5 Gut checks pre open

Need to Know SEPTEMBER 11, 2013 To all Gmail users: To ensure that you continue to see your MarketWatch emails, please drag and drop one of our emails into your Primary tab and click "Yes" when asked if you would like to do this for future messages from MarketWatch. You can also add "MarketWatch" to your Gmail contacts list or filters. 5 gut checks before the stock market's opening bell By Shawn Langlois   Thomas Hoepker/Magnum Photos President Barack Obama called off the attack dogs, and the stock market has been bouncing around like an egg ever since. Shouldn't John Lennon be strumming away in the background as investors celebrate the Putin-peace party by loading up on stocks? Regardless, it's time to press pause on Syria, for now, and move toward the next potential spanner in the bull works -- the onset of the taper. The prospects of a missile strike, if nothing else, has provided a nice respite from the Fed stuff. But the break is almost over, with next week's meeting hurtling into prominence. As it stands this morning, the stock market (outside of techs) appears to be nonplussed by all the noise, like those New Yorkers in this famous photo taken 12 years ago today. But pictures, and premarket quotes, can be deceiving . Key market gauges: Asia stocks  closed mostly mixed, while Australia  danced around five-year highs, helped of late by a string of consistently upbeat economic data from China, the main consumer of the country's natural resources. Europe  isn't showing much upside, while futures on the Nasdaq 100 the Dow  and the S&P  are barely budging. The dovish tone struck by President Barack Obama in his televised speech Tuesday night isn't doing much to the price of gold , which is mostly flat. A day earlier, gold prices gave up more than $20 an ounce , their biggest hit since July 5, amid the uncertainty surrounding a U.S. strike on Syria. UBS says gold could be in for a rough go of it if the Fed moves to taper next week. And Goldman said much of the same on Wednesday. Goldman also had something to say about oil prices. The buzz:Apple is in the spotlight, and not a good one, after the company unveiled two new iPhones , one to join the high-end stable and one affordable model. After that, Apple apparently showed the footage of the big unveiling  to a receptive crowd in Beijing, where the down market iPhone 5c will be offered for only $549 . The average Beijing local only needs to work about three weeks to afford one. Shares are down in premarket and at least three investment banks have downgraded the iPhone king. Here's the newly Microsofted Nokia  taking a few -- and getting hit by many more -- Twitter jabs during Apple's presentation. Restoration Hardware  is poised to be one of the stock market's big losers once the opening bell sounds after its earnings report  drew plenty of sellers in yesterday's late session. Coldwater Creek  is getting smacked around even harder in the wake of its disappointing quarterly release . Hedge fund creep? A regulatory filing on Tuesda y revealed that hedge fund Southeastern Asset Management has taken a nearly 12% voting stake in News Corp. . Bloomberg points out that Southeastern now holds a stake only bested by News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch. Southeastern is best known for teaming up with Carl Ichan to block a buyout bid to take Dell  private, an effort they abandoned Monday. Why, is the question. Elizabeth Knight at the Sydney Morning Herald offers up one theory . News Corp is the owner of MarketWatch, the publisher of this report. The whole Dow shakeup is the top story on Google's business page, with investors mulling what getting dropped from the blue-chip index means for Alcoa , Hewlett-Packard  and Bank of America . Check out this roundup of all the action at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The chart of the day: Netflix  managed to hit an all-time high  in Tuesday's session, retaking its peak from more than two years ago. And, according to TheOptionDon on StockTwits , "breaking out of this trend channel will send this stock into parabolic mode." Next stop,$400 a share, he predicts. The call of the day: The U.S., Germany and Japan may appear to be the most attractive markets to splash your cash, says Yves Lamoureux, president of market advisory firm Lamoureux & Co. , but China is the place to be. He's got an investment in Morgan Stanley's China A Share Fund  locked down "for the next several years." Why? Because he sees Chinese stocks rallying 300% over the next few years. "Asset allocators show a huge gap in Asian representations," he said. "We feel that managers will work hard until year end to re-balance their positions." Lamoureux calls China one of the best contrarian investment opportunities he's seen in years. "We hope people don't miss it  because they've been brainwashed into thinking that market had little to offer," he said. Follow Yves on Twitter . Random reads: Neil Young, my personal all-time favorite, compares Fort McMurray, Alberta and its nearby oil sands to Hiroshima . The real fun is taking place in the comments section, where one guy calls him "a lying piece of garbage." A look inside Mexico's Narco War Museum . Now you don't have to go yourself. Own a piece of Wayne Newton's legacy . For $70 million. Entry level, one-bedroom, sub-1000 square foot London apartment gets repossessed. Oh, and it's valued at more than $8 million . Signs of life in the icy depths of the Antarctic could offer clues, not only about Earth, but also for the potential of life on other planets. Need to Know starts early and is updated as needed until the opening bell, but sign up here  to get it delivered once to your e-mail box. Be sure to check the Need to Know item. The e-mailed version will be sent out at approximately 8:45 a.m. Eastern. Follow @slangwise  on Twitter. Get the latest news on our mobile site: http://www.marketwatch.com/m MarketWatch has sent you this newsletter because you signed up to receive it. To ensure you receive this newsletter in the future, please add marketwatchmail.com to your list of approved senders. Sent to: alanrussell@princetoncap.com Unsubscribe | Subscribe Copyright 2013 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved. MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (updated 6/26/07). 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