{"id":7805,"date":"2014-07-09T08:10:38","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T13:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7805"},"modified":"2014-07-09T08:10:38","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T13:10:38","slug":"before-the-open-jul-9-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7805","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jul 9)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Australia, Hong Kong and China dropped more than 1%; Indonesia rallied 0.7%. Europe is currently mixed. Belgium is down 2.2%, Greece 1.8%. Prague is up 0.9%, Italy 0.8%. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is flat. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\n The combination of the last two days have been the worst back-to-back days since May, and if the week closed here, we’d have the biggest down week since April.<\/span>
\n The question is whether this is the beginning of a bigger correction or if it will turn out to be a minor pullback within a strong uptrend – as has been the case going back to the last major low in November 2012.<\/span>
\n Nobody knows the answer. There’s a decent argument for both sides, but in my opinion the bulls deserve the benefit of the doubt because the trend has been up for so long. Two down days don’t destroy a strong move. <\/span>
\n Given my attitude, this doesn’t mean I blindly hold positions or recklessly enter new ones. I scale back and sit tight for a few days to see how much energy the bears have. If the short term uptrend resumes, I have plenty of dry powder ready to go. If not, there will be plenty of time to go short. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n American Express (AXP -0.87%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Guggenheim.<\/span>
\n Schlumberger (SLB -0.58%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at HSBC.<\/span>
\n Louisiana-Pacific (LPX -2.65%) was downgraded to ‘Sector Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at RBC Capital.<\/span>
\n BNP Paribas (BNPQY -2.04%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.<\/span>
\n Deutsche Bank (DB -1.78%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at JPMorgan Chase.<\/span>
\n Potash (POT -0.72%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.<\/span>
\n Marvell (MRVL +0.76%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Perform’ at Oppenheimer.<\/span>
\n Broadcom (BRCM +0.05%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Perform’ at Oppenheimer.<\/span>
\n British Petroleum (BP -0.46%) was downgraded to ‘Hold from ‘Buy at Deutsche Bank.<\/span>
\n Davidson Kempner Partners reported a 7.89% passive stake in Jason Industries (JASN -0.19%) .<\/span>
\n Healthcare Services (HCSG -0.76%) reported Q2 EPS of 20 cents, weaker than consensus of 22 cents.<\/span>
\n Bob Evans (BOBE -0.70%) reported Q4 EPS of 48 cents, better than consensus of 41 cents.<\/span>
\n Alcoa (AA +0.75%) rose nearly 2% in pre-market trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 18 cents, well above consensus of 12 cents.<\/span>
\n International Paper (IP -0.83%) announced its board has authorized an additional $1.5 billion share buyback program to supplement the $1.5 billion share repurchase program authorized in September 2013.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
\n 10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
\n 1:00 PM Results of $21B, 10-Year Note Auction
\n 2:00 PM FOMC minutes<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: MSM<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: HELE, WDFC<\/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