{"id":7862,"date":"2014-08-06T07:29:25","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T12:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7862"},"modified":"2014-08-06T07:29:25","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T12:29:25","slug":"before-the-open-aug-6-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7862","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 6)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan, India and Indonesia dropped about 1%. Europe is currently suffering relatively big, across-the-board losses. Greece is down 3.3%; Italy is down 2.5%; France, Germany, London, Spain, Austria, Amsterdam, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Russia are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\n The market is not in great shape right now. Goods news doesn’t help stocks; bad news is a reason to sell with force. There has definitely been a change in character lately relative to the past where the market was able to quickly absorb or ignore bad news. <\/span>
\n The biggest issue now is the potential for a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia is a major military force, and Putin, who longs for the glory days, cannot be trusted in any situation. What’s going on in Middle East between Israel and Palestine is minor compared to what could erupt between Russia and Ukraine. <\/span>
\n Sprint is abandoning its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA. Sprint is down 13% is premarket trading. <\/span>
\n Fox is abandoning its bid to acquire Time Warner. TWX is down 12%.<\/span>
\n This is more evidence of a deteriorating market. Big acquisitions are hard; they take a lot of time and money and are a massive amount of work…but are viewed worth it in the long run. If companies are abandoning acquisition plans, it tells me 1) the effort isn’t worth it and 2) CEOs believe prices are heading south and therefore lower prices can be gotten in the future. <\/span>
\n The quality and quantity of good set ups has been low for about a month. I’ve documented this…that even if the trend were strong and obvious and we didn’t have the big divergence between the big and small caps, there wasn’t much to do anyways. Swinging for singles – as opposed to swinging for the fences – has been our MO for a while. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Sprint (S -1.22%) slumped 17% in pre-market trading after a person with knowledge of the matter said the company ended talks to acquire T-Mobile.<\/span>
\n Time Warner (TWX -0.40%) dropped 12% in pre-market trading after 21st Century Fox withdrew its takeover bid for the company.<\/span>
\n DISH (DISH -0.45%) reported Q2 EPS of 46 cents, below consensus of 51 cents<\/span>
\n Cablevision (CVC -7.04%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Sell’ at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Tesla (TSLA -0.01%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at Pacific Crest with a price target of $316.<\/span>
\n Peugeot (PEUGY +1.45%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Sell’ at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Credit Agricole (CRARY +0.87%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Deutsche Bank.<\/span>
\n Cerner (CERN -1.45%) will acquire Siemens Health Services (SIEGY -1.38%) for $1.3 billion in cash.<\/span>
\n Disney (DIS -0.56%) rose over 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of $1.28, above consensus of $1.17.<\/span>
\n Activision Blizzard (ATVI -1.11%) rose over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 6 cents, three time more than consensus of 2 cents.<\/span>
\n Groupon (GRPN +0.71%) sank 17% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 1 cent, right on consensus, but then lowered guidance on Q3 EPS to zero to 2 cents, below consensus of 3 cents.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
\n 8:30 Gallup U.S. Job Creation Index
\n 8:30 International Trade
\n 8:30 Treasury Refunding Quarterly Announcement
\n 10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: ANR, AOL, APO, ARIA, AVA, AVT, BRKR, CEQP, CHK, CLH, CMLS, CNP, CONE, CSTE, CTSH, DBD, DISH, DNR, DVN, DWSN, EE, ELOS, GEO, GOV, GWPH, HFC, HNT, INXN, IPXL, ITC, KELYA, LINC, LIOX, MDLZ, MEMP, MVIS, NAVB, NUS, PERI, PH, PKD, POWR, RDC, RL, ROC, SBGI, SE, SEP, SF, SJI, SKYW, STWD, TAP, THI, TRGT, TWX, VC, VIAB, VITC, VOYA, WD, WIX, WPX, ZINC<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: ACAS, AGU, ALDW, ANAD, ANDE, AR, ATML, ATO, AWK, BIOS, BIRT, BKD, BREW, BWC, CDE, CDXS, CF, CLDX, CNVR, CODI, COUP, CPA, CPE, CRL, CSII, CSOD, CTL, CXO, CXW, DCTH, DEPO, DK, DNB, DXCM, DYN, ECOL, EFC, ELON, ENS, ENV, ERII, ESS, ETE, ETP, EVC, EXAR, FLTX, FNV, FOXA, FTK, GEOS, GMCR, GPOR, GTY, HI, HIL, IL, INN, INWK, IO, ITMN, IXYS, JACK, KEG, KND, KW, LGP, LHCG, LNT, MBI, MCP, MG, MHLD, MNTX, MRIN, MTDR, MUSA, MWE, NBIX, NLY, NPSP, NRP, NVAX, NVTL, OILT, OSUR, PAA, PACD, PKT, PMT, PPO, PRI, PRU, PRXL, PTLA, QEP, RAIL, REG, RGP, RIG, RJET, RLOC, RNDY, RXN, SAAS, SAPE, SD, SGI, SLF, SN, SSNI, SSRI, SWM, SXL, SYMC, TCAP, TEG, TEP, THOR, THRX, TNGO, TRMR, TROX, TWO, TXTR, UHAL, UIL, WGL, WR, WTI, XNPT, YY, ZU<\/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