{"id":8393,"date":"2015-03-17T07:42:16","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T12:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8393"},"modified":"2015-03-17T07:42:16","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T12:42:16","slug":"before-the-open-mar-17-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8393","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Mar 17)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. South Korea rallied more than 2%; Japan, China and India more than 1%. Europe is currently mostly down. Germany, Italy, Spain and Stockholm are down more than 1%; Austria, Belgium, Amsterdam and France are down more than 0.8%. Greece is up 1.9%. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.
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\nThe dollar is down. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are up. <\/span>
\nSolid up day for the market yesterday. The small caps are very close to their all-time high…not a surprise given they held up so well last week. <\/span>
\nYesterday oil got hit hard in route to dropping to a new low. Then it closed about a buck off its low, but today’s open will give that buck back. The long term oil trend remains solidly down. Many oil stocks bounced yesterday, so an interesting divergence formed.<\/span>
\nThere’s an FOMC announcement tomorrow. This may cause the market to be on the slower side today…even though no one expects the Fed to do anything with rates. <\/span>
\nThis is a semi important time. The drop off the February high should be considered a perfectly normal pullback for a strong market trending up. If the market can follow through and resist giving back the gains from the last three days, odds favor flat-to-up movement going forward. But if the gains are quickly given back, odds would favor flat-to-down movement. We’ll see. My bias remains to the upside, but I’m still of the opinion placing big bets is not wise. Trade, but protect your downside because things can change quickly. More after the open. <\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\nBurlington Stores (BURL -2.07%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.43, better than consensus $1.32, but then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 adjusted EPS to $2.15-$2.25, below consensus of $2.26.<\/span>
\nPG&E (PCG +3.38%) was downgraded to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ at Morgan Stanley.<\/span>
\nAlibaba (BABA +2.61%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel.<\/span>
\nDSW (DSW -0.86%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 35 cents, higher than consensus of 28 cents.<\/span>
\nABM Industries (ABM +1.58%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at RW Baird.<\/span>
\nCredit Suisse (CS -0.08%) was downgraded to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Macquarie.<\/span>
\nProvidence Service (PRSC -3.64%) reported Q4 EPS of 45 cents, well above consensus of 29 cents.<\/span>
\nRyerson (RYI -1.22%) reported Q4 EPS of 15 cents, below consensus of 20 cents.<\/span>
\nAmerican Airlines (AAL +2.03%) jumped 4% in after-hours trading after it was announced that it will replace Allergan (AGN +1.21%) in the S&P 500 as of the close of trading on March 20.<\/span>
\nLuminus reported a 5.8% passive stake in Dynegy (DYN +1.34%).<\/span>
\nAmber Capital reported a 5.7% passive stake in Gran Tierra (GTE -4.17%).<\/span>
\nHeineken (HEINY +1.99%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\nTwitter (TWTR -0.49%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Brean Capital with a price target of $61.<\/span>
\nFacebook (FB +0.03%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Brean Capital with a price target of $96.<\/span>
\nLinkedIn (LNKD +0.41%) was initiated with a ‘Sell’ at Brean Capital with a price target of $208.<\/span>
\nCHC Group (HELI -12.12%) reported a Q3 adjusted EPS loss of -50 cents, a much bigger loss than consensus of -28 cents.<\/span>
\nValeant (VRX +2.49%) filed to sell $1.45 billion in common stock.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\nToday’s economic calendar:
\nFOMC meeting begins
\n8:30 Housing Starts
\n8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nNotable earnings before today’s open:ARCO, BURL, DSW, FDS, IOC, PLUG, RSPP, ZBRA<\/span>
\nNotable earnings after today’s close:ADBE, FRSH, ORCL<\/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