{"id":8907,"date":"2015-08-14T07:48:29","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T12:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=8907"},"modified":"2015-08-14T07:48:29","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T12:48:29","slug":"before-the-open-aug-14-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=8907","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mixed. Malaysia dropped 1.5%, followed by New Zealand (down 0.7%) and Australia (down 0.5%). India rallied 1.9%, and Singapore moved up 0.7%. Europe currently leans to the downside, but there aren’t many big movers. Greece is down 2.5%; Norway, Netherlands and Belgium are also down. Russia and Denmark are doing well. Futures here in the States point towards a down open for the cash market.<\/span>
\nVIDEO overview of the Leavitt Brothers service…here<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\nThe dollar is down. Oil is up, copper is down. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up. <\/span>
\n It’s been a heck of a week. Huge gap up Monday, big gap downs Tuesday and Wednesday. The range (SPX > 50 points) is big, although on par with what’s been happening this summer. One big intraday reversal and a couple smaller ones. Currently the S&P is up 5.8 for the week and is sitting slightly above the midpoint of its intraweek range. Here’s the 5-day SPY chart, to show the gaps. <\/span>
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\n With the tight range and all the sudden reversals, swing trading has been tough – I’m just calling it as I see it. Holding times are mostly short, and there aren’t many opportunities to ride a trend.<\/span>
\n But with the big ranges, day traders have been in heaven. <\/span>
\n All this has taken place while the market has needed to absorb a massive amount of negative news (which is good), but the internals are deteriorating (which is bad). <\/span>
\n My stance remains the same. The market is under pressure, and until the internals improve, rallies will be shortable. There are buying opportunities for quick trades, but with a downside bias, I spend more time looking for good shorts than good longs. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Kohl’s (KSS -8.76%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at UBS.<\/span>
\n Kinder Morgan (KMI -2.10%) was upgraded to ‘Conviction Buy’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.<\/span>
\n DuPont (DD -0.47%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at JPMorgan Chase.<\/span>
\n CF Industries (CF +2.56%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Barclays.<\/span>
\n PG&E (PCG +0.34%) announced that it has paid a $300 million fine levied by the California Public Utilities Commission in association with the 2010 natural gas transmission pipeline explosion in San Bruno, CA.<\/span>
\n Reuters reports that 8 banks that include Barclays (BCS +0.17%), Bank of America (BAC +0.57%), BNP Paribas (BNPQY -0.59%), Citigroup (C +0.74%), Goldman Sachs (GS -0.19%) , HSBC (HSBC -0.02%), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS -1.41%), and UBS (UBS +0.09%) agreed to pay $2 billion to settle a currency rigging suit.<\/span>
\n Paulson & Co. reported a 19.4% stake in Overseas Shipholding Group (OSGB unch) .<\/span>
\n Darling (DAR -0.65%) reported Q2 EPS of 2 cents, well below consensus of 7 cents.<\/span>
\n Heritage Insurance (HRTG -1.49%) was approved to write property and casualty insurance in North Carolina.<\/span>
\n Party City (PRTY -0.58%) reported Q2 EPS of 12 cents, right on consensus, although Q2 revenue of $495.50 million was below consensus of $507.75 million.<\/span>
\n Nordstrom (JWN -0.78%) climbed over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of $1.09, better than consensus of 90 cents.<\/span>
\n King Digital (KING -2.75%) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of 49 cents, higher than consensus of 43 cents.<\/span>
\n Applied Materials (AMAT -1.45%) dropped over 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 33 cents, right on consensus, although Q3 revenue of $2.49 billion was below consensus of $2.54 billion.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s Economic Calendar
\n 8:30 Producer Price Index
\n 9:15 Industrial Production
\n 10:00 Reuters\/UofM Consumer Sentiment<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Today’s Earnings here<\/a><\/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