{"id":8495,"date":"2015-04-17T07:53:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T12:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8495"},"modified":"2015-04-17T07:53:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-17T12:53:00","slug":"before-the-open-apr-17-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8495","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Apr 17)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Options Expiration Day. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China rallied 2.2%, but Japan (down 1.2%), Australia (down 1.1%), Taiwan (down 0.9%) and India (down 0.8%) fell. Europe is currently posting big, across-the-board losses. Greece is down more than 2%; Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Amsterdam, Norway and Stockholm are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a relatively big gap down open for the cash market.
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\nThanks for your votes on my public list<\/a> at stockcharts.com. Keep ’em coming.<\/strong><\/span>
\n The dollar is down. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up. <\/span>
\n At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is the daily S&P chart, and until the range resolves, you can’t assume it will or guess which way it’ll go. Rallies get sold; dips get bought. The market hasn’t been traveling very far in either direction before getting turned away. The overall trend remains solidly up, but in the near term we have to be content with little wins and in most cases don’t have the luxury or using loose stops and giving positions time and space to move. It is what it is. Deal with it or don’t play the game. <\/span>
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\n Oil remains the market most interesting group. It’s a huge group with huge potential in both directions. Recently it broke out from a nearly-4-month base and is now at its highest level since mid-December. It takes a lot of buying to reverse a long downtrend. So far, so good. Going forward, follow through would be nice. If profit taking kicks in, we’ll want to see the 50 hold. If it does, this newly-formed mini uptrend could last into the summer. If it doesn’t, back into the 40’s we go with months of sideways slop ahead of us. <\/span>
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\n Meanwhile the dollar is down and headed towards it’s biggest weekly drop in a month. It’s also coming up to its 50-day MA. I don’t think the dollar rally is over, but in the near term the bulls have to step up and defend a couple key levels. A dollar drop will help US equities, especially commodities. <\/span>
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\n That’s it for now. <\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +6.30%) slumped 12% in pre-market trading after it reported a Q1 adjusted EPS loss of -9 cents, a bigger loss than consensus of -5 cents.<\/span>
\n Honeywell (HON +0.13%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.41, more than consensus of $1.39.<\/span>
\n Reynolds American (RAI +0.20%) reported Q1 EPS of 86 cents, higher than consensus of 80 cents.<\/span>
\n General Electric (GE -0.66%) reported Q1 EPS of 31 cents, better than consensus of 30 cents.<\/span>
\n Goldman Sachs (GS -0.44%) looks like a buy, Barron’s says in its ‘Barron’s Take’ column.<\/span>
\n Discover (DFS +0.80%) announced a $2.2 billion share repurchase plan and raised its dividend to 28 cents from 24 cents per share.<\/span>
\n Ulta Salon (ULTA +0.39%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Nomura.<\/span>
\n Celanese (CE +0.71%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.72, much better than consensus of $1.31.<\/span>
\n Crown Holdings (CCK -0.51%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 53 cents, better than consensus of 52 cents.<\/span>
\n Cytec Industries (CYT -1.12%) rose over 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 82 cents, higher than consensus of 73 cents.<\/span>
\n Mattel (MAT -0.39%) gained over 6% in after-hours trading after it reported a Q1 adjusted EPS loss of -8 cents, a smaller loss than consensus of -9 cents.<\/span>
\n Schlumberger (SLB -0.12%) gained over 1% in pre-market trading after it reported Q1 EPS of $1.06, well above consensus of 91 cents, and said it will cut an additional 11,000 jobs.<\/span>
\n American Express (AXP +1.45%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.48, better than consensus of $1.37.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:30 Consumer Price Index
\n 9:55 Reuters\/UofM Consumer Sentiment
\n 10:00 Leading Indicators<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: CMA, FHN, GE, HON, RAI, STX, SYF<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: AMD, ASB, AXP, CCK, CE, CYT, EGP, MAT, NOW, SLB<\/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>
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