{"id":7447,"date":"2014-03-10T07:44:24","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T12:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7447"},"modified":"2014-03-10T07:44:24","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T12:44:24","slug":"before-the-open-mar-10-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7447","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Mar 10)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China dropped almost 3%; Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea dropped more than 1%. Europe currently leans to the downside. Germany, Austria and Prague are down; France and Italy are up. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up slightly. Oil is down $1.36; copper is down too. Gold is down, silver is up. <\/span>
\n The market remains in very good shape. Except for the Dow, all the indexes hit new highs last week. <\/span>
\n The breadth indicators are also in good shape. Some are moving up; others, having topped a couple weeks ago, are cycling down. We’re likely to get divergence with some of these indicators, but divergences usually take time to play out. Hence, there isn’t an immediate urge to purge all positions. <\/span>
\n My biggest concern is the extent of the move off the early-February lows. The S&P is up 140 in five weeks and has yet to register consecutive down days. In fact its worst stretch was a “down 3 of 5 days” week in the middle of February. Steady, consistent, methodical. The market keeps pressing higher, and this is a little worrisome. I think it’s healthier to have some ups and downs, some backing and filling, but this isn’t happening. Plus I consider the quality of the current batch of new set ups to be a notch or two lower than in previous weeks. There are some decent looking oil charts, but otherwise we don’t have a decent stable of very good set ups to play. And for what it’s worth, the situation in eastern Europe will remain front page news for the time being. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Ferrellgas Partners (FGP +1.30%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 76 cents, below consensus of 85 cents.<\/span>
\n D.R. Horton (DHI -1.63%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Wells Fargo downgraded the Financials sector to ‘Market Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ citing weakening earnings momentum.<\/span>
\n KB Home (KBH -2.05%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA\/Merrill.<\/span>
\n Archer Daniels Midland (ADM +0.95%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital.<\/span>
\n Alcatel-Lucent (ALU -2.14%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at BMO Capital.<\/span>
\n athenahealth (ATHN -3.06%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Perform’ at Oppenheimer.<\/span>
\n Staples (SPLS +1.15%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at BB&T.<\/span>
\n The WSJ reported that Boeing (BA -0.25%) said a problem caused by a change in wing-maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ manufacturing process had caused hairline cracks in the wings on some of its yet-to-be-delivered 787 Dreamliner jets, requiring 42 aircraft to be inspected and delaying deliveries to airlines.<\/span>
\n Glazer Capital reported a 7.6% passive stake in Pacer (PACR unch) .<\/span>
\n Moody’s Investors Service raised its outlook on the Netherlands’ ‘Aaa’ government bond ratings to stable from negative.<\/span>
\n Luxor Capital Group reported a 5.6% passive stake in Conn’s (CONN -1.02%) .<\/span>
\n Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY +1.32%) lowered guidance on Q4 EPS to $1.57-$1.61 from $1.60-$1.67, weaker than consensus of $1.65.<\/span>
\n Haynes International (HAYN -0.02%) announced a price increase of 3%-5% on all product forms effective immediately<\/span>
\n SAC Capital reported a 5.0% passive stake in Walter Investment (WAC -4.35%) .<\/span>
\n JP Morgan reported a 10.6% passive stake in United Online (UNTD -1.42%) .<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n No major events scheduled.<\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: FGP, REN, TICC<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: CASY, FCEL, FTEK, MED, NES, NVAX, POWR, PWRD, UNFI<\/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