{"id":8148,"date":"2014-12-08T08:35:06","date_gmt":"2014-12-08T13:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8148"},"modified":"2014-12-08T08:35:06","modified_gmt":"2014-12-08T13:35:06","slug":"before-the-open-dec-8-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8148","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 8)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. India dropped 1.2%, followed by Indonesia (down 0.85%) and Singapore (down 0.8%). China rallied 2.8%. Europe is currently mostly down. Russia is down 2.3%, followed by Norway (down 1.4%), London and France (down 0.86%) and Spain and Italy (down 0.7%). Greece is up 0.8%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are up. <\/span>
\n As discussed over the weekend in the Weekly Report, a pullback is looming. It doesn’t have to start today or tomorrow, but absent a surge from many breadth indicators, it’s in the pipeline. <\/span>
\n The Dow and S&P hit new highs last week while the Nas, Russell and mid caps failed to match the movement. <\/span>
\n Also, the AD line, AD volume line, NYSE new highs, NASDAQ new highs and the percentage of SPX stocks above their 20-day MA or at a 20-day high are all lagging. Literally we have negative divergences across-the-board, and unless these are negated soon, the market is very likely to correct. This doesn’t necessarily mean a full-blown pullback is coming, but enough of a pullback to allow everything to reset. <\/span>
\n Don’t give profits back on longs. Be careful initiating new longs…you may only be in the positions for a day or two instead of weeks. Take what you can get; this is not a time to be greedy. More after the open. <\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Norfolk Southern (NSC -0.21%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA\/Merrill Lynch.<\/span>
\n Canadian Natural (CNQ -0.76%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Citigroup keeps a ‘Buy’ rating on Apple (AAPL -0.42%) and raises its price target on the stock to $135 from $120.<\/span>
\n eBay (EBAY +0.26%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel with a price target of $65.<\/span>
\n Deutsche Bank (DB +2.35%) and US Bancorp (USB +1.35%) were both downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Keefe Bruyette.<\/span>
\n Southwest Airlines (LUV -0.65%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\n Canadian Pacific (CP -1.32%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\n Cubist Pharmaceuticals (CBST -0.21%) surged 29% in pre-market trading after Merck said it will acquire the company for $102 a share in a deal valued at over $7 billion.<\/span>
\n Exxon Mobil (XOM -0.58%) fell -1.7% and Schlumberger (SLB -0.31%) slid 1.2% in pre-market trading after the price of crude oil dropped to near last week’s 5-1\/3 year low.<\/span>
\n K+S (KPLUF -2.97%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\n Time Warner (TWX -0.47%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at UBS with a price target of $100.<\/span>
\n Disney (DIS +0.57%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at UBS with a price target of $106.<\/span>
\n Pershing Square reported a 8.3% stake in Zoetis (ZTS -0.05%) .<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 12:30 PM TD Ameritrade IMX<\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: TPLM, MTN<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: ABM, DMND, HRB, MCC, PBY, PLAB<\/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