{"id":8353,"date":"2015-03-02T08:32:40","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T13:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8353"},"modified":"2015-03-02T08:32:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T13:32:40","slug":"before-the-open-mar-2-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8353","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Mar 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. China, Australia, Indonesia and South Korea posted moderate gains. Europe currently leans to the downside. Greece is down 2.2%; Spain, France, Italy and Stockholm are posting moderate losses. Russia is up 1.2%. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is down. Oil is down, copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are mixed. <\/span>
\n Last week ended with a whimper. February was one of the biggest up months in years, and with all the indexes hitting new highs, there’s no question the trend is up (this<\/a> is what the major groups and their top components did last week). But warnings started surfacing last week. <\/span>
\n The NYSE AD line and AD volume line are lagging and diverging, and the percentage of SPX stocks above their 20-day MAs or at a 20-day high are either declining or heading south. The market’s breadth is deteriorating. This doesn’t have to lead to a pullback right now, but it’ll happen in the next week or so unless these indicators and others don’t quickly right themselves. <\/span>
\n But there’s no reason to believe a correction will be anything but a typical correction within a solid uptrend. Dips should be bought until that proves to be unwise. And besides, tops take time to form, so even if a top was in its beginning stages, time for lots of up and down movement would be needed before the market headed south. <\/span>
\n So in the near term I’m neutral and somewhat anticipating a pullback…long term my bias remains to the upside. More after the open. <\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n MasterCard (MA -1.24%) jumped nearly 10% in pre-market trading after it joined with Samsung Electronics to introduce mobile payments on phones.<\/span>
\n Cardinal Health (CAH -0.20%) will buy Cordis from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ -0.28%) in a $1.99 billion deal.<\/span>
\n Warrem Buffett said he sold his entire Exxon Mobil (XOM -0.12%) stake in Q4.<\/span>
\n International Business Machines (IBM +0.67%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Atlantic Equities.<\/span>
\n BlackRock (BLK -0.96%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Lumber Liquidators (LL +5.34%) was downgraded to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ at Morgan Stanley.<\/span>
\n United Rentals (URI -1.27%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ at Morgan Stanley.<\/span>
\n Northern Oil and Gas (NOG +5.64%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at SunTrust.<\/span>
\n Crane (CR -2.21%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at BofA\/Merrill Lynch.<\/span>
\n Endo International PLC (ENDP +0.42%) reported Q4 EPS of 54 cents, less than half the consensus of $1.12.<\/span>
\n Lockheed Martin (LMT -0.64%) and United Technologies (UTX -0.62%) were awarded a joint venture $2 billion government contract for 1,710 weapon replaceable assemblies and replaceable assemblies\u2019 components in support of the H-60 aircraft.<\/span>
\n Barron’s reports that Icahn Enterprises (IEP -1.85%) appears pricey at almost $100 per unit as the company’s indicative net asset value at year-end 2014 was approximately $69 per unit.<\/span>
\n Dresser-Rand (DRC -0.10%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.52, higher than consensus of $1.30, and then announced a planned reduction in its workforce of approximately 8%.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:30 Gallup US Consumer Spending Measure
\n 8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
\n 9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index
\n 10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
\n 10:00 Construction Spending<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: AMBC, ANFI, BID, ECYT, EMES, ENDP, EVEP, FSS, GTI, ICPT, JKS, LXU, MHR, NCT, OMG, PMC, SSE, SSYS, STNG, VGR<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: ARNA, BALT, CHUY, CIM, CKEC, CMLS, CODI, CZR, DTSI, EPIQ, GWRE, HALO, HTGC, INN, MBI, MCEP, MDR, MTDR, MYL, NBR, NTRI, OTC:OPWR, PANW, PRAA, SLXP, SN, STKL, XON<\/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