{"id":7905,"date":"2014-08-26T07:40:52","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T12:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7905"},"modified":"2014-08-26T07:40:52","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T12:40:52","slug":"before-the-open-aug-26-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7905","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 26)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.<\/span>
\nI’m doing a 45-min webinar for Trader Planet on Thursday after the close. Register here<\/a>.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. China dropped 1%, Indonesia 0.7% and Japan 0.6%. There were no big upside winners. Europe is currently mostly up. Spain and Greece are up 0.8%, followed by Italy and France (up 0.7%) and Austria (up 0.6%). Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is flat. Oil is up, copper is down. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\n The Nas and SPX gapped to new highs yesterday; the Dow isn’t far behind. The bulls will take the gains, but the market made no progress intraday. The mid caps lag the large caps by a moderate margin while the small caps lag by a bunch. The divergence is obvious and should not be ignored. <\/span>
\n Also a concern is the lack of breadth. New highs have not expanded much, and the bullish percent charts are well below their high. Several indexes are at or near new high, but not as many stocks seem to be participating as one would think.<\/span>
\n The extent of the rally also makes me wonder what kind of juice is left in the tank. The market has gone virtually straight up and has not dropped two consecutive days since the end of July.<\/span>
\n Overall I like the market…my bias remains to the upside. But in the near term, the risk\/reward isn’t great…and we don’t have many good set-ups to play anyways. I guess you can say I’m in “wait and see” mode. I’d love a pullback.<\/span>
\n Russia President Putin and Ukraine President Poroshenko are set to meet today in Minsk, Belarus. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Best Buy (BBY +2.53%) reported Q2 EPS of 44 cents, well ahead of consensus of 31 cents.<\/span>
\n Tech Data (TECD +0.67%) reported Q2 non-GAAP EPS of $1.12, much higher than consensus of 77 cents.<\/span>
\n Salesforce.com (CRM -0.95%) files to sell 7.2 million shares of common stock for holders.<\/span>
\n Sanderson Farms (SAFM +1.96%) reported Q3 EPS of $3.30, well below consensus of $3.82.<\/span>
\n ArcelorMittal (MT +0.36%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Sell’ at UBS.<\/span>
\n Comtech Telecommunications (CMTL +4.84%) rose 3% in after-hours trading after it confirmed that it is exploring strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value, including a possible merger or sale of the company.<\/span>
\n Castleton Commodities reported a 9.9% passive stake in Torchlight Energy Resources (TRCH -2.34%).<\/span>
\n D. E. Shaw & Co reported a 5.0% passive stake in Liberty Media (LMCA -0.37%).<\/span>
\n Owl Creek reported a 5.8% passive stake in Seventy Seven Energy (SSE +1.22%).<\/span>
\n OZ Management reported an 8.04% passive stake in Biglari (BH -0.58%).<\/span>
\n Amazon.com (AMZN +0.73%) announced that it reached an agreement to acquire Twitch Interactive for $970 million.<\/span>
\n ModusLink Global Solutions reported a 9.9% stake in Medifast (MED -0.14%).<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales
\n 8:30 Durable Goods
\n 8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
\n 9:00 FHFA House Price Index
\n 9:00 S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index
\n 10:00 Consumer Confidence
\n 10:00 State Street Investor Confidence Index
\n 10:00 Richmond Fed Mfg.
\n 1:00 PM Results of $29B, 2-Year Note Auction<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: BBY, BMO, BNS, DAKT, DSW, MOV, RGS, SAFM, TECD, TSL<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: ADI, ARUN, BOBE, DY, GSM, HEI, NMBL, SLH, SWHC, TIVO<\/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