{"id":7820,"date":"2014-07-16T07:57:07","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T12:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7820"},"modified":"2014-07-16T07:57:07","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T12:57:07","slug":"before-the-open-jul-16-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7820","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jul 16)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. India and Indonesia led; Taiwan lagged. Europe is currently mostly posting solid gains. Germany, France, London, Austria, Amsterdam, Italy, Spain and Stockholm are up more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\n The battle right now is right here between the large caps and small caps. The SPX looks great – steady trend, all dips getting bought, currently consolidating. RUT got rejected by its previous all-time high and is now moving down with a little force. The disparity between these two cannot last much longer. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n The indicators are in the small caps’ camp.<\/span>
\n The quality and quantity of good trading set ups are also in the camp of those looking for more downside.<\/span>
\n The wild card right now is earnings. If we suddenly get some good surprises, the market market can move up quickly. <\/span>
\n Intel had earnings yesterday. The company raised Q3 and year-over-year guidance and said the worst is over the PC industry. The stock is up better than 5% premarket. <\/span>
\n I will continue my MO. I like the market overall, but in the near term there are enough cross-currents to keep me in conservative mode. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n St. Jude Medical (STJ -1.91%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.02, better than consensus of $1.00.<\/span>
\n US Bancorp (USB +0.58%) reported Q2 EPS of 78 cents, higher than consensus of 77 cents.<\/span>
\n Textron (TXT -0.49%) reported Q2 EPS of 51 cents, higher than consensus of 46 cents.<\/span>
\n Bank of America (BAC +1.54%) reported Q2 EPS of 41 cents, better than consensus of 29 cents.<\/span>
\n Blackrock (BLK +0.15%) reporteed Q2 EPS of $4.89, stronger than consensus of $4.46.<\/span>
\n International Game Technology (IGT unch) jumped almost 10% in pre-market trading after Gtech SpA agreed to buy the company for $4.7 billion.<\/span>
\n Apple (AAPL -1.17%) and IBM (IBM -0.72%) both rose nearly 2% in after-hours trading after both companies announced an exclusive partnership that teams the market-leading strengths of each company to transform enterprise mobility through a new class of business apps that will bring IBM\u2019s big data and analytics capabilities to iPhone and iPad.<\/span>
\n AAR (AIR -1.69%) reported Q4 EPS of 43 cents, better than consensus of 41 cents.<\/span>
\n Yahoo (YHOO -0.25%) slid 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 37 cents, below consensus of 38 cents, and then said it sees Q3 revenue ex-items $1.02 billion-$1.06 billion, weaker than consensus of $1.10 billion.<\/span>
\n Hershey (HSY -0.35%) raised wholesale prices approximately 8% across the company’s instant consumable, multi-pack, packaged candy and grocery lines effective today.<\/span>
\n CSX (CSX +0.39%) reported Q2 EPS of 53 cents, higher than consensus of 52 cents, although Q2 revenue of $3.2 billion was slightly less than consensus of $3.25.<\/span>
\n Intel (INTC +0.70%) rose 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 55 cents, better than consensus of 52 cents, and then said it sees Q3 revenue of $14.4 billion, plus or minus $500 million, higher than consensus of $14.02 billion.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
\n 8:30 Producer Price Index
\n 9:00 Treasury International Capital
\n 9:15 Industrial Production
\n 10:00 Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations
\n 10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
\n 10:00 Yellen delivers semi-annual monetary policy testimony
\n 10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
\n 12:00 PM Fed’s Fisher: Monetary Policy
\n 2:00 PM Fed’s Beige Book<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: ABT, ASML, BAC, BLK, FRC, IGTE, MTG, NTRS, PNC, SCHW, STJ, TXT, USB<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: EBAY, EPB, EWBC, HAWK, KMI, KMP, LVS, PLXS, RLI, SCSS, SNDK, URI, YUM<\/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