{"id":8439,"date":"2015-03-30T07:45:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T12:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8439"},"modified":"2015-03-30T07:45:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T12:45:24","slug":"before-the-open-mar-30-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8439","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Mar 30)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend. <\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closes mostly up. China rallied 2.6%, followed by India (up 1.9%) and Hong Kong (up 1.5%). Australia dropped 1.2%, and New Zealand fell 0.6%. Europe is currently mostly up. Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Russia are all up more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\nS&P Select – Week in Review<\/strong><\/a><\/span>
\nThe dollar is up. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.<\/span>
\nWe begin the new week with the near term not being very clear. The overall trend is up, but day to day and week to week, nothing is consistent. Nothing sticks. Up, down, up down. Other than an a slightly extended push at the end of February, the market has been range bound for almost five months. Rallies get sold and dips get bought. No move lasts long, so trades have needed to be kept shorter term. If you’re a trend trader, this is frustrating, but it is what it is. Lots of little wins add up, so don’t brush them aside.<\/span>
\nSome indicators are in good shape. Others suggest a little internal deterioration and lack of participation. The market isn’t extremely sensitive to these, but they shouldn’t be ignored.<\/span>
\nIt’s probably best to not harbor too strong of an opinion. The near and intermediate term are not clear, and with the market not gathering much momentum in either direction, whatever happens the next couple days could easily reverse soon after.<\/span>
\nNo big bets.<\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\nNike (NKE +0.55%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at RW Baird.<\/span>
\nGenesco (GCO +0.49%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at RW Baird<\/span>
\nBHP Billiton (BHP -1.98%) was upgraded to ‘Outperformer’ from ‘Sector Performer’ at CIBC.<\/span>
\nWestern Union (WU +1.60%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Evercore ISI.<\/span>
\nXilinx (XLNX +5.85%) was downgraded to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ at Morgan Stanley.<\/span>
\nMadison Square Garden (MSG +1.55%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Topeka.<\/span>
\nHorizon Pharma (HZNP +3.27%) will acquire Hyperion Therapeutics (HPTX -1.88%) for $46.00 per share, or $1.1 billion on a fully diluted basis.<\/span>
\nRestoration Hardware (RH +4.06%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\nBarclays upgraded Analog Devices (ADI +2.47%) to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ saying it believes the chip maker has secured multiple socket wins in Apple’s iPhone and iPad.<\/span>
\nAltera (ALTR +28.37%) is up over 3% in pre-market trading on carry-over support from Friday’s 28% surge in the stock amid reports that Intel is in negotiations to acquire the company.<\/span>
\nRealty Income (O -0.37%) will replace Windstream (WIN -5.10%) in the S&P 500 as the close of trading on April 6.<\/span>
\nFitch Ratings downgraded Greece’s Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings to ‘CCC’ from ‘B.’<\/span>
\nEnterprise Partners reported a 8.3% passive stake in Celladon (CLDN +2.88%) .<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\nToday’s economic calendar:
\n8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
\n10:00 Pending Home Sales
\n10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook
\n3:00 PM Farm Prices
\n7:15 PM Stanley Fischer<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nNotable earnings before today’s open: AIR, CALM<\/span>
\nNotable earnings after today’s close: none<\/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