAX, RBC, SSNI, WCN<\/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