{"id":9207,"date":"2015-12-21T08:47:26","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T13:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=9207"},"modified":"2015-12-21T08:47:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T13:47:26","slug":"before-the-open-dec-21-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=9207","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Dec 21)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. China moved up 1.4%; India and Indonesia also did well. Europe currently leans to the upside. Turkey is up more than 1%; London, Germany and Sweden are also doing well. Spain is down more than 2%; Belgium is also weak. Futures in the States point towards a relatively big gap up open for the cash market. <\/span>
\nThe dollar is up a little. Oil is down, copper is up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down. <\/span>
\n—————
\nS&P Select Week in Review<\/strong><\/a> <\/span>
\n—————
\n The market ended last week with two big down days, but now we enter what is historically the best back-to-back weeks of the year. <\/span>
\n Historical tendencies are the most prominent “thing” in the bulls’ camp right now. 1) This time of year is typically strong. 2) Years that end in a 5 (2005, 1995, etc) have closed up forever. This year is down 2.59% so far, so a rally is needed to satisfy this tendency. 3) December in general is typically strong. In fact we haven’t had back-to-back down Decembers since the early 80’s. To avoid this this year, a 3.6% rally is needed the next two weeks. <\/span>
\n But other than historical tendencies, the market doesn’t look great right here. <\/span>
\n The internals have been weak for a while…the lack of participation has been obvious…weak oil…weak junk bonds…lagging small caps…leaders starting to falter. <\/span>
\n I’m not a “checklist trader.” The biggest issue is the weak internals. You simply can’t have less and less stocks participate and expect the indexes to continue up. An end-of-year rally that is not accompanied by a significant improvement in the internals will lead the market coming back down…maybe pretty hard. <\/span>
\n If the market moves up the next two weeks, don’t get lured into the hype. There’s trouble brewing under the hood. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Apple (AAPL -2.71%) is up 1.6% in pre-market trading after it settled a patent dispute with Ericsson AB and agreed to pay Ericsson royalties as part of a 7-year licensing agreement.<\/span>
\n Disney (DIS -3.83%) gained nearly 2% in pre-market trading after the company said its “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” movie had topped ticket sales of $100 million on Friday alone, the first time a movie had surpassed $100 million in a single day, and that weekened ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada were a record $238 million.<\/span>
\n General Dynamics (GD -1.05%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Drexel Hamilton LLC with a 12-month price target of $153.<\/span>
\n Ross Stores (ROST -1.69%) were upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Cowen with a 12-month price target of $63.<\/span>
\n The U.S. Department of Defense awarded Ratheon (RTN -1.66%) a $2.35 billion award modification to deliver SM-3 Block IB missiles and related support and recertification.<\/span>
\n Merck (MRK -1.94%) said that its Keytruda drug had won expanded FDA approval for treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.<\/span>
\n Century Aluminum (CENX +7.91%) rose over 2% in after-hours trading after saying it will keep its Goose Creek plant operating at half capacity while the South Carolina legislature pursues a “long-term solution” to access market power for all of its power supply.<\/span>
\n Syngenta (SYT +0.93%) climbed over 2% in after-hours trading after China National Chemical improved its offer to purchase the company.<\/span>
\n 40 North Management said it raised its stake in Mattress Firm (MFRM +1.36%) to 8.3% from 6.9%.<\/span>
\n Sunstone Hotel Investors (SHO -2.51%) rose nearly 2% in after-hours trading after it sold its leasehold interest in the 468-room Doubletree Guest Suites in Times Square for $540 million.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s Economic Calendar
\n 8:30 Chicago Fed National Activity Index<\/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