{"id":9475,"date":"2016-02-16T08:48:20","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T13:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=9475"},"modified":"2016-02-16T08:48:20","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T13:48:20","slug":"before-the-open-feb-16-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=9475","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Feb 16)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Tuesday. Hope you had a good weekend and enjoyed your extra day off. Time to get back to work. <\/span>
\n Yesterday…<\/strong><\/span>
\n China dropped in its first day of trading after being closed for a week. Otherwise the Asian\/Pacific markets did great. Japan rallied better than 7%; Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand also did well. <\/span>
\n Europe posted solid, across-the-board gains. Greece rallied better than 7%, Denmark better than 5%, and France, Austria, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Prague, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy moved up more than 3%. <\/span>
\nToday…<\/strong><\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets mostly posted solid gains. China gained 3.3%; Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, South Korea and Taiwan rallied more than 1%. <\/span>
\n Europe is currently mixed; very few markets have moved much. The Czech Republic is down 1.3%; otherwise Germany, Austria and Switzerland are weak; Russia and London are doing well. <\/span>
\n—————
\nWebinar TOMORROW <\/a> – click to sign up<\/strong><\/span>
\n—————
\n Futures here in the States point towards a big gap up open for the cash market. <\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down. <\/span>
\n We finished last week with a relatively big lower tail on the weekly candle. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n The NYSE was starting to form a positive divergence with its bullish percent chart. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n The percentage of NYSE stocks above their 200-day moving averages was forming a positive divergence. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n The cumulative AD volume line was putting in a higher low. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n Japan surged yesterday, and China did not collapse after being closed for a week. <\/span>
\n Add in a couple bright spots on the technical side, and the stage is set for a rally attempt. <\/span>
\n Overall I remain bearish and think new lows will be hit. But in the near term respect the possibility of bounce. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n ADT Corp. (ADT +1.90%) surged over 40% in pre-market trading after it agreed to be purchased by Apollo Global affiliates for $6.9 billion or $42 a share.<\/span>
\n Freeport McMoRan (FCX +13.09%) jumped almost 8% in pre-market trading after it agreed to sell an additional stake n one of its biggest mines to Sumitomo Metal Mining for $1 billion.<\/span>
\n Goldman Sachs (GS +3.87%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Underweight’ at JPMorgan Chase.<\/span>
\n Hormel Foods (HRL -0.46%) reported Q1 EPS of 43 cents, better than consensus of 39 cents.<\/span>
\n Flowers Foods (FLO -6.54%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at BB&T Capital Markets.<\/span>
\n AutoZone (AZO +2.37%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Wedbush.<\/span>
\n Peabody Energy (BTU +2.97%) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Hold’ at BB&T Capital Markets.<\/span>
\n EMC Corp. (EMC -0.12%) gained over 1% in after-hours trading after Baupost Group LLC Holdings reported that it purchased 29.2 million shares in the company.<\/span>
\n USG Corp. (USG +7.05%) fell over 1% in after-hours trading after Appaloosa Management LP Holdings said it sold its stake in USG.<\/span>
\n Groupon (GRPN +29.02%) climbed over 2% in after-hours trading after BABA reported a 5.6% stake in the company.<\/span>
\n Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP +8.38%) rose 1% in after-hours trading after Perry Corporation Holdings and Appaloosa Management LP Holdings reported new stakes in the company.<\/span>
\n Waterstone Financial (WSBF +0.81%) CFO Allan Hosack will resign effective March 1 and Mark Gerke was named interim CFO.<\/span>
\n Anworth Mortgage (ANH +0.24%) reported Q4 core EPS of 15 cents, better than consensus of 14 cents.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s Economic Calendar
\n 8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
\n 9:00 Fed’s Harker speech
\n 10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
\n 10:30 Fed’s Kashkari speech
\n 4:00 PM Treasury International Capital
\n 7:30 PM Fed’s Rosengren: Economic Outlook<\/span><\/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