{"id":8615,"date":"2015-05-18T07:42:50","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T12:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8615"},"modified":"2015-05-18T07:42:50","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T12:42:50","slug":"before-the-open-may-18-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8615","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (May 18)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend. <\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. Australia, China and Hong Kong were weak. India, Japan and Malaysia did the best. Europe currently leans to the downside. Italy, Austria and Greece are down more than 1%; Belgium, Amsterdam and France are also down a bunch. No market is posting a big gain. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.<\/span>
\nS&P Select – Week in Review<\/strong><\/a><\/span>
\nThe dollar is up. Oil is up, copper down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.<\/span>
\nI don’t have anything to add the weekly Index Report, which is posted here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span>
\nThe market has traded range bound for several weeks, and in each of the last three weeks, early weakness was followed by later strength which produced long lower tails on the weekly candles. The market can’t make up its mind.<\/span>
\nThe small caps have lagged, and several breadth indicators tell us participation is not broad-based. These are the factors that will need to improve if the market attempts to bust out -> the small caps need to improve and the internals need to lend evidence the participation rate is improving. Otherwise a rally attempt won’t go far.<\/span>
\nKey time here. Of course the market doesn’t have to break out. It could continue trading in a range for many months.<\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\nChevron (CVX -0.39%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\nChicago Bridge & Iron (CBI +8.01%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Sell’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\nTarga Resources Partners (NGLS +0.85%) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\nHolly Energy (HEP +1.91%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\nKansas City Southern (KSU +0.40%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at BofA\/Merrill Lynch.<\/span>
\nOwens-Illinois ({=OI was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Underperform’ at BofA\/Merrill Lynch.<\/span>
\nChesapeake (CHK -0.60%) and Hess Corp (HES +0.36%) were both downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\nEndo International Plc (ENDP +0.39%) will acquire Par Pharmaceutical Holdings for $8.05 billion.<\/span>
\nAlibaba (BABA +0.07%) reported a 17.2% passive stake in zulily (ZU +1.73%) .<\/span>
\nAbbVie (ABBV +0.03%) announced that it has extended the expiration of its exchange offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Pharmacyclics (PCYC -0.20%) to 5 p.m. EST on May 22.<\/span>
\nBerkshire Hathaway gave a quarterly update where they said they increased stakes in International Business Machines (IBM -0.45%) , Precision Castparts (PCP +3.80%) , Wells Fargo (WFC -0.93%) , Phillips 66 (PSX -0.71%) , and US Bancorp (USB -1.01%) . Berkshire said they decreased stakes in National Oilwell Varco (NOV +0.10%) , Viacom (VIAB +0.72%) , Bank of New York Mellon (BK -0.65%) , MasterCard (MA -0.66%) , and Visa (V -0.61%) .<\/span>
\nIcahn Associates gave a quarterly update where they said they increased stakes in Manitowoc (MTW -0.41%) , Voltari (VLTC -4.54%) , Federal-Mogul Holdings (FDML +0.08%) , and Chesapeake Energy (CHK -0.60%).<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\nToday’s economic calendar:
\n10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index<\/span><\/span>
\nNotable earnings before today’s open: JASO, WPC<\/span>
\nNotable earnings after today’s close: A, LF, MOMO, NOAH, OFIX, PLAB, TTWO, URBN<\/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