Monday, May 16, 2011

Bull Radar


Style Outperformer:

  • Mid-Cap Value (+.55%)
Sector Outperformers:
  • 1) Coal +2.45% 2) Airlines +1.86% 3) Steel +1.79%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
  • CLF, PBR, BBL, TSO, SINA, BIDU, CISG, SIGA, ENOC, STEC, SNDK, ICE, FE, ANV, RDC, DAR, ATK, DFS and CBOE
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
  • 1) AXL 2) NGD 3) SIGA 4) AGN 5) IVN
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
  • 1) LOW 2) NYX 3) GOOG 4) YHOO 5) SNDK
Charts:

Monday Watch


Weekend Headlines

Bloomberg:

  • Merkel Risks Revolt Over Greece. Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a gathering storm in her coalition over Germany’s share of euro- area rescues, threatening to undermine her ability to make concessions on additional help for Greece. Merkel’s Free Democratic coalition partner signalled a hardening of its stance on bailouts at a convention as the party leadership fought to quash a revolt over granting rescues. While a motion to eject aid recipients that miss debt-cutting targets from the euro was defeated, a leading rebel said that as many as 50 coalition lawmakers are ready to reject the post-2013 euro bailout fund when it goes to parliament later this year. “We know that public acceptance of European themes is dwindling,” Economy Minister Philipp Roesler told FDP members in the Baltic Sea port of Rostock yesterday in his first speech as party leader. Aid appraisals must be based on “clear conditions with sanctions for failure to adhere to rules,” he said, pledging “no taboos.” FDP lawmaker Frank Schaeffler, who last year called for Greece to sell its islands to cut debt, saw his demand for states to be ejected from the euro “at short notice” in cases of rule breaking defeated in a vote yesterday. Even so, he said that as many as 50 lawmakers across the coalition are prepared to join his revolt against the European Stability Mechanism due to take over from the current rescue fund in mid-2013. That’s an increase of at least 10 votes in the past three weeks, enough to eliminate Merkel’s 41-seat advantage over the opposition when the ESM goes to a vote after the summer recess, leaving her reliant on opposition support. “A year ago I was isolated in the party, but that’s no longer the case,” Schaeffler said in an interview. “A good many Free Democrats share the view in private that something is going badly wrong in solving this crisis.” The bailout skeptics aim to tap a vein of resentment that’s brewing in Germany and other AAA-rated countries such as Finland over being forced to rescue their euro-area neighbors. Twenty percent of Germans view Merkel’s decision last year to help Greece as “right,” according to a poll published May 8 by consumer survey company GfK SE. Another 47 percent of respondents said the decision was “wrong,” suggesting that Merkel’s coalition may struggle to justify any additional aid.
  • IMF Chief Strauss-Kahn Charged With Attempted Rape. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund and a potential candidate for the French presidency, was charged with attempted rape and a criminal sex act on a New York hotel maid, police said. The attack allegedly occurred yesterday against a 32- year-old female at a Sofitel hotel in midtown Manhattan, according to an e-mailed statement by the New York Police Department. Strauss-Kahn, who was taken into custody aboard an Air France flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport, also was charged with unlawful imprisonment. Strauss-Kahn, 62, denied the charges and will plead not guilty, his lawyer Benjamin Brafman said. He is scheduled to appear tonight or tomorrow morning for arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court. New York police said Strauss-Kahn was picked out of a lineup today by the maid. The arraignment has been delayed while investigators seek a warrant to allow examination of the IMF chief’s body for scratches or the accuser’s DNA, police said. New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said the assault occurred about 1 p.m. yesterday when the woman entered the $3,000-a-night suite -- Room 2806 -- Strauss-Kahn had checked into on May 13, Browne said. Strauss-Kahn is alleged to have emerged from a bathroom naked and made two attempts to forcibly have sex with the maid, Browne said in a telephone interview.
  • Euro Crisis May Scuttle Eastern Europe Economy as Investors Bet on Region. Eastern Europe’s economic recovery may be scuttled by any Greek debt restructuring, which would curb lending by western banks and undermine investor bets that have propelled the region’s stocks, bonds and currencies. While the region has three of this year’s 10 best- performing currencies and five of the 10 equity indexes that rose the most, 76 percent of its banking market is controlled by western European lenders still threatened by the euro’s debt crisis. “You would expect that the Greek troubles now would have a bigger impact on emerging Europe,” said Neil Shearing, senior emerging-market analyst at Capital Economics in London. “It’s a puzzle. I suspect it might just be the calm before the storm.”
  • Euro Falls Before Finance Ministers Meet to Discuss Avoiding Greek Default. The euro fell toward a six-week low against the dollar on concern European finance ministers may fail to quell speculation about Greece’s debt restructuring. “The market is closely watching what will come out from this week’s meetings,” said Toshiya Yamauchi, a senior currency analyst in Tokyo at Ueda Harlow Ltd., which provides foreign- exchange margin-trading services. “Any preemptive move is unlikely, and concern about Greece’s restructuring may spread to countries like Ireland. That may continue to give selling pressure for the euro.”
  • Israel Clashes With Protesters on Four Fronts on 'Nakba Day'. Israel clashed with demonstrators on four of its borders, leaving as many as nine people dead in violence that Israeli officials blamed on Syria and Iran. The protests in the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip marked the annual observance of what Palestinians call “nakba,” meaning “catastrophe” -- a reference to their displacement as a result of the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel. “I see fingerprints of Iranian provocation and an attempt to use Nakba Day to create conflict,” said Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, a spokesman for the Israeli army. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of sending protesters across the border to deflect attention from domestic unrest. “The wave of anger that has been sweeping across Arab societies is clearly coming to Israel’s shores now,” said Yoram Meital, director of Ben Gurion University’s Herzog Center for Middle East Studies in Beersheva. “Today’s violence was unprecedented in the way that it happened on several borders at once, and I don’t think it’s over.”
  • Louisiana Flood Forces Choices on River Family, Threatens Ruin.
  • For the first time since July, Citigroup Inc.(C) is seen as more creditworthy than Goldman Sachs Group Inc(GS). Credit-default swaps protecting Citigroup debt from losses are trading at 124 basis points, 8 basis points below contracts on Goldman Sachs, according to data provider CMA.
  • Credit-default swaps tied to Indian banks are rising the most this month among the so-called BRIC nations as banks increased provisions, saying their customers will feel the strain of higher interest rates. Contracts tied to government-owned State Bank of India, which some investors perceive as a proxy for the nation, increased 9 basis points to 173 basis points, according to CMA.
  • Three U.S. Citizens Among Six Charged With Supporting Taliban in Pakistan. Two Americans of Pakistani descent face a court date tomorrow for allegedly providing “material support” to the Pakistani Taliban. A third U.S. citizen and three other people also were indicted in the case.
  • Yahoo's(YHOO) China Toehold Threatened by Rift With Alibaba. Yahoo! Inc.’s toehold in China is under threat by a widening rift with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the e-commerce provider it partly owns and that analysts say may account for three-fourths of its market value.
  • Oil will fall in the second half as high prices erode demand, said Francisco Blanch, global head of commodity research for Bank of America-Merrill Lynch. "We are already seeing signs of demand destruction," Blanch said today. "If you look at airline passenger loads and utilization, they are starting to drop." Brent crude oil will average $122 a barrel this quarter before declining to $94 in the fourth, he said. "If we go to $130 or $140 a barrel, that would kill the Chinese economy as well as the rest of the world," Blanch said.
Wall Street Journal:
  • New Details in IMF Sex Case. The arrest of International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sexual-assault charges threatened to upend French politics and weaken the IMF's central role in resolving Europe's deepening debt crisis.
  • Selloff Scares Away Few Bulls. Hedge funds and other investors still have large bets that commodity prices will continue to rise, even after one of the steepest selloffs in years. Money managers cut their net-long position in crude-oil futures by 10% on the New York Mercantile Exchange during the week ended Tuesday, according to data released Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The decline left speculative investors holding 233,569 more long contracts that anticipate rising prices than short contracts wagering on a decline. A week earlier, these traders held 258,668 more long contracts. The data marked the beginning of an investor pullback from near-record bullish bets as investors became less enamored with commodities. As of this last report, for example, long positions in the oil market still outnumbered short positions by nearly six to one, even after the week through Tuesday saw crude futures for June delivery fall 6.5% to $103.88 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices settled Friday at $99.65. "Even though we had a huge price plunge, the more salient item is that we are still net long," said Jim Ritterbusch, head of energy-trading adviser Ritterbusch & Associates. "We still have a ways to go as far as forcing more speculative traders out of the long side" in the oil market.
  • Banks Woo Funds With Private Peeks. Some big investment banks offer their hedge-fund clients special access to senior deal makers and corporate executives, via dinners or other gatherings—a longstanding practice that is drawing fresh scrutiny.
  • WellPoint(WLP) Shakes Up Hospital Payments. WellPoint Inc. is raising the stakes for reimbursing about 1,500 hospitals across the country, cutting off annual payment increases if they fail to deliver on the big health insurer's definition of quality patient care.
  • Scandal in China Felt on Wall Street. The scandal of indicted Xinhua Finance founder Loretta Fredy Bush burned some of the sharpest minds on Wall Street, including one of the richest self-made women in the U.S. Last week, Ms. Bush was indicted by a U.S. grand jury on charges that she and two Xinhua directors committed conspiracy, mail fraud, and made false statements, enriching themselves by $50 million. It was the latest incident to highlight the sometimes opaque finances of publicly traded Chinese companies.
  • Rising Stars in Resurgent Hedge Funds. Financial News has named its picks for its top 40 under 40 list of up-and-coming men and women in the hedge-fund industry.
Bloomberg Businessweek:
  • Profit Estimates Fall Most Since 2009 in Europe as Bull Run Ages. Analysts are cutting European earnings forecasts by the most in almost two years just as equities in the region trail U.S. shares by the widest margin since the bull market began. Estimates for Stoxx Europe 600 Index profit growth dropped by as much as 4 percentage points this year, including the biggest three-month reduction since September 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Should analysts’ lowest projections for 2011 prove correct, companies would earn about 24 billion euros ($34 billion) less than expected at the start of the year, the data show. Projections for earnings in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index have risen 4 points in 2011.
CNBC:
  • Huge Glencore IPO Brings Secretive Firm to Market. Swiss-based commodity trader Glencore is set to unveil the pricing of its mammoth $12 billion dual IPO in London and Hong Kong later this week, and in what will be be the biggest IPO of the year and the largest in the UK to date, its shares are expected to start regular trading on the London exchange on May 24 and in Hong Kong just one day later.
  • Japan Readies New Tactics for Fukushima After Setback. Japanese officials are readying a new approach to cooling reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant after discovering an Olympic swimming pool-sized pond of radioactive water in the basement of a unit crippled by the March earthquake and tsunami. The discovery has forced officials to abandon their original plan to bring under control the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant as they focus on how to deal with the rising pool that some experts see as a threat to groundwater and the Pacific coast.
IBD:
NY Times:
  • Cities Nationwide Heighten Vigilance on Terror. In large and midsize cities across the country, police chiefs and domestic security officials say they have drastically increased counterterrorism operations under the assumption that a “lone wolf” or a small group of terrorists will try to strike on American soil to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.
  • Money Troubles Take Personal Toll in Greece. A year after Greece received a bailout from Europe and the I.M.F., people’s anxiety has grown into deep despair.
Forbes:
  • ExxonMobil(XOM) CEO Says Oil Price Should Be $60 to $70 a Barrel. Rex Tillerson, the boss of ExxonMobil admitted last week that the price of oil–based purely on supply and demand- should be in the $60 to $70 a barrel range. The reason it’s above $100 a barrel, Tillerson explained, is due to the oil majors using futures contracts to lock in current high prices, and speculation that is engineered by the high-frequency trading of quantitative hedge funds.
Business Insider:
Zero Hedge:
Seeking Alpha:
San Francisco Chronicle:
  • Social-Networking Sites Face New Privacy Battle. California could force Facebook and other social-networking sites to change their privacy protection policies under a first-of-its-kind proposal at the state Capitol that is opposed by much of the Internet industry. Under the proposal, SB242, social-networking sites would have to allow users to establish their privacy settings - like who could view their profile and what information would be public to everyone on the Internet - when they register to join the site instead of after they join. Sites would also have to set defaults to private so that users would choose which information is public.
Reuters:
  • Iraqi Drilling Firm Starts Work in Zubair Oilfield. State-run Iraqi Drilling Co has started working in the Zubair oil field under a $250 million contract to drill 23 new wells in the field, developed by Italy's ENI (ENI.MI: Quote), the head of the firm said on Sunday. Director Idrees al-Yassiri said the two-year contract also included overhauling 63 old wells in Zubair. "We have started executing the contract awarded to us by ENI ... The total expected production after completing the project will be more than 250,000 barrels per day from these wells," Yassiri said during a trip to Zubair oilfield.
  • IMF Has Doubts Over More Credit for Greece - Paper. The International Monetary Fund has considerable doubts whether heavily indebted Greece should be provided with further credit, newspaper die Welt reported, citing several senior EU diplomats. If the IMF chose not to give a green light to the disbursement of the next 12 billion euro tranche of aid in June, the European Union would take over the whole bill, die Welt reported, without giving more details of its sources.
  • Eurozone to Back Portugal Aid, With New Caveats. Euro zone finance ministers are likely to back a bailout package for Portugal on Monday, with new conditions set by Finland, in talks overshadowed by charges against IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn for attempted rape.
Financial Times:
  • US Car Loan Providers Move Into Subprime. North American car loan providers have stepped up sharply their exposure to risky subprime buyers as economic conditions improve and lenders seek better profit margins. According to CNW, an Oregon-based market research firm, the credit score of new-car buyers reached a five-year low in early May. Buyers with scores below 670 on the widely used Fico scale – which ranges from 300 to 850 – made up 14.5 per cent of the total.
BBC:
  • North Korea and Iran 'Sharing Ballistic Missile Technology'. North Korea and Iran appear to have been exchanging ballistic missile technology in violation of sanctions, a leaked UN report shows. The report, obtained by Reuters, said regular transfers had been taking place through "a neighbouring third country", named by diplomats as China.
International Financial Review:
  • What Are CDS Really Worth? It’s a question that politicians have frequently asked over the past couple of years when lambasting the credit default swap market. Now, as rumours abound that Greece will look to avoid triggering CDS when restructuring its debt, even some of the instrument’s most fervent supporters are questioning its value. Christopher Whittall reports. Senior derivatives users, including a member of the board at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, have warned that the intrinsic value of credit default swaps could be severely compromised if Greece restructured its debt without triggering a credit event. As a consensus has grown among market participants that authorities will look to avoid triggering CDS when restructuring Greek bonds, market participants have been scrambling to understand the potential ramifications of such a development, with many fearing the worst.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung:
  • German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he will examine the report being prepared for June on Greece's debt-tackling progress "especially closely." Schaeuble said that private creditors should participate in future euro area bailouts within the framework of the European Stability Mechanism.
Der Tagesspiegel:
  • European Central Bank Executive Board member Juergen Stark said that further aid for Greece should be conditional on the country "making more consolidation efforts," citing an interview to be published Monday.
Bild am Sonntag:
  • The percentage of Germans whose trust in the single European currency is "very low" or "quite low" has increased by 4 percent since December to 58%.
  • European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said "there is no crisis of the euro" and that the ECB would deliver price stability, in an editorial published today.
  • A restructuring of Greece's debt mustn't be "excluded" if the current adjustment measures don't work, citing German opposition leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Private investors should also bear the cost of the financial crisis, Steinmeier said.
Xinhua:
  • Egg prices have risen 24% in China from a year earlier, citing its own monitoring system. Prices are up 5.2% since April 18, according to the report, which was posted on the central government's website.
  • Pork prices in China on May 14 had increased 44% from a year earlier due to tight supplies. Pork prices on that day had increased more than 50% from a year earlier in the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, Anhui, Hunan and Sichuan.
Shanghai Securities News:
  • China's inflation won't recede soon and the government will probably continue to tighten monetary and fiscal policies, citing its interview with John Lipsky, the first deputy managing director of the IMF.
  • China still faces large inflationary pressures and consumer prices haven't peaked, citing Yu Bin, director general of the macroeconomic research department of the State Council's development research center. China's economic growth also faces a slowdown, Yu said.
Caijing:
  • Financial crisis is "inevitable" for developing countries in the next five to 10 years, citing China central bank adviser Li Daokui. Developing countries like India and Brazil face fiscal deficits and problems that will emerge eventually, citing Li.
Financial News:
  • China's unchanging interest rate margin threatens the financial system's safety and affects the effectiveness of regulation, citing Wang Junshou, a deputy head of the China Banking Regulatory Commission's Tianjin branch.
Mainichi:
  • More than 200 North Korean engineers are living in Iran to help the country develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Weekend Recommendations
Barron's:
  • Made positive comments on (SD).
  • Made negative comments on (BBBB).
Citigroup:
  • Reiterated Buy on (RIG), target $90.
  • Reiterated Buy on (TEVA), target $67.
Night Trading
  • Asian indices are -1.25% to unch. on average.
  • Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 108.0 +1.5 basis points.
  • Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 114.50 +1.0 basis point.
  • S&P 500 futures -.40%.
  • NASDAQ 100 futures -.30%.
Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
  • (LOW)/.36
  • (JCP)/.24
  • (URBN)/.24
  • (GBE)/-.37
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
  • Empire Manufacturing for May is estimated to fall to 19.7 versus a reading of 21.7 in April.
9:00 am EST'
  • Net Long-Term TIC Flows for March are estimated at $32.6 Billion versus $26.9 Billion in February.
10:00 am EST
  • The NAHB Housing Market Index for May is estimated to rise to 17 versus a reading of 16 in April.
Upcoming Splits
  • (HLF) 2-for-1
Other Potential Market Movers
  • The 3-Month/6-Month Treasury Bills Auctions, JPMorgan Tech/Media/Telecom Conference, (GFIG) investor day and the (TEX) analyst meeting could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are lower, weighed down by commodity and industrial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly lower and to maintain losses into the afternoon. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Weekly Outlook

U.S. Week Ahead by MarketWatch (video).
Wall St. Week Ahead by Reuters.
Stocks to Watch Monday by MarketWatch.
Weekly Economic Calendar by Briefing.com.

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week modestly lower on growing Mideast unrest, global growth concerns, rising eurozone debt angst, more shorting, profit-taking and emerging market inflation fears. My intermediate-term trading indicators are giving neutral signals and the Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Market Week in Review


S&P 500 1,337.77 -.18%*

Photobucket

The Weekly Wrap by Briefing.com.

*5-Day Change

Weekly Scoreboard*


Indices

  • S&P 500 1,337.77 -.18%
  • DJIA 12,595.70 -.34%
  • NASDAQ 2,828.47 +.03%
  • Russell 2000 835.67 +.28%
  • Wilshire 5000 14,016.80 -.10%
  • Russell 1000 Growth 616.62 +.09%
  • Russell 1000 Value 679.15 -.34%
  • Morgan Stanley Consumer 794.79 +1.70%
  • Morgan Stanley Cyclical 1,095.75 -1.24%
  • Morgan Stanley Technology 691.52 -.08%
  • Transports 5,383.91 -1.61%
  • Utilities 436.91 +1.65%
  • MSCI Emerging Markets 47.47 -1.42%
  • Lyxor L/S Equity Long Bias Index 1,064.46 +.18%
  • Lyxor L/S Equity Variable Bias Index 898.28 +.14%
  • Lyxor L/S Equity Short Bias Index 597.63 +.13%
Sentiment/Internals
  • NYSE Cumulative A/D Line 127,581 +2.77%
  • Bloomberg New Highs-Lows Index 93 +187
  • Bloomberg Crude Oil % Bulls 26.0 -21.21%
  • CFTC Oil Net Speculative Position 211,514 -13.43%
  • CFTC Oil Total Open Interest 1,653,799 +1.81%
  • Total Put/Call .93 -4.12%
  • OEX Put/Call 1.87 +3.89%
  • ISE Sentiment 88.0 +15.79%
  • NYSE Arms 1.72 +97.70%
  • Volatility(VIX) 17.07 -7.22%
  • G7 Currency Volatility (VXY) 11.80 +2.43%
  • Smart Money Flow Index 10,468.90 +.62%
  • Money Mkt Mutual Fund Assets $2.751 Trillion +.90%
  • AAII % Bulls 30.77 -13.23%
  • AAII % Bears 35.50 +11.39%
Futures Spot Prices
  • CRB Index 338.53 +.35%
  • Crude Oil 99.65 +1.62%
  • Reformulated Gasoline 307.44 -1.62%
  • Natural Gas 4.25 -.58%
  • Heating Oil 294.22 +2.56%
  • Gold 1,493.60 -.11%
  • Bloomberg Base Metals 251.88 +1.41%
  • Copper 398.35 +.36%
  • US No. 1 Heavy Melt Scrap Steel 410.0 USD/Ton unch.
  • China Hot Rolled Domestic Steel Sheet 4,874 Yuan/Ton -.61%
  • UBS-Bloomberg Agriculture 1,580.61 -.38%
Economy
  • ECRI Weekly Leading Economic Index Growth Rate 6.4% -30 basis points
  • S&P 500 EPS Estimates 1 Year Mean 94.65 +.41%
  • Citi US Economic Surprise Index -34.4 -3.1 points
  • Fed Fund Futures imply 42.0% chance of no change, 58.0% chance of 25 basis point cut on 6/22
  • US Dollar Index 75.71 +1.16%
  • Yield Curve 264.0 +4 basis points
  • 10-Year US Treasury Yield 3.17% +2 basis points
  • Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet $2.729 Trillion +.96%
  • U.S. Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 42.75 -1.49%
  • California Municipal Debt Credit Default Swap 175.20 -3.70%
  • Western Europe Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap Index 179.25 -5.45%
  • Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt CDS Index 154.54 +1.75%
  • Saudi Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 115.12 -1.65%
  • Iraqi 2028 Government Bonds 92.24 +.10%
  • 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.39% -8 basis points
  • TED Spread 24.0 -2 basis points
  • N. America Investment Grade Credit Default Swap Index 88.24 -.82%
  • Euro Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index 92.25 +5.29%
  • Emerging Markets Credit Default Swap Index 207.08 +.11%
  • CMBS Super Senior AAA 10-Year Treasury Spread 158.0 unch.
  • M1 Money Supply $1.937 Trillion +1.05%
  • Business Loans 636.10 -.17%
  • 4-Week Moving Average of Jobless Claims 436,800 +1.0%
  • Continuing Claims Unemployment Rate 3.0% unch.
  • Average 30-Year Mortgage Rate 4.63% -8 basis points
  • Weekly Mortgage Applications 496,300 +8.2%
  • Bloomberg Consumer Comfort -46.90 -.7 point
  • Weekly Retail Sales +4.70% -40 basis points
  • Nationwide Gas $3.98/gallon unch.
  • U.S. Heating Demand Next 7 Days 17.0% above normal
  • Baltic Dry Index 1,320 +.46%
  • Oil Tanker Rate(Arabian Gulf to U.S. Gulf Coast) 37.50 unch.
  • Rail Freight Carloads 232,178 +1.09%
Best Performing Style
  • Mid-Cap Growth +.68%
Worst Performing Style
  • Large-Cap Value -.34%
Leading Sectors
  • Education +4.97%
  • Retail +2.46%
  • Biotech +2.21%
  • Gaming +2.16%
  • Restaurants +2.10%
Lagging Sectors
  • Road & Rail -2.54%
  • Steel -2.85%
  • Agriculture -2.92%
  • Gold & Silver -3.43%
  • Coal -5.60%
Weekly High-Volume Stock Gainers (29)
  • SREV, MED, ROVI, LXU, PRO, ALKS, SAPE, ELON, PTRY, DTG, ROSE, GCOM, FOSL, PLOW, SYY, TYPE, FEIC, NUAN, NPO, PEGA, DF, RST, SNHY, CVLT, IPAR, WTW, VSH, MG and ZEUS
Weekly High-Volume Stock Losers (14)
  • XEC, WRC, BID, HRB, LINC, IILG, PANL, MFLX, CPTS, PETS, ZOLT, USNA, IL and STEC
Weekly Charts
ETFs
Stocks
*5-Day Change

Stocks Falling into Final Hour on Global Growth Concerns, Emerging Market Inflation Fears, Financial Sector Pessimism, Eurozone Debt Worries


Broad Market Tone:

  • Advance/Decline Line: Substantially Lower
  • Sector Performance: Almost Every Sector Declining
  • Volume: Around Average
  • Market Leading Stocks: Underperforming
Equity Investor Angst:
  • VIX 17.14 +6.92%
  • ISE Sentiment Index 88.0 -19.27%
  • Total Put/Call .95 +13.10%
  • NYSE Arms 2.09 +61.31%
Credit Investor Angst:
  • North American Investment Grade CDS Index 88.24 -.80%
  • European Financial Sector CDS Index 93.17 +.23%
  • Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 179.25 -2.45%
  • Emerging Market CDS Index 207.63 +1.0%
  • 2-Year Swap Spread 19.0 +1 bp
  • TED Spread 24.0 unch.
Economic Gauges:
  • 3-Month T-Bill Yield .02% unch.
  • Yield Curve 261.0 unch.
  • China Import Iron Ore Spot $178.80/Metric Tonne -.11%
  • Citi US Economic Surprise Index -34.40 +.9 point
  • 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.37% -7 bps
Overseas Futures:
  • Nikkei Futures: Indicating -53 open in Japan
  • DAX Futures: Indicating -14 open in Germany
Portfolio:
  • Slightly Lower: On losses in my Biotech, Medical and Tech sector longs
  • Disclosed Trades: Added to my (IWM)/(QQQ) hedges and then covered some of them
  • Market Exposure: 75% Net Long
BOTTOM LINE: Today's overall market action is bearish as the S&P 500 trades near session lows despite falling food/energy prices, a strong US dollar, mostly positive economic data and falling long-term rates. On the positive side, HMO, Restaurant and Gaming shares are rising on the day. The Belgium sovereign cds is falling -3.12% to 135.22 bps, the Ireland sovereign cds is falling -2.06% to 630.57 bps and the Spain sovereign cds is declining -2.66% to 235.83 bps. The US dollar continues to trade very well, which is a short-term negative and a large long-term positive. Gold is down -.61%, Lumber is rising +1.1%, copper is gaining +.86% and the UBS-Bloomberg Ag Spot Index is down -.75%. The 10-year TIPS spread has broken down technically. The 10-year yield is falling -4 bps to 3.19%. On the negative side, Airline, Road & Rail, Construction, Hospital, I-Banking, Bank, Paper, Steel, Alt Energy and Coal shares are under significant pressure, falling more than -1.75%. Small-cap and cyclical shares are underperforming again. (XLF) has been heavy throughout the day. Tech and transport shares are also relatively weak. The US price for a gallon of gas is unch. today at $3.98/gallon. It is up .84/gallon in 86 days. Oil is rising +.3%. The Emerging Markets Sovereign CDS Index is gaining +1.76% to 154.54 bps, the Russia sovereign cds is rising +1.32% to 136.14 bps, the Japan sovereign cds is gaining +2.48% to 82.5 bps and the US Muni CDS Index is rising +2.9% to 124.34 bps. The Nikkei looks like it is rolling over again. Spain's Ibex 35 looks like a technical breakdown is in the offing. Moreover, Brazil's Bovespa continues to trade very poorly, falling another -1.1% today and is now down -8.7% for the year. A number of key US stocks continue to trade poorly, as well. Commodities continue to trade as if further downside is in store. The last time the 10-year TIPS spread broke down technically, which is a longer-term positive, the S&P 500 began a -15% correction in early May 2010. I expect US stocks to trade mixed-to-lower into the close from current levels on technical selling, more shorting, eurozone debt worries, rising Mideast unrest, rising energy prices, global growth concerns, emerging market inflation fears and profit-taking.