{"id":7506,"date":"2014-04-04T07:40:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T12:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7506"},"modified":"2014-04-04T07:40:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-04T12:40:00","slug":"before-the-open-apr-4-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7506","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Apr 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. India and Indonesia dropped 0.7%; China rallied 0.7%. Europe is currently mixed. Russia, London and Germany are up; Greece and Switzerland are down. About 15 minutes before the employment data was released, futures in the States pointed towards an up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is flat. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\n Here’s the 2-hour SPX. A solid rally was followed by one month of range bound movement, and now we have an attempt to bust out. This is textbook stuff, but the bulls want to see some follow through so they’ll have a cushion to work with. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n But this chart bothers me. It’s never good when the small caps lag. In the near term it’s no big deal, but over time, the small caps need to lead, not lag. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n Here are the employment numbers…<\/span>
\n unemployment rate: 6.7% (was 6.7% last month)
\n nonfarm payrolls: +192K
\n private payrolls:
\n average workweek: down 0.2 to 34.5 hours
\n hourly wages: down 1 cent to $24.30
\n labor participation rate drops to 63.2%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n On the news, the S&P futures spiked about 5 points and then settled down. <\/span>
\n The market improved this week, but there’s still work to be done. Lagging indicators, lagging small caps and a big pullbacks from some big cap tech stocks put a damper on the bullish SPX action. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n JPMorgan Chase (JPM +0.30%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Macquarie.<\/span>
\n CarMax (KMX -0.67%) reported Q4 EPS of 44 cents, weaker than consensus of 54 cents.<\/span>
\n Genesco (GCO -0.62%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Sterne Agee.<\/span>
\n General Mills (GIS +1.18%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Argus.<\/span>
\n Hasbro (HAS -0.92%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Needham.<\/span>
\n GameStop (GME +2.35%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at BofA\/Merrill.<\/span>
\n Anadarko (APC +14.51%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Underweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.<\/span>
\n Fiat (FIATY +0.17%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS.<\/span>
\n Vodafone (VOD -1.25%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Nomura.<\/span>
\n David E. Lazovsky reported a 5.7% passive stake in Intermolecular (IMI +0.36%) .<\/span>
\n SAC Capital lowered its passive stake in E-House (EJ -2.98%) to 2.2% from 5.6%.<\/span>
\n Micron (MU -1.44%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 85 cents, better than consensus of 76 cents.<\/span>
\n SYNNEX (SNX -1.53%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.25, well ahead of consensus of 94 cents.<\/span>
\n Global Payments (GPN -0.31%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 96 cents, higher than consensus of 95 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS view to $4.06-$4.11 from $4.03-$4.10; consensus $4.10.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 00:30 Fed’s Fisher: U.S. Economy and Monetary Policy
\n 8:30 Nonfarm payrolls<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: AZZ, KMX<\/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>
\n