{"id":8223,"date":"2015-01-07T08:46:37","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T13:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8223"},"modified":"2015-01-07T08:46:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T13:46:37","slug":"before-the-open-jan-7-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8223","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jan 7)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Wednesday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Indonesia moved up; Malaysia and India moved down. Europe currently leans to the upside. Russia is up 3.1%; London, Germany, France, Spain and Amsterdam are up more than 1%. Stockholm and Greece are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a relatively big gap up for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. <\/span>
\n Very quickly the S&P 500 dropped 100 points off its high from just a week ago – the first couple down days coming on light volume when few were paying attention; then things accelerated as soon as the New Year’s ball dropped.<\/span>
\n The indicators have been heading down. <\/span>
\n There has been a complete lack of good set-ups to play…this is a good thing because we didn’t get trapped in any bad positions. <\/span>
\n Former leadership stocks and groups have been nowhere to be found…in fact gold and silver have out-performed recently. <\/span>
\n All signs pointed towards a rest in the near term, which is why in the Weekly Report posted over the weekend I stated the market needed a breather.<\/span>
\n Patience is needed. If you’re a day trader, you can do your thing. Most days off a few opportunities nail a few intraday moves and earn a living. If you’re a swing trader, the first order of business is making sure the market conditions are good. This means you may have to wait a few days or weeks, but then you get to jump on a couple trades and make up for lost time. Forcing trades, churning your account – bad for your account balance and bad for your confidence. How many times have you looked back at the end of a month and said: “geez if I would have only done those two trades, I would have been better off than I am now?” I know I have. <\/span>
\n There isn’t much to work with right now. The market moved straight down, then straight up and now straight down. Charts of individual stocks are a mess and not setting up in any recognizable patterns. More after the open. <\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…
\n<\/span>
\n Eli Lilly (LLY +0.50%) said it sees fiscal 2015 adjusted EPS of $3.10-$3.20, lower than consensus of $3.21 and that it sees fiscal 2015 revenue of $20.3 billion-$20.8 billion, below consensus of $20.88 billion.<\/span>
\n Joy Global (JOY -2.07%) and Terex (TEX -3.23%) were both downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at KeyBanc.<\/span>
\n The WSJ reports that 3G is discussing a possible acquisition of PepsiCo (PEP -0.76%) or Campbell Soup (CPB -0.67%) .<\/span>
\n UnitedHealth (UNH -0.20%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\n Cigna (CI +0.40%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\n Sanofi (SNY +2.52%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Viking Global Investors reported a 5.5% passive stake in Mohawk (MHK -0.89%) .<\/span>
\n J.C. Penney (JCP +1.86%) surged 19% in pre-market trading after it reported Nov\/Dec same-store-sales were up 3.7%, at the upper end of guidance range of 2.0% – 4.0%.<\/span>
\n Point72 Asset reported a 6.0% passive stake in Shutterfly (SFLY -3.85%) .<\/span>
\n Point72 Asset reported an 8.7% passive stake in Kindred Healthcare (KND -1.44%) .<\/span>
\n Nordstrom (JWN -0.63%) and Signet Jewelers (SIG -2.35%) were both initiated with an ‘Outperform’ at Cowen.<\/span>
\n American Eagle (AEO +0.36%) was upgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Underperform’ at Cowen.<\/span>
\n Micron (MU -2.69%) fell 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 97 cents, better than consensus of 92 cents, but reported Q1 revenue of $4.57 billion, below consensus of $4.62 billion. Micron also said it expects Q2 revenue of $4.1 billion-$4.3 billion, below consensus of $4.53 billion.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
\n 8:15 ADP Jobs Report
\n 8:30 Gallup U.S. Job Creation Index
\n 8:30 International Trade
\n 10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
\n 2:00 PM FOMC minutes<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: GBX, MON, MSM, RPM, SVU<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: MG, WDFC<\/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