{"id":7872,"date":"2014-08-11T07:40:57","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T12:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7872"},"modified":"2014-08-11T07:40:57","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T12:40:57","slug":"before-the-open-aug-11-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7872","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 11)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Japan rallied 2.4%; Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China moved up more than 1%. Europe is currently posting solid, across-the-board gains. Germany, Austria, Amsterdam, Norway, Sweden, Prague, Russia and Greece are all up more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a relatively big 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 To some degree, today’s opening gap up supports my near term bullish bias. Between the positive divergence between the small and large caps which developed last week and the market’s ability to rally big Friday on news the US was taking military action in Iraq, the path of least resistance in the near term is up. Plus many indicators have moved to extreme levels, and the charts of individual stocks have improved. <\/span>
\n I’m not saying a bottom is in place and new highs are coming. I’m just saying right now I’m only interested in being long, and we’ll see how things play out. Does a rally come with force and energy? Does it go far enough to neutralize the downtrend that has developed? Do some leadership groups start to form? We’ll see. Right now the advantage goes to the bulls, and it’s up to them to keep it. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Freeport McMoRan (FCX +0.94%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Argus.<\/span>
\n Priceline.com (PCLN -0.28%) reported Q2 EPS of$12.51, well ahead of consensus of $12.04.<\/span>
\n Tesla Motors (TSLA -1.69%) rose over 2% in pre-market trading after Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold.’<\/span>
\n PepsiCo (PEP +0.43%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS with a price target of $100.<\/span>
\n Wal-Mart (WMT +0.97%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Jefferies.<\/span>
\n Southwest Gas (SWX +2.94%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Brean Capital.<\/span>
\n Hyatt Hotels (H -0.53%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel.<\/span>
\n Sentry Investments reported a 17.0% passive stake in Timmins Gold (TGD -0.57%) .<\/span>
\n Capital Research reported a 10.1% passive stake in Herbalife (HLF +2.98%) and a 10.4% passive stake in GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH +0.79%) .<\/span>
\n Baupost Group reported a 14.06% passive stake in Veritiv (VRTV -0.21%) .<\/span>
\n Karpus reported a 12.87% passive stake in Montgomergy Street Securities (MTS -0.98%) .<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n No events scheduled.<\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: BITA, CACQ, DF, DVR, EGRX, EVEP, GOGO, HE, HNR, HPT, MGIC, MNKD, MPAA, PCLN, RGEN, RICE, SCLN, SYY, TECH, VLP, WAC, WBAI, WRES<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: AMBC, ATHX, BDE, CALL, CVG, CYNI, CZR, FTEK, FXEN, GALE, GCAP, GERN, GNMK, HALO, HTHT, ICEL, ICUI, IPAR, MM, MR, MTZ, NIHD, NOR, NUAN, ONTY, OPK, PDLI, RAX, REN, SKH, SUPN, TCRD, UNTD, VTR<\/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