6 Gut checks pre open

Need to Know SEPTEMBER 12, 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. 6 gut checks before the stock market's opening bell By Barbara Kollmeyer   Reuters Good morning. Markets are looking rather uninspired, but on the geopolitical front, jaws are hitting the floor. None other than Russia's Putin himself has an op/ed in the New York Times on Thursday warning that any strike on Syria will backfire badly. He also wags a finger at Obama for telling the American people that they are exceptional. Putin, that old devil, was perhaps looking to spice things up ahead of some horse-trading with Kerry in Geneva later. Speaking of unexceptional, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller told Bloomberg  in a lengthy TV interview that his positions are the smallest they've ever been. Reasons for a "sitting and waiting" Druck? His attention is clearly fixed on the naming of the next Fed chairman (which he says will matter more than markets think), what that chairman's new attitude will be towards reducing QE, and potential Syria complications. "I like to be patient and when I see something, go little bit crazy. I just don't see anything right now," he says, admitting to being a little "lost" right now. Does Druckenmiller think a bear market is at hand? As long as the Fed is printing money, no. But investors still need to face up to the fact that QE has subsidized all asset prices, and when you remove that, the market will go down. And anyone who isn't thinking that will happen is, in Druck's words, just "silly." Quack, quack. On to what is exceptional. BTIG's Dan Greenhaus notes that the S&P 500 has gained for seven straight sessions, which has happened just over 1% of occasions dating back to the 1960s. If S&P makes it eight on Thursday, that'll be the longest run since July 15, 2013. It'll also be telling to see if the Nasdaq can pull out of its Apple-induced slump as well. Key market gauges: Asia stocks  closed mostly up, though Japan lagged. Europe  is taking its inspiration from stock futures, which isn't saying much.  Futures on the Nasdaq 100 , the Dow  and the S&P are drifting south. Gold  and silver , meanwhile, are getting creamed. Fading expectations of a U.S.-led Syria strike and jitters ahead of the Fed meeting next week are culprits. The buzz:While Wall Street was busy punishing Apple  for its not-as-cheap-as-we-wanted-for-China iPhone on Wednesday, one big contrarian investor has been piling in. Investing in Apple is a "no-brainer," Carl Icahn said on CNBC Wednesday . Icahn says he's bullish on the company and has been buying shares in recent days because they're cheap. He told us back in August he had built up a "large position" in the iPhone maker. Shares of Apple are up a touch in premarket. Facebook  is doing a little premarket creep up. Speculation that the social-networking mammoth could be eyeing a China expansion sent shares flying to new highs on Wednesday. CEO Zuckerberg told the TechCrunch Disrupt audience that 40% of revenue is now mobile-focused, but says he's the last person to ask for IPO advice. Qualcomm  shares could get a lift after the board OK'd a $5 billion share buyback program . Earnings: Shares of Lululemon Athletica , affectionately known to some as "see-thru Lululemon" are tanking in premarket after the company cut guidance for the year. Also getting taken to the cleaners, shares of Men's Wearhouse  are slumping in premarket after posting a 28% drop in profit and cutting its full-year forecasts late Wednesday. The economy: Not a whole lot out there, but weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. Eastern are likely to draw a little attention. Import prices are out at the same time. Check out our preview . Indonesia, whose rupiah is down 16% against the dollar so far this year, hiked interest rates by a quarter percentage point. The chart of the day: The government is not doing its part when it comes to the jobs market. Cullen Roche over at Pragmatic Capitalism  points out that the U.S. shed 8.6 million jobs from peak to trough of the financial crisis, and has recovered about 6.7 million. The private sector has clawed back 7.4 million of those jobs all by itself. But the government? It's actually shed 700,000 jobs since the 2008 peak. Roche points out that this almost never happens during a recovery as one of the biggest automatic stabilizers in the economy is the government workforce. "If the government had done what it normally does and employed more people during the recovery then the unemployment rate would be a lot lower, we'd be above our all-time highs in non-farm payrolls and there'd be a lot less talk about Food Stamps and how miserable the recovery has been," he says. Orcam Financial Group The call of the day:  Since the stock market bottomed in March 2009, safe, reliable, dividend-paying blue chips have been the place to be, says Mitchell Clark over at Profit Confidential . And 3M  fits that profile perfectly, he says. While 3M is as mature an enterprise as they come, it's been doing well on the stock market even though its top- and bottom-line growth is anemic. 3M also boosted its annual dividend by 7.3% earlier this year, its 55th straight year of increases, and Clark says it's highly likely the company will do something similar this year. He says the market will keep bidding up shares of companies like 3M and the outlook for increased dividends remains "very favorable." Random reads: "If people get past the point I make, and you actually look at me, you can tell I look more broken than even the song sounds."  Deep thoughts from Miley  on her new video. But hey, at least she's retiring the tongue . A seemingly pregnant Canadian en route to Columbia was not exactly carrying a bundle of joy . Steam is curling up from North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear reactor. With all the focus on Syria right now, maybe they figure no one is looking. Two million Vodafone  clients in Germany are likely not too happy right now, knowing that hackers gained access to their personal info . 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 @bkollmeyer  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). MarketWatch - Attn: Customer Service, 201 California St., San Francisco, CA 94111