{"id":8571,"date":"2015-05-07T07:40:45","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T12:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8571"},"modified":"2015-05-07T07:40:45","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T12:40:45","slug":"before-the-open-may-7-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8571","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (May 7)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed with across-the-board losses. China dropped almost 3%; Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan fell more than 1%; Australia, Malaysia and Singapore were also weak. Europe is currently mostly down. London and Russia are down more than 1%. France, Belgium and Switzerland are also weak. Greece is up almost 4%; Prague is up almost 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a slight down open for the cash market, but this doesn’t tell the whole story. S&P futures were down about 17 in the middle of the night.<\/span>
\nVIDEO: Market Update<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil is down, copper is down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are up. <\/span>
\n The market trended down most of yesterday and then rallied the last hour of the day. The small caps went positive; the large caps cut their losses in half. After almost three days of selling, the bulls needed the break, but it doesn’t change what has been taking place the last couple weeks. <\/span>
\n The small caps are still lagging…the internal breadth indicators are moving down…there’s a complete lack of good set ups to trade. If your goal is to trade the easy and obvious set ups that “jump off the screen at you” there isn’t much to do. A trade here, a trade there…a 5% move here, a 5% move there. Oh, and earnings season has been very unpredictable – big gaps in both directions.<\/span>
\n One of the biggest keys to successfully trading the market is sizing up in the right situation. It’s not sufficient to have more winners than losers (this isn’t even necessary)…or to make more points on your winners than you lose on your losers…the real key is to selectively take bigger positions under the right circumstances. Unfortunately with all the up and down movement, all the chopping and churning, all the overlapping candles, we haven’t had many opportunities to do this. <\/span>
\n Be patient. Trade, but keep expectations in check. More after the open. <\/span>
\n Stock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Sunoco (SXL -0.85%) reported a Q1 EPS loss with items of -10 cents, much weaker than consensus of 40 cents.<\/span>
\n Children’s Place (PLCE +7.78%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Sell’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\n Energy Transfer Equity (ETE -1.90%) reported Q1 EPS of 52 cents, well below consensus of 70 cents.<\/span>
\n General Cable (BGC -0.92%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 35 cents, much better than consensus for a -13 cent loss.<\/span>
\n Babcock & Wilcox (BWC +0.44%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 47 cents, higher than consensus of 43 cents.<\/span>
\n Transocean (RIG +0.05%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.10, well above consensus of 60 cents.<\/span>
\n Chesapeake Energy (CHK -7.19%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at SunTrust.<\/span>
\n Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD -1.93%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at SunTrust with a price target of $190.<\/span>
\n Tesla (TSLA -1.08%) rose nearly 2% in pre-market trading after it reported a Q1 EPS loss of -36 cents, a smaller loss than consensus of-50 cents.<\/span>
\n Activision Blizzard (ATVI +2.16%) reported Q1 EPS of 16 cents, more than double consensus of 7 cents.<\/span>
\n Prudential (PRU +0.36%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $2.79, well above consensus of $2.38.<\/span>
\n MetLife (MET -0.63%) reported Q1 operating EPS of $1.44, above consensus of $1.41, but Q1 operating revenue of $17.03 billion was less than consensus of $17.53 billion.<\/span>
\n Whole Foods Market (WFM +0.40%) slid 12% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 44 cents, higher than consensus of 43 cents, although Q2 revenue of $3.65 billion was below consensus of $3.70 billion.<\/span>
\n 21st Century Fox (FOXA -0.71%) reported Q3 EPS of 47 cents, above consensus of 39 cents.<\/span>
\n Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR -1.75%) fell 12% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $1.03, below consensus of $1.05.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
\n 8:30 Gallup US Payroll to Population
\n 9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
\n 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
\n 3:00 PM Consumer Credit
\n 4:30 PM Money Supply
\n 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: AAON, ACHN, ACRE, AEE, AGIO, AKRX, ALE, ALU, AMRC, APA, APO, ARCP, ARIA, AXAS, BABA, BDBD, BDX, CBB, CCC, CCOI, CDW, CECE, CHD, CNK, CNQ, CNSL, CONE, COT, COTY, CRIS, CSIQ, DFT, DNOW, DWRE, ENZY, FIG, FSYS, GLP, GOGO, GOLD, GSM, HII, HILL, HL, HPT, INSY, INXN, IRC, IT, KATE, LEAF, LIOX, LPI, LQDT, LXP, MFC, MGA, MITL, MMS, MPEL, MPW, MT, MWW, MZOR, NCLH, NICE, NJR, NRP, NXST, OGE, ONE, OWW, PCLN, PDCE, PGEM, PMC, PPL, PRFT, RDEN, REGN, RESI, REV, RFP, RGEN, RICE, RRD, RSTI, RWLK, SATS, SEAS, SFY, SNAK, SNI, SPH, SRPT, SSTK, STE, SUNE, TA, TAP, TDC, THS, TIME, TLM, TLP, TU, USAC, VC, VTG, WAC, WIN, WPG, WPP, WRES<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: ABTL, ACAD, ACET, ADVS, AGO, AHS, AHT, AIRM, AL, ALIM, ALJ, ALNY, ALSK, AMBR, AMH, ASYS, AVNW, BCEI, BEBE, BIOS, BKD, CA, CBS, CDXS, CERN, CNAT, CORT, CROX, CUTR, CYBR, DATA, DIOD, DXPE, EBS, ECPG, ECYT, ED, EGY, ENOC, ENV, ERII, ESPR, EVC, EZPW, FLDM, FRT, FTD, FUEL, GALE, GDOT, GEOS, GST, GXP, HTGC, IMPV, INWK, JAZZ, JCOM, JMBA, KEYW, KTOS, LBTYA, MAIN, MCHP, MDRX, MDVN, MED, MHK, MNST, MOH, MTD, MTRX, NGVC, NHI, NOG, NUAN, NVAX, NVDA, OLED, OMED, OUTR, PCTY, PETX, PLNR, POST, PRO, PSIX, RBA, RBCN, RIGL, RJET, RMAX, RMTI, RPTP, RRMS, SAAS, SEMG, SFM, SGMS, SLW, SPPI, SRC, SREV, SSNI, STMP, SWIR, TCX, TEAR, TGI, THOR, TLLP, TNGO, TPC, TRMR, TRUE, TWOU, UBNT, UEPS, WAIR, WIFI, XOMA, XOXO, YUME, ZNGA<\/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