{"id":8691,"date":"2015-06-11T07:44:14","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T12:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8691"},"modified":"2015-06-11T07:44:14","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T12:44:14","slug":"before-the-open-jun-11-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8691","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jun 11)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. Japan and Australia rallied more than 1%; Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand also did well. India dropped 1.8%. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are mostly up. Greece is up better than 7%; Belgium is up more than 2%; Germany, France, Amsterdam, Norway, Italy, Portugal and Ireland are up more than 1%; Switzerland and Spain are also doing well. Futures here in the States point towards an up open for the cash market.<\/span>
\nFollow my public list<\/a> at stockcharts.com.<\/strong><\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are up. <\/span>
\n Solid rally yesterday on decent volume. It’s the inflection point I was looking for. It’s why I said to be ready for a forceful move. Either the bulls were going to retake control or a character shift was underway and the floor was going to get pulled out. <\/span>
\n We got a bounce. I’m not predicting a full blown rally that takes all the indexes well into new high territory, but for now my bias is to the upside. <\/span>
\n Next Wednesday is a Fed meeting – it’s the meeting that was picked last fall as the most likely to start hiking rates. Things have changed, and I doubt the Fed does anything, but it still lingers and it is on traders’ minds right now. <\/span>
\n I think the indexes will be higher a week from now, but there could be some backing and filling over the next day or so. More after the open.<\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Colgate-Palmolive (CL +1.58%) was downgraded to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ on valuation at Morgan Stanley.<\/span>
\n Toll Brothers (TOL +1.66%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Credit Suisse.<\/span>
\n Newmont Mining (NEM -2.91%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Sector Perform’ at RBC Capital.<\/span>
\n Qorvo (QRVO +3.06%) will replace Lorillard (LO +0.50%) in the S&P 500 as of today’s close.<\/span>
\n Transocean (RIG +1.81%) was initiated with an ‘Underweight’ at Barclays with a price target of $14.<\/span>
\n Hilton Worldwide (HLT -1.75%) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ at Brean Capital with a price target of $34.<\/span>
\n Bank of America reported a 10.08% passive stake in Greenbrier (GBX +1.58%) .<\/span>
\n Men’s Wearhouse (MW +0.10%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 54 cents, higher than consensus of 52 cents.<\/span>
\n Pleasant Lake Partners reported a 7.7% stake in MagnaChip (MX unch) .<\/span>
\n General Dynamics (GD +2.06%) was awarded a $225.6 million government contract for the demilitarization recycling, reuse, and disposal of various conventional munitions.<\/span>
\n Southeastern reported a 11.4% passive stake in Triangle Petroleum (TPLM +4.93%) .<\/span>
\n According to Bloomberg, Amgen\u2019s (AMGN +0.48%) cholesterol drug Repatha won the backing of a panel of FDA advisors, who voted 11-4 that the benefits outweighed the risks for some patients with difficult-to-treat high cholesterol.<\/span>
\n Nike (NKE +1.96%) rose 1% in after-hours trading after it announced an eight-year merchandising and marketing partnership with the National Basketball Association.<\/span>
\n Standard & Poor’s cut Greece’s credit rating to ‘CCC’ from ‘CCC+’ with a negative outlook.<\/span>
\n C.R. Bard (BCR +1.44%) authorizeed the repurchase of up to $500 mllion of the company\u2019s common stock in addition to approximately $160 million remaining under the prior authorization announced in June 2014.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
\n 8:30 Retail Sales
\n 8:30 Import\/Export Prices
\n 9:45 Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
\n 10:00 Business Inventories
\n 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
\n 1:00 PM Results of $13B, 30-Year Note Auction
\n 4:30 PM Money Supply
\n 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: FRAN<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: KFY, LF, RH, RLD, XONE<\/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