{"id":9198,"date":"2015-12-18T08:41:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T13:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=9198"},"modified":"2015-12-18T08:41:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T13:41:00","slug":"before-the-open-dec-18-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=9198","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 18)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Friday.<\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the downside. Japan, India and Indonesia dropped more than 1%; Malaysia and Taiwan were also weak. Europe is currently mostly down. Russia is down more than 3%; France, Austria, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Denmark and Finland are down more than 1%. Futures in the States point towards a moderate gap down open for the cash market. <\/span>
\nThe dollar is down. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are up. <\/span>
\n—————
\nVIDEO: Leavitt Brothers Overview<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>
\n—————
\n The market got hit hard yesterday and either gave back its previous day’s gains or was pretty close depending on which index you looked at. <\/span>
\n The S&P is unchanged since mid October. The Russell is unchanged since the end of August. Despite the ups and downs, moves up have gotten sold, and moves down have gotten bought. <\/span>
\n For various reasons, I don’t like what I see overall. I should probably do a video that summarizes all the things that bother me about the market. Squeezes will always take place – the biggest up moves, after all, take place within downtrends – but my big picture bias remains to the downside.<\/span>
\n In the near term anything goes. So far this month we’ve had 6 up days and 7 down days, and more than half those days have been + or – 1%. <\/span>
\n Don’t be a hero out there. No big bets. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Texas Instruments (TXN -2.65%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Bernstein with a 12-month price target of $62.<\/span>
\n CarMax (KMX -2.57%) reported Q3 EPS of 63 cents, below consensus of 68 cents.<\/span>
\n Lennar (LEN -3.58%) reported Q4 EPS of $1.21, higher than consensus of $1.11.<\/span>
\n Darden Restaurants (DRI -1.52%) reported Q2 EPS of 54 cents, better than consensus of 42 cents.<\/span>
\n Red Hat (RHT +0.11%) jumped over 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 48 cents, above consensus of 46 cents.<\/span>
\n AK Steel (AKS -6.85%) fell 1% in after-hours trading after it forecast a Q4 loss of 33 cents-38 cents, a much wider loss than estimates of -15 cents.<\/span>
\n Transocean (RIG -2.48%) slipped nearly 2% in after-hours trading after Statoil ASA said it canceled its drillship contract with Transocean before its scheduled expiration due to a lack of work.<\/span>
\n Rambus (RMBS -0.51%) rose almost 2% in after-hours trading after it announced that it will collaborate with Microsoft researchers on future memory requirements for quantum computing.<\/span>
\n Knight Transportation (KNX -2.23%) tumbled 10% in after-hours trading after it lowered guidance on Q4 EPS to 31 cents-33 cents from a prior view of 36 cents-38 cents, below consensus of 37 cents.<\/span>
\n PHH Corp. (PHH -1.55%) gained more than 3% in after-hours trading after it reported an agreement with Bank of America to provide mortgage origination services to Merrill Lynch clients.<\/span>
\n Duluth Holdings (DLTH -4.03%) rose over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 4 cents, better than consensus of no change.<\/span>
\n Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT -4.76%) dropped over 6% in after-hours trading after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration delayed a review of its liver-disease drug by 3 months to gather additional information.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s Economic Calendar
\n 9:45 PMI Services Index Flash
\n 10:00 Atlanta Fed’s Business Inflation Expectations
\n 11:00 Kansas City Fed Mfg Survey
\n 1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count<\/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