{"id":7455,"date":"2014-03-14T07:42:26","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T12:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7455"},"modified":"2014-03-14T07:42:26","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T12:42:26","slug":"before-the-open-mar-14-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7455","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Mar 14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan dropped 3.3%; Hong Kong and Australia more than 1%. Indonesia rallied 3.2%. Europe is currently down across-the-board. Belgium, Russia, Prague and Spain are down more than 2%. France, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Greece are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a slight down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\n The market got hit hard yesterday. It was the biggest down day since the early-February bottom, and the S&P is on pace to suffer one of its biggest down weeks since August. Here’s the daily. A divergence with the MACD Histogram is not to be ignored. <\/span>
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\n But it wasn’t a total loss. Our gold and silver set ups did great. Purely from a technical standpoint, the groups look great and should continue their newly formed trends. Here’s GDX. Textbook play if you’re looking for low risk\/low reward. Many individual stocks look just as good and have better upside potential. <\/span>
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\n Warnings have been flashing for the last week…mostly in the form of numerous groups and stocks hitting nose-bleed levels. The overall trend remains solidly up, but in the near term, being cautious has been my call. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Lowe’s (LOW -1.36%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Perform’ at Oppenheimer.<\/span>
\n Ann Inc. (ANN -0.09%) reported Q4 EPS of 10 cents, better than consensus of 7 cents.<\/span>
\n Cooper Tire (CTB -1.17%) reported Q4 EPS of 31 cents, stronger than consensus of 26 cents.<\/span>
\n Brown Shoe (BWS +0.75%) reported Q4 EPS of 14 cents, higher than consensus of 10 cents.<\/span>
\n General Mills (GIS -0.66%) lowered guidance on Q3 adjusted EPS to 61 cents-62 cents, below consensus of 68 cents.<\/span>
\n U.S. Steel (X -1.85%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Credit Suisse.<\/span>
\n NuStar Energy (NS -0.04%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman.<\/span>
\n Gabelli reported a 5.76% stake in Cadence (CADX -0.07%) .<\/span>
\n Aeropostale (ARO +0.69%) fell over 10% in after-hours trading after it reported a Q4 EPS loss of -35 cents, wider than consensus of a -31 cents loss.<\/span>
\n Ulta Salon (ULTA -2.06%) rose over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of $1.09, better than consensus of $1.07.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:30 Producer Price Index
\n 9:55 Reuters\/UofM Consumer Sentiment<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: ANN, BKE, BWS, EBIX, FSYS, HIBB, KWK, MEA<\/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>
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