{"id":9150,"date":"2015-12-04T08:48:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T13:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=9150"},"modified":"2015-12-04T08:48:09","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T13:48:09","slug":"before-the-open-dec-4-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=9150","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.<\/span>
\nThe Asian\/Pacific markets closed down across-the-board. Japan dropped more than 2%; China, South Korea and Australia fell more than 1%. Europe is currently mostly down. Greece, Poland and Turkey are down more than 2%; Sweden is down more than 1%; Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Denmark, Finland and Spain are also weak. Futures in the States point towards an up open for the cash market. This of course may change after the employment data is released. <\/span>
\n—————
\nVIDEO: My Forecast for 2016<\/a> …
\nor copy and paste this link
\nhttp:\/\/clicksecure.co\/?a=52&c=2364&s1=leav<\/span>
\n—————<\/strong>
\nThe dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are mixed and little changed. Bonds are up. <\/span>
\nHere are the employment numbers\u2026<\/span>
\nunemployment rate: 5.0% (was 5.0% last month)
\nnonfarm payrolls: +211K
\nprivate payrolls:
\naverage workweek: down 0.1 hours to 34.5 hours
\nhourly wages: up 0.2% to $25.25
\nlabor participation rate: 62.5%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nOctober payroll gains raised from 271K to 298K.
\nSeptember gain raised from 137K to 145K.<\/span><\/span>
\nThe market moved up after the news…then dropped back down…and is now moving back up. <\/span>
\nHere’s the weekly S&P chart. A range persisted the first seven months of the year…then a big drop and double bottom…then a big rally…now a range again. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\nA complete lack of good set ups has hovered over us the last two weeks. Despite some improvements from the breadth indicators, there haven’t been many charts to play. So despite my overall bullish bias, I’ve been less active and held for shorter periods. This is the environment we’ve been dealt. Deal with it or lose money forcing your style on a market that isn’t in sync with you. <\/span>
\nI got this from Seeking Alpha…<\/span>
\nThe blowout year for mergers and acquisitions just keeps getting bigger. According to Dealogic, global M&A volume just soared to $4.304T, pushing 2015 to date ahead of 2007’s total, when the previous record of $4.296T of mergers was struck. U.S. targeted M&A volume hit a record high in September and currently stands above $2T for the first time ever. What’s driving the dealmaking? Cheap debt, increased boardroom confidence, pressure to become more efficient in a slow-growth economy and a desire to keep up with consolidating rivals.<\/span>
\nAlong with super high margin debt levels, these types of numbers should be kept in mind. They can persist for a while, but eventually the pent up leverage will need to unwind. Don’t force trades. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\nFoot Locker (FL -3.01%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at BB&T Capital with a price target of $80.<\/span>
\nElectronic Arts (EA -3.06%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Atlantic Equities with a 12-month price target of $84.<\/span>
\nEMC Corp. (EMC -0.97%) was upgraded to ‘Ourperform’ from ‘Underperform’ at CLSA with a price ratget of $30.<\/span>
\nSymantec (SYMC +0.25%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Argus.<\/span>
\nThe Gap (GPS -0.46%) fell 2% in after-hours trading after it said its November comparable sales were down -8.0% y\/y, a bigger decline than estimates of -6.0% y\/y.<\/span>
\nZumiez (ZUMZ -6.96%) dropped over 11% in after-hours trading after it forecast Q4 sales of $226 million-$231 million, well below consensus of $254.6 million, and said it sees Q4 EPS between 40 cents and 46 cents, less than consensus of 63 cents.<\/span>
\nUlta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance (ULTA -0.20%) climbed 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of $1.11, higher than consensus of $1.05.<\/span>
\nCooper Cos. (COO -4.91%) sank over 10% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $2.00, below consensus of $2.11, and then lowered guidance on fiscal 2016 adjusted EPS to $7.60-$7.90, below consensus of $8.42.<\/span>
\nFive Below (FIVE +0.83%) rose nearly 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 8 cents, higher than consensus of 7 cents.<\/span>
\nBarnes & Noble (BKS -4.44%) tumbled over 10% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 sales of $894.7 million, less than consensus of $918 million, as its Q2 core comparable sales (ex-Nook products) were down -0.5%, weaker than consensus of up +1.0%.<\/span>
\nZiopharm Oncology (ZIOP -3.94%) slipped nearly 4% in after-hours trading after the stock was rated a new ‘Underperform’ at Wells Fargo.<\/span>
\nAmbarella (AMBA -4.27%) dropped over 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.08, better than consensus of 86 cents, but then lowered guidance on Q4 adjusted net income to $15 million-$17 million, below consensus of $21.1 million.<\/span>
\nFate Therapeutics (FATE -0.24%) jumped 10% in after-hours trading after the stock was rated a new ‘Outperform’ at Wells Fargo.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\nToday’s Economic Calendar
\n8:30 Non-farm payrolls
\n8:30 International Trade
\n1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
\n3:45 PM Fed’s Bullard: \u201cNeo Fisherianism\u201d
\n4:10 PM Fed’s Kocherlakota \u201cMonetary Policy Renormalization\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nToday’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 <\/strong> <\/strong>
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day. The Asian\/Pacific markets closed down across-the-board. Japan dropped more than 2%; China, South Korea and Australia fell more than 1%. Europe is currently mostly down. Greece, Poland and Turkey are down more than 2%; Sweden is down more than 1%; Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Czech […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}