{"id":7925,"date":"2014-09-04T08:13:56","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T13:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7925"},"modified":"2014-09-04T08:13:56","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T13:13:56","slug":"before-the-open-sep-4-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7925","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Sep 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. China moved up 0.8%; Australia moved down 0.4%, followed by Indonesia (down 0.36%) and Japan (down 0.33%). Europe is currently mostly up. Italy is leading the way (up 1.1%), followed by France (up 1%), Spain and Belgium (up 0.8%), Amsterdam (up 0.7%) and Greece (up 0.6%). Futures here in the States suggest a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil is down, copper up. Gold is down, silver up. <\/span>
\n The S&P gapped up and opened at a new high on Tuesday but then gave it all back. The same scenario played out yesterday – strong open followed by selling pressure. Overnight news induces a strong open, but there hasn’t been enough intraday buying interest to hold the gains. And for what it’s worth, even though the S&P has hit a new high several times, the index has closed within a 7-point range for seven straight days. <\/span>
\n Today we’ll try again…strong open followed by…???<\/span>
\n Some ugly candles formed on the Nas and Russell charts yesterday…and several key tech stocks (AAPL, FB) took big hits after hitting all-time highs. <\/span>
\n Overall the market is doing just fine, but near term things are less clear. <\/span>
\n Conflicting news has been the norm lately. Some good earnings, some bad…some encouraging econ numbers, some not so good…positive technicals but a geopolitical mess…some analysts saying the rally has a few more years to go, others saying 30-60% pullback. There is no shortage of stuff going on…never a dull world.<\/span>
\n I’m sticking with the trend, which is up. If\/when the market rolls over, I’ll exit my remaining positions. I’m not trading $10B. I could get flat pretty quickly. So many people talk about being close enough to a top to sit out. The problem with that thinking is they’ve been on the sidelines for a couple years because this has been their attitude all along. And even if we were close to a top, unless you’re trading billions of dollars and anticipate liquidity issues trying to exit, you don’t have to slowly scale out over time. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n VeriFone (PAY -1.31%) reported Q3 EPS of 40 cents, stronger than consensus of 35 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2014 EPS view to $1.46-$1.47, above consensus of $1.45.<\/span>
\n L Brands (LB +0.13%) reported August sales up 9% and same-store-sales up 5%.<\/span>
\n Las Vegas Sands (LVS +0.70%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Argus.<\/span>
\n Ciena (CIEN +1.49%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 32 cents, better than consensus of 29 cents.<\/span>
\n D.R. Horton (DHI -2.54%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS.<\/span>
\n Foot Locker (FL -0.23%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Jefferies with a price target of $66.<\/span>
\n Joy Global (JOY -0.58%) reported Q3 EPS of 80 cents, weaker than consensus of 84 cents.<\/span>
\n Yum! Brands (YUM +0.08%) slid over 3% in after-hours trading after it said it sees its Q3 China division same-store-sales down 13% versus prior year.<\/span>
\n Weyerhaeuser (WY -0.29%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at BMO Capital with a price target of $39.<\/span>
\n Symantec (SYMC +0.04%) rose almost 1% in after-hours trading after Bloomberg reported that it is working with Home Depot on its data breach.<\/span>
\n ABM Industries (ABM -0.67%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 47 cents, better than consensus of 46 cents, and then raised guidance on fiscal 2014 adjusted EPS view to $1.65-$1.69, higher than consensus of $1.60.<\/span>
\n Matrix Service (MTRX +2.53%) reported Q4 EPS of 28 cents, below consensus of 36 cents, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS to $1.40-$1.60, well below consensus of $1.77.<\/span>
\n WhiteWave Foods (WWAV -1.67%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at Oppenheimer with a price target of $43.<\/span>
\n PVH Corp. (PVH +0.69%) jumped 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $1.51, above consensus of $1.42.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n Chain Store Sales
\n 7:30 Challenger Job-Cut Report
\n 8:15 ADP Jobs Report
\n 8:30 Gallup US Payroll to Population
\n 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
\n 8:30 International Trade
\n 8:30 Productivity and Costs
\n 9:45 PMI Services Index
\n 10:00 ISM Non-Manufacturing Index
\n 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
\n 11:00 EIA Petroleum Inventories
\n 11:00 Global Composite PMI
\n 11:00 Global Services PMI
\n 12:30 PM Fed’s Mester: Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy
\n 4:30 PM Money Supply
\n 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: CIEN, HOV, JOY, MEI, MFRM, PAY, UTIW<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: ACET, AMBA, BEBE, BLOX, COO, ESL, FNSR, SEAC, VRNT, ZQK, ZUMZ<\/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