{"id":8359,"date":"2015-03-05T08:41:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T13:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8359"},"modified":"2015-03-05T08:41:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T13:41:49","slug":"before-the-open-mar-5-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8359","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Mar 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the downside. Hong Kong, China and Malaysia each dropped about 1%; Singapore fell 0.6%. Europe is currently mostly up. France, Amsterdam, Austria, Norway, Prague and Russia are up 0.8% or more. Only Greece (down 0.5%) is down. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are mixed. <\/span>
\n The market dropped again yesterday but for the second straight day closed off its low. Over the weekend I made the case that the upside was limited unless the breadth indicators quickly righted themselves. Several were diverging from the indexes, suggesting a lack of participation. This development doesn’t mean a top is in place, and we’ll get a long and extended move down. It just means the market needs to rest (via a pullback or time) before attempting to move higher. So far we’ve gotten an up day on Monday and down days on Tuesday and Wednesday. The net has been a down week, but nothing for the bulls to be concerned about. I guess you can say everything is right on queue, but the next couple weeks could still go a couple different ways. <\/span>
\n 1) The market can pull back right now. Nothing special here…just a simple correction that takes the S&P down for a week or two before falling enough to attract buyers. This is what happened during most of the December\/January consolidation period.<\/span>
\n 2) Another new high can be put in place that is then followed by a correction. The new high would likely come with across-the-board divergences and would lure in some bulls would have been sitting on the sidelines. This happened at the end of November\/beginning of December.<\/span>
\n Unless the indicators quickly right themselves and move up, I do think a pullback is coming. <\/span>
\n Here’s the daily S&P.<\/span>
\n\"\"
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Costo Wholesale (COST -0.14%) reported Q2 EPS of $1.25, more than consensus of $1.18.<\/span>
\n Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF -15.51%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Nomura.<\/span>
\n Exxon Mobil (XOM -0.50%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Evercore ISI.<\/span>
\n McDonald’s (MCD +0.51%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at Piper Jaffray.<\/span>
\n Joy Global (JOY -1.95%) reported Q1 EPS of 25 cents, less than consensus of 36 cents, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 adjusted EPS view to $2.50-$3.00 from $3.10-$3.50, well below consensus of $3.20.<\/span>
\n Sprouts Farmers Markets (SFM -1.22%) filed to sell 15.85 million shares of common stock for holders.<\/span>
\n Darling (DAR -0.23%) rose over 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 EPS of 42 cents, double consensus of 21 cents.<\/span>
\n Pharmacyclics (PCYC +6.33%) jumped over 7% in pre-market trading after AbbVie agreed to buy the company fpr $21 billion.<\/span>
\n Alon USA Partners (ALDW -0.06%) reported Q4 EPS of 67 cents, better than consensus of 60 cents.<\/span>
\n Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY +6.06%) announced that the FDA has approved its Opdivo injection, for intravenous use, for the treatment of patients with metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer.<\/span>
\n Coca-Cola Bottling (COKE -2.00%) reported Q4 EPS of 32 cents, higher than one estimate of 13 cents.<\/span>
\n H&R Block (HRB -0.86%) reported a Q3 adjusted EPS loss of -13 cents, a smaller loss than consensus of -17 cents.<\/span>
\n Roundy’s (RNDY -0.25%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 7 cents, more than twice consensus of 3 cents.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Thursday’s economic calendar
\n Chain Store Sales
\n 7:30 Challenger Job-Cut Report
\n 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
\n 8:30 Gallup US Payroll to Population
\n 8:30 Productivity and Costs
\n 9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
\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<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before Thursday\u2019s open: ACRE, AMRC, AXAS, BKCC, BRLI, BTE, CECE, CIEN, CNQ, COST, CSIQ, CTCM, CVGW, DATE, EXK, GTN, JOY, KR, MEI, NAVB, PRFT, SFE<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after Thursday\u2019s close: ADUS, ALDW, ALJ, ATSG, CKP, COO, DMD, DMND, EBS, ERII, ESL, FNSR, FRM, GALE, HCI, ICEL, MNTX, SKUL, TFM, THO, VMEM, WX, YY, ZQK<\/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