{"id":8550,"date":"2015-05-01T07:38:21","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T12:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8550"},"modified":"2015-05-01T07:38:21","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T12:38:21","slug":"before-the-open-may1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8550","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (May 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. <\/span>
\n Most of the Asian\/Pacific markets were closed today. Malaysia dropped 1.3%; the others (Japan, Australia, New Zealand) posted small gains. London posted a small gain; the rest of Europe was closed. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.<\/span>
\nList of ETFs –> here<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n The dollar is up a small amount. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down. <\/span>
\n The market got crushed yesterday. Here’s the daily Russell chart. It broke a trendline that went back to the October low, and it has penetrated its 50-day by the greatest amount in six months. <\/span>
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\n Twitter and Yelp have already taken big post-earnings hits. Today LinkedIn will join the party and drop 20% at today’s open. What’s going on with Web 2.0? Web 1.0 (AMZN, NFLX, EBAY) are doing okay.<\/span>
\n Several other groups have turned down recently. Health care plans, biotech, aerospace & defense, retail – these groups had done great for a long time but their uptrends are not over. It forces us to ask the question: If the market is going to move up, what groups are going to take a leadership role? Coal? Industrial metals? Nonferrous metals? These groups have done well lately, but they are hardly the types of groups capable of leading the market up. <\/span>
\n Here’s a chart from Chart of the Day that shows the gains during November-April (blue line) significantly out-performs the May-October period (green). <\/span>
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\n Overall the trend remains up, but in the near term I don’t trust this market. More after the open. <\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n AON Plc (AON -1.69%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.37, better than consensus of $1.28.<\/span>
\n Leggett & Platt (LEG -1.76%) reported Q1 EPS of 50 cents, above consensus of 46 cents.<\/span>
\n Enbridge Energy (EEP -2.21%) reported Q1 EPS of 26 cents, higher than consensus of 22 cents.<\/span>
\n YRC Worldwide (YRCW -2.07%) reported a Q1 EPS loss of -70 cents, a bigger loss than consensus of -49 cents.<\/span>
\n Baidu (BIDU -8.55%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Jefferies.<\/span>
\n Fluor (FLR -1.36%) reported Q1 EPS of 96 cents, below consensus of 98 cents.<\/span>
\n Bloomberg reported that Monsanto (MON -0.90%) approached Syngenta (SYT -3.36%) regarding a takeover.<\/span>
\n AIG (AIG -0.64%) reported Q1 EPS of $1.22, higher than consensus of $1.19.<\/span>
\n Reuters reports that Intel talked about offering $58 per share for Altera (ALTR +2.36%) .<\/span>
\n Expedia (EXPE -2.11%) climbed over 6% in after-hours trading after it unexpectedly reported a Q1 adjusted EPS loss of -3 cents, below consensus of a 9 cent profit, although Q1 revenue of $1.37 billion was above consensus of $1.35 billion.<\/span>
\n Fortune Brands (FBHS -2.73%) reported Q1 EPS ex-items of 28 cents, weaker than consensus of 32 cents.<\/span>
\n Visa (V -1.92%) reported Q2 EPS of 63 cents, above consensus of 62 cents.<\/span>
\n Western Union (WU -0.54%) reported Q1 EPS of 39 cents, better than consensus of 38 cents.<\/span>
\n Century Aluminum (CENX -1.60%) reported Q1 EPS of 76 cents, higher than consensus of 63 cents.<\/span>
\n LinkedIn (LNKD -1.95%) plunged over 20% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 57 cents, better than consensus of 56 cents, but then lowered guidance on fiscal 2015 EPS to $1.90, well below consensus of $3.03.<\/span>
\n Columbia Sportswear (COLM -1.55%) reported Q1 EPS of 37 cents, above consensus of 36 cents.<\/span>
\n Gilead (GILD -1.77%) is up over 2% in pre-market trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $2.94, well above consensus of $2.32.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n Auto sales
\n 9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index
\n 10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
\n 10:00 Construction Spending
\n 10:00 Reuters\/UofM Consumer Sentiment<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: AON, AXL, BCO, BERY, BPL, CBM, CBOE, CHTR, CLX, CPN, CTB, CVS, CVX, DUK, FE, GWR, HPY, ITT, KCG, LM, LPNT, MCO, MGI, MNTA, MOG.A, MOSY, MSG, NSP, NTLS, NWL, PEG, PNM, PNW, RUTH, RYAM, TDS, TRP, USM, VFC, WETF, WY, ZEUS<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: AEC, BRK.B, VNR<\/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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