{"id":8264,"date":"2015-01-26T08:46:31","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T13:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8264"},"modified":"2015-01-26T08:46:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T13:46:31","slug":"before-the-open-jan-26-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8264","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jan 26)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. China moved up; Indonesia moved down. Australia and India were closed. Europe currently leans to the upside. Russia and Greece are down more than 1%. Switzerland is up more than 1%. Germany, Belgium, Spain, Stockholm and Prague are also doing well. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are down.<\/span>
\n S&P futures are flat, but they were down about 20 overnight.<\/span>
\n Over the last couple weeks nothing has changed. Lots of ups and downs, lots of gaps, lots of mini trending moves, but nothing has lasted. Rallies get sold, dips get bought, and the market is not moved since mid November. If you have an opinion, wait, you’ll be right. And then wait a little longer and you’ll be wrong.<\/span>
\n The market is in consolidation mode. The overall trend is still solidly up, but markets don’t just climb and climb. They need to rest and pullback and do some backing and filling, etc. Right now the market is resting. Some signs point towards this being a typical rest within an uptrend; others, such as the increased volatility, point towards a top.<\/span>
\n I’ve been saying for a couple weeks to keep things conservative. No need to place big bets right now. I continue to believe this is a the right course of active for an active or semi-active swing trader. Day traders can do their thing (they can almost always do their thing), but if the market is going to move a couple days in one direction and then a couple in the opposite direction, swing traders have to be content shooting for quick profits and small gains.<\/span>
\n Don’t force things right now. More after the open.<\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n LyondellBasell (LYB -0.75%) and Westlake (WLK -0.90%) were both downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA\/Merrill Lynch.<\/span>
\n United Parcel Service (UPS -9.91%) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Macquarie.<\/span>
\n Unilever (UL +1.19%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Underperform’ at BofA\/Merrill Lynch.<\/span>
\n Roper Industries (ROP -0.35%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.85, higher than conensus of $1.79.<\/span>
\n DR Horton (DHI -2.49%) reporteed Q1 EPS of 39 cents, better than consensus of 34 cents.<\/span>
\n Endo (ENDP -1.44%) will replace (COV +1.52%) Covidien in theS&P 500 as of today’s close.<\/span>
\n Knight Transportation (KNX +0.30%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at KeyBanc.<\/span>
\n Amici Capital reported a 6.78% passive stake in Uroplasty (UPI -20.38%) .<\/span>
\n HCA Holdings (HCA -2.50%) will replace Safeway (SWY unch) in the S&P 500 as of the close of trading today.<\/span>
\n Salient Capital Advisors reported a 5.74% passive stake in NGL Energy Partners (NGL -0.45%) .<\/span>
\n The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Bexsero, a vaccine from Novartis (NVS +0.03%) to prevent invasive meningococcal disease.<\/span>
\n Van Berkom & Associates reported a 9.41% passive stake in RE\/MAX Holdings (RMAX -0.65%) .<\/span>
\n Point72 Asset reported a 5.2% passive stake in ZELTIQ (ZLTQ -0.79%) .<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 9:45 PMI Services Index Flash
\n 10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: DHI, GWW, NSC, NVR, OSIS, ROP, STX<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: ASH, BOH, BRO, CR, ELS, GGG, HMST, JJSF, MSFT, MSTR, PCL, PKG, PLT, RLI, RMBS, SANM, SIMO, TXN, ZION<\/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