{"id":7803,"date":"2014-07-08T07:36:44","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T12:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7803"},"modified":"2014-07-08T07:36:44","modified_gmt":"2014-07-08T12:36:44","slug":"before-the-open-jul-8-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7803","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jul 8)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets are mixed. India is down 2%; Japan is down 0.4%, Singapore 0.25%. Indonesia is up 0.7%. Europe is currently mostly down. Belgium and Russia are up about 1%; Greece is down 3.4%, Austria 1.9%, Prague 1.7%, Italy 1.2%, Spain 0.8% and London, France & Germany about 0.5%. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are up.<\/span>
\n Yesterday the Dow and S&P dropped a small amount…the Nas dropped moderately…the Russell small caps got hit hard. I’m sure the bears will pound their chests and claim this is a top, and maybe they’ll be right. After guessing wrong over and over, they are bound to be right eventually. <\/span>
\n Given the extent of the moves the last 6-10 weeks and the divergences I noted in the Weekly Report over the weekend, I’ve shifted to more of a management mode. That’s when I’m more interested in keeping what I have instead of entering new positions. <\/span>
\n The market changes personality, and we need to slightly change our style based on what the state of things is. It’s the difference between a baseball hitter having a 2-0 count with nobody on base an no outs (the pitcher doesn’t want to walk the hitter) vs. having runners on second and third with one out (the pitcher doesn’t mind walking the hitter to set up a double play). Drastic changes aren’t needed but mental awareness that the pitcher isn’t likely to give the hitter a good pitch to hit should be recognized. <\/span>
\n I like the market overall, but we need to see if yesterday was the beginning of a shallow pullback or something bigger. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n The Fresh Market (TFM -3.34%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\n 3M Company (MMM -0.34%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Argus.<\/span>
\n Range Resources (RRC -2.05%) was upgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Reduce’ at KLR Group.<\/span>
\n Covidien (COV -1.05%) and Medtronic (MDT -1.46%) were both added to short-term buy list at Deutsche Bank.<\/span>
\n Groupon (GRPN -3.30%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at B. Riley.<\/span>
\n Guess (GES -0.47%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Piper Jaffray with a price target of $32.<\/span>
\n Rio Tinto (RIO -0.97%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ at Barclays.<\/span>
\n CA Technologies (CA +0.10%) lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS view to $2.42-$2.49 from $2.45-$2.52, below consensus of $2.50.<\/span>
\n 683 Capital reported an 18.9% stake in Body Central (BODY -3.75%) .<\/span>
\n Full Moon reported a 15.4% passive stake in Cellular Biomedicine (CBMG +1.72%) .<\/span>
\n Vertex (VRTX -1.98%) was downgraded to ‘Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Oppenheimer.<\/span>
\n Novel Century Ventures reported a 15.46% passive stake in ExOne (XONE -10.76%) .<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 7:30 NFIB Small Business Optimism Index
\n 7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales
\n 8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
\n 10:00 Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
\n 1:00 PM Results of $27B, 3-Year Note Auction
\n 1:00 PM Fed’s Lacker: Economic Outlook
\n 1:45 PM Fed’s Kocherlakota: Monetary Policy
\n 3:00 PM Consumer Credit<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: none<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: AVAV, AA, BOBE, TCS<\/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