{"id":7909,"date":"2014-08-27T07:41:42","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7909"},"modified":"2014-08-27T07:41:42","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:41:42","slug":"before-the-open-aug-27-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7909","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 27)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Taiwan (up 1%), New Zealand (up 0.9%), Malaysia (up 0.6%) and Singapore (up 0.6%) led the way; Hong Kong (down 0.6%) was the sole down market. Europe leans to the upside, but not a single market has moved more than 0.5% from its unchanged level. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is down. Oil is up, copper is down. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\n The S&P 500 (up 10 of 13 days) and Nas (up 11 of 13 days) hit new highs again yesterday. The Russell 2000, which has been lagging overall, led the way. This is the biggest technical warning we’re getting right now…and it shouldn’t be ignored. The small caps tend to lead the market up and down…their movement is an indication as to what Wall St’s appetite is for risk. When investors are feeling good, they take a chance on smaller, less-proven companies that have much more upside. When they’re not feeling confident, they stick with bigger, well-established companies. The lagging small caps is a warning, but their movement isn’t the only indication for risk appetite. The junk bond market also sends off clues, and right now that market is doing well. Here’s JNK, a junk bond ETF. It sold off hard in July but has since rallied all the way back. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n So maybe the lagging small caps is not a sign investors don’t have the stomach for risk. Maybe it’s signalling something else.<\/span>
\n In any case I still like the market, but with the lagging small caps and lack of upside movement of the bullish percent charts and new highs, we need to be selective with new trades right now. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Tiffany & Co. (TIF +0.54%) reported Q2 EPS of 96 cents, better than consensus of 85 cents.<\/span>
\n Brown Shoe (BWS +0.51%) reported Q2 EPS of 41 cents, higher than consensus of 35 cents.<\/span>
\n Eli Lilly (LLY +0.13%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Deutsche Bank with a price target of $71 and Pfizer (PFE +1.04%) was also initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Deutsche Bank with a price target of $34.<\/span>
\n Waste Management (WM +0.17%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel.<\/span>
\n Facebook (FB +1.25%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Janney Capital.<\/span>
\n Donaldson (DCI -0.15%) reported Q4 EPS of 50 cents, higher than consensus of 47 cents.<\/span>
\n Rent-A-Center (RCII +0.95%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Canaccord.<\/span>
\n Bristol-Myers (BMY +0.08%) announced that the European Commission has approved Daklinza for use in combination with other medicinal products across genotypes 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection in adults.<\/span>
\n Smith & Wesson (SWHC -0.08%) slumped over 10% in after-hours trading after it said its sees Q2 EPS of 4 cents-8 cents, well below consensus of 28 cents, and lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS to 89 cents-94 cents, much weaker than consensus of $1.36.<\/span>
\n FJ Capital reported a 5.87% passive stake in Sun Bancorp (SNBC +0.52%) .<\/span>
\n Dycom (DY +1.20%) reported Q4 EPS of 48 cents, better than consensus of 47 cents.<\/span>
\n Bob Evans (BOBE -2.73%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 10 cents, right on consensus, although Q1 revenue of $326.3 million was slightly below consensus of $328.61 million.<\/span>
\n Analog Devices (ADI +0.54%) reported Q3 EPS of 63 cents, right on consensus, although Q3 revenue of $728 million was higher than consensus of $716.69 million.<\/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 11:30 Results of $13B, 2-Year FRN Auction
\n 1:00 PM Results of $35B, 5-Year Note Auction<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: BF.B, BRLI, BWS, CHS, DCI, EXPR, ISLE, SDRL, TIF, YGE<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: BYI, CWST, GEF, GES, GMAN, LCI, TLYS, VMEM, VNET, WDAY, WSM<\/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