{"id":7997,"date":"2014-10-02T07:37:23","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T12:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7997"},"modified":"2014-10-02T07:37:23","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T12:37:23","slug":"before-the-open-oct-2-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7997","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Oct 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed down across-the-board. Japan and Indonesia dropped more than 2%; Hong Kong and Singapore dropped more than 1%. Europe is currently trading mostly down. Russia is down 1.7%, followed by Norway (down 1.6%) and Italy and Prague (down 0.9%). Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.
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\n The dollar is down. Oil is getting hit hard (down 1.83) and copper is down. Gold and silver are down. <\/span>
\n The market got hit hard yesterday…sellers remain in control. The big story overnight is oil. It’s been trending down for three months and overnight it broke down from a descending triangle pattern. <\/span>
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\n This comes as no surprise to Leavitt Brothers members. We have a handful of oil shorts on our trading list. Here are the set ups which are currently live. <\/span>
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\n The trend is down. Bounces will happen, but until the bulls definitely retake control, sellers are in control. <\/span>
\n Tomorrow morning, 60 minutes before the open, the latest employment figures get released. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…
\n McCormick & Co. (MKC -1.93%) reported Q3 EPS of 95 cents, better than consensus of 81 cents.<\/span>
\n Constellation Brands (STZ -2.18%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.11, weaker than consensus of $1.16.<\/span>
\n Global Payments (GPN -1.56%) reported Q1 cash EPS of $1.22, higher than consensus of $1.14.<\/span>
\n Darden (DRI -0.99%) says it sees Q2 EPS in the upper end of 26 cents-28 cents, better than consensus of 26 cents.<\/span>
\n Autodesk (ADSK +1.02%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Sell’ at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Citigroup keeps its ‘Buy’ rating on Apple (AAPL -1.56%) and raised its price target on the stock to $120 from $110 citing higher than expected iPhone 6 pricing.<\/span>
\n Intuit (INTU -2.20%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Equal-Weight’ at Evercore.<\/span>
\n Barrick Gold (ABX +0.61%) was upgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Sell’ at Canaccord.<\/span>
\n Bank of America (BAC -1.35%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS.<\/span>
\n Deutsche Bank reiterated its ‘Buy’ ratinng on CME Group (CME -0.70%) and raised its price target on the shares to $95 from $85.<\/span>
\n Northrop Grumman (NOC -2.84%) has been awarded a $306.13 million government contract for logistics support of the Global Hawk fielded weapon system.<\/span>
\n ICS Opportunities reported a 5.2% passive stake in Penn Virginia (PVA -4.64%) .<\/span>
\n Marathon Petroleum (MPC -2.63%) was initiated with a ‘Top Pick’ at RBC Capital with a price target of $115.<\/span>
\n Valero (VLO -1.45%) was initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at RBC Capital with a price target of $66.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 7:30 Challenger Job-Cut Report
\n 8:30 Gallup US Payroll to Population
\n 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
\n 10:00 Factory Orders
\n 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
\n 4:30 PM Money Supply
\n 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
\n 8:00 PM Fed’s Bullard: U.S. Monetary Policy<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: ATU, GPN, MKC, STZ<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: none<\/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>
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