Thursday, March 07, 2013

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:
  • Small-Cap Growth +.36%
Sector Outperformers:
  • 1) Networking +2.20% 2) Steel +1.03% 3) Banks +.94%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
  • UPL, PBR, IRE, NAV, CPL, CIG, HOTT, DISCK, CIEN, SFD, ANGI, LVLT, SMTC, CPL, ROVI, GPS, JDSU, SDT, FNSR, UPL, PRIM and MDVN
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
  • 1) ASTX 2) CIEN 3) KEY 4) NAV 5) SYMC
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
  • 1) CL 2) COST 3) LTD 4) T 5) KR
Charts:

Thursday Watch

Evening Headlines 
Bloomberg: 
  • Draghi Confronts Italy Impact as ECB Seen Keeping Rates on Hold. The European Central Bank has to decide how big a threat Italy poses to Europe’s recovery. A rejection of austerity in the euro area’s third-largest economy has produced a political stalemate that’s driven up bond yields and undermined confidence in ECB President Mario Draghi’s scenario of a gradual economic upturn. While that’s prompted some observers to bring forward expectations for lower interest rates, economists from Nomura International Plc to ABN Amro Bank NV say the ECB is more likely to hold fire and keep the pressure on governments to enact reforms. “The Italian election has brought the centrifugal force of dysfunctional politics back into focus, but rate cuts are not the answer,” said Richard Barwell, senior economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London. “The ECB cannot save governments and countries that do not want to save themselves.”  
  • Napolitano Girds for Battle to Resolve Italy Election Impasse. President Giorgio Napolitano, a former communist resistance fighter who negotiated Silvio Berlusconi’s resignation, is preparing his final political battle as he seeks to steer Italy out of its latest government crisis before his term expires in May. Napolitano, 87, is charged with resolving the political logjam caused by elections last month that produced a hung parliament. To avoid a new vote, he can try to forge a national- unity government, accept an administration without a majority or appoint a non-politician to head a so-called technical government, similar to that of Prime Minister Mario Monti. Markets are pricing in two scenarios, “another technical government or the possibility, which is less and less likely, of a bipartisan government,” Mario Spreafico, who manages 1.5 billion euros ($1.95 billion) as chief investment officer at Schroders Private Banking for Italy, said in a phone interview. “Both would be temporary solutions” before new elections.”
  • Merkel’s One Europe Attacked by Adenauer Grandson. Stephan Werhahn remembers playing at the feet of his grandfather as a child. The man was a towering figure in more ways than one. Lionized as Der Alte, or the Old One, Konrad Adenauer was West Germany’s first post-war chancellor, a founder of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) political party and an early proponent of European unification. At 59, Werhahn is adding politics to a 30-year career in finance by running against Chancellor Angela Merkel in an election scheduled for Sept. 22, Bloomberg Markets will report in its April issue. Werhahn says he’s doing his bit to protect his grandfather’s greatest legacy, the European Union. Werhahn’s proposed resolution to the crisis is harsh in its own way: He would forgive most of the money owed by Greece and other debt-choked countries and then banish them from the euro area in order to save the single currency.
  • China Opposes Others’ Loose Policy, Li Keqiang Co-Author Says. China doesn’t approve of excessively loose monetary policies by other nations, according to a senior government adviser who wrote a book with Li Keqiang, the country’s incoming premier. “We have already taken a position on this before and China doesn’t approve of some countries’ overly accommodative monetary policy,” Li Yining, 82, a Peking University professor and delegate to China’s top advisory body, said at a briefing in Beijing today when asked about Japan’s recent easing. “This is an act of transferring the crisis to others.” The remarks may reflect official displeasure over the yen’s depreciation amid Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s campaign for more monetary easing to fight deflation.
  • Fed’s Fisher Says He’s Worried Abe Has ‘Politicized’ BOJ. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has “politicized” the Bank of Japan (8301) in a quest to halt more than a decade of falling prices. “He’s aggressive. He has basically politicized the central bank, which worries me personally,” Fisher said today in a speech in San Antonio.
  • Korea Data Heralds Surprise China Exports Drop: Chart of the Day. South Korea is the only one of Asia’s 10 biggest economies to report February trade data thus far. Given that China is its biggest export market, Korea’s sales drop signals that its larger neighbor is poised to report weaker-than-expected shipments, said Zhang Zhiwei, Nomura’s chief China economist. “The data suggests China’s recovery is not so strong,” Hong Kong-based Zhang said. “We still call for the People’s Bank of China to tighten policies, hike interest rates and regulate shadow banking activities this year. But recent weak macro data will only make the central bank delay it.” 
  • China’s Property Curbs Are Not Successful, Billionaire Lo Says. China’s property curbs in the past decade have been unsuccessful and the new round of measures will slow property sales, said billionaire Vincent Lo, also a member of the government’s advisory board. “Certainly they haven’t been,” said Lo, chairman of Shui On Land Ltd. (272), a Shanghai-based developer, in an interview in Beijing yesterday. “Had they been successful, home prices wouldn’t have risen higher the more the government curbed.” The new measures will slow down property sales immediately because the 20 percent tax is not that easy to bear, Lo said
  • Chinese Anger Over Pollution Becomes Main Cause of Social Unrest. Pollution has replaced land disputes as the main cause of social unrest in China, a retired Communist Party official said, as delegates to the country’s legislature lamented environmental degradation. China now sees 30,000 to 50,000 so-called mass incidents every year, Chen Jiping, a former leading member of the party’s Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs, said yesterday. Increased use of mobile phones and the Internet has allowed protesters to show their anger more effectively, he said.
  • BOJ Rejects Accelerated Open-Ended Asset Buys as Shirakawa Exits. The Bank of Japan (8301) rejected a call for an immediate start to open-ended asset purchases in Governor Masaaki Shirakawa’s final meeting before new leaders take over. The board voted against a proposal by member Sayuri Shirai, the BOJ said in a statement in Tokyo today after a two-day meeting. Policy makers left an asset-purchase fund unchanged at 76 trillion yen ($810 billion) as forecast by all 23 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey.
  • Iron Peaked After Restocking Rally, Morgan Stanley Says. Iron ore is poised to decline over the rest of the year as global supply increases and a rally spurred by restocking in China ends, according to Morgan Stanley. The price probably peaked at about $159 a ton last month and will average $129 over the rest of the year, analysts Joel Crane and Peter Richardson said in a report. The raw material may average $133 a ton over 2013, with prices seen dropping to $130 in the fourth quarter from $142 in the first, they said. 
  • Sumitomo Sees Aluminum Surplus at Highest Level in Two Years. Sumitomo Corp. (8053), Japan’s fourth- largest trading house, raised its forecast for a global aluminum surplus to the highest level in two years as demand from China, the biggest consumer, won’t be enough to absorb new capacity. Supply will outpace demand for a seventh year by 866,000 metric tons this year from 760,000 tons in 2012, said Shingi Yamagiwa, manager of light metals trading at Sumitomo, which has stakes in smelters in Australia, Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia.
  • Impotent Mursi Losing Grip on Egypt as Unrest Prompts Reversals. Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi’s declaration of a state of emergency in three restive provinces had all the earmarks of an autocrat’s command, right down to the 9 p.m. curfew. “When I see the security of the nation is in peril, then I act. And I now act,” Mursi thundered in a Jan. 27 late-night television broadcast. After protestors ignored him -- some in the port of Ismailia played 9 p.m. soccer games in front of the provincial government headquarters -- the president backed down. Within 48 hours, he allowed local officials to relax the late-night ban.
Wall Street Journal: 
  • Tracking Sensors Invade the Workplace. Devices on Workers, Furniture Offer Clues for Boosting Productivity. As Big Data becomes a fixture of office life, companies are turning to tracking devices to gather real-time information on how teams of employees work and interact. Sensors, worn on lanyards or placed on office furniture, record how often staffers get up from their desks, consult other teams and hold meetings.
  • Mideast Defies U.S. Bid to 'Pivot'. The Obama administration hopes to "pivot" away from a hyper-focus on the Middle East during its second term, but John Kerry's maiden overseas mission as secretary of state—a nine-nation odyssey across Europe and the Persian Gulf—highlighted why that goal may be elusive. Imminent threats posed by Syria's civil war and Iran's nuclear program, and longer-term challenges of Egypt's flagging economy and the moribund Arab-Israeli peace process, dominated Mr. Kerry's 11-day trip, even his stops in European capitals.
  • Offshore Tax Probe Picks Up. U.S. Chase for Cheats With Secret Accounts Looks to Israel, India and Elsewhere. We're still coming after you. That is the message from the U.S. government to Americans who evaded federal taxes by stashing money in secret offshore accounts, say lawyers who represent some of those people.
Fox News:
  • Paul mounts Senate filibuster of Obama's CIA nominee over drone concerns. Business in the Senate ground to a halt Wednesday as Sen. Rand Paul -- aided by colleagues from both parties -- launched into an old-fashioned filibuster, as he tried to hold up the nomination of John Brennan for CIA director over concerns about the president’s authority to kill Americans with drones. Paul's filibuster was shaping up to be among the longest in U.S. history. The late Rep. Strom Thurmond holds the record, at more than 24 hours, but Paul was cruising into his ninth hour -- which is around when most filibusters flame out. As of 8 p.m., Paul was still talking on the Senate floor.
MarketWatch.com: 
CNBC: 
  • Sorry, Stock Pickers—You're Still Getting Crushed. Just 37 percent are faring better than the basic indexes they compete against, according to data from JPMorgan Chase, while 63 percent are missing. A mere 7 percent are topping benchmarks by more than 2.5 percentage points.
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider: 
Vanity Fair:
  • The Big Short War. Hedge-fund titan Bill Ackman has vowed to bring down Herbalife, the 33-year-old nutritional-supplement company, which he views as a pyramid scheme. With his massive shorting of Herbalife stock, the price plummeted, prompting two fellow billionaires—Ackman’s former friend Dan Loeb and activist investor Carl Icahn—to take the opposing bet on Herbalife. As the public brawl rivets Wall Street, William D. Cohan learns why, this time, it’s personal.
Politico:
  • Holder: Obama could order lethal force in U.S. President Barack Obama could order the use of deadly force against an American inside the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released Tuesday. Paul and other senators had asked various administration officials whether deadly drones strikes like the ones the U.S. carries out in Pakistan, Yemen and other foreign countries could ever be used in the U.S. Paul said he would seek to block the confirmation of John Brennan as Central Intelligence Agency director if the question was not answered.
Reuters: 
  • Leaked email leads traders to fear worst from USDA furloughs. A leaked Agriculture Department email briefly rattled the U.S. livestock market on Wednesday as traders interpreted it as meaning the department might implement mandatory budget cuts in ways that deliberately worsen disruptions at meat-packing plants. 
  • U.S. economy, world's engine, remains in 'neutral' -Fed's Fisher. Despite the efforts of the U.S. Federal Reserve to use easy monetary policy to boost jobs, the country's economy is stuck in "neutral" more than three years after the end of the recession, a top Fed official said on Wednesday. "It is not possible to create jobs through monetary policy alone," Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said at a World Affairs Council of San Antonio event. "The U.S. remains the economic engine of the world ... it's not China, it's not Europe, it's the U.S., and the U.S. remains in neutral." Fisher, repeating a well-worn analysis of the limits of the Fed's super-easy monetary policies, said the U.S. central bank did not have the power to pull the economy from its standstill as long as U.S. lawmakers did not do their part. "You know how horrid things are in Washington," Fisher said. "We have provided fuel for an economic recovery because Congress and the executive have not provided the incentives for growth." 
  • Illinois governor calls budget plan toughest in state's history. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn presented on Wednesday what he called the most difficult budget in the state's history, saying he was slashing spending on programs such as education to pay the skyrocketing costs of public pensions. Democrat Quinn, the most unpopular governor in the nation according to one polling firm, proposed a "balanced" operating budget of $35.6 billion in revenue and spending in the fiscal year starting July 1, up just over 3 percent from fiscal 2013. All of the increased state revenue in fiscal 2014 would be gobbled up by an $929 million increase in pension costs for state workers such as teachers, bringing the cost of pensions to nearly one in every five dollars, according to the budget. Illinois faces a fiscal crisis with the worst funded state pension system in the nation and the lowest debt rating among the states analyzed by major agencies Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's.
Telegraph:
Sueddeutsche Zeitung:
  • Germany to Lose Supervisory Powers Over Banks. The German govt, parliament to lose authority over the financial system under EU plans due to take effect in 2014. All systemically important banks to be monitored by the ECB. The ECB won't be accountable to the German govt, unlike BaFin. This marks the largest transfer of sovereignty since the creation of the euro, citing Carsten Schneider of SPD. The ECB will have the right to supervise smaller banks as well.
Hong Kong Economic Times:
  • Liu Mingkang Says U.S. Quantitative Easing "irresponsible'. The expansionary measures are leading to inflation pressures in China, citing the former chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission. Current easing in the U.S. and E.U. aren't solving the real economic problems and only creating moral risks, Liu said.
Evening Recommendations 
  • None of note
Night Trading
  • Asian equity indices are -.50% to +.25% on average.
  • Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 103.50 -2.5 basis points.
  • Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 81.50 -2.5 basis points.
  • FTSE-100 futures +.27%.
  • S&P 500 futures -.03%.
  • NASDAQ 100 futures +.06%.
Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note

Company/Estimate
  • (SFD)/.50
  • (CIEN)/-.14
  • (COO)/1.19
  • (HRB)/-.03
  • (NAV)-1.76
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
  • Final 4Q Non-farm Productivity is estimated at -1.6% versus a prior estimate of a -2.0% decline.
  • Final 4Q Unit Labor Costs are estimated to rise +4.3% versus a prior estimate of a +4.7% gain.
  • Initial Jobless Claims are estimated to rise to 355K versus 344K the prior week.
  • Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 3120K versus 3074K prior.
3:00 pm EST
  • Consumer Credit for January is estimated to rise to $14.7B versus $14.595B in December.
Upcoming Splits
  • None of note
Other Potential Market Movers
  • The Fed's Powell speaking, ECB's Draghi speaking, ECB rate decision, BoJ rate decision, BoE rate decision, Bank CCAR Results/Dodd-Frank tests, Japan gdp report, Challenger Job Cuts for February, RBC Consumer Outlook Index for March, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, 4Q Household Change in Net Worth, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, BofA Refining Conference, JPM Gaming/Lodging/Restaurant/Leisure Conference, Morgan Stanley Utilities Conference, (TXN) Mid-Quater Update, (FB) Event, (A) analyst meeting and the (MTH) analyst day could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by technology and industrial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Stocks Slightly Higher into Final Hour on Less Eurozone Debt Angst, Short-Covering, Financial/Metals & Mining Sector Strength

Broad Market Tone:
  • Advance/Decline Line: About Even
  • Sector Performance: Mixed
  • Volume: Below Average
  • Market Leading Stocks: Underperforming
Equity Investor Angst:
  • VIX 13.46 -.15%
  • ISE Sentiment Index 173.0 +66.35%
  • Total Put/Call .72 -35.71%
  • NYSE Arms .61 -12.22%
Credit Investor Angst:
  • North American Investment Grade CDS Index 83.68 +.42%
  • European Financial Sector CDS Index 148.99 -1.85%
  • Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 98.99 -1.78%
  • Emerging Market CDS Index 240.10 +.19%
  • 2-Year Swap Spread 13.50 -.5 bp
  • TED Spread 18.25 -1.75 bps
  • 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -18.75 -1.5 bps
Economic Gauges:
  • 3-Month T-Bill Yield .10% +2 bps
  • Yield Curve 169.0 +4 bps
  • China Import Iron Ore Spot $145.80/Metric Tonne +.41%
  • Citi US Economic Surprise Index 7.0 +.7 point
  • 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.57 +1 bp
Overseas Futures:
  • Nikkei Futures: Indicating +150 open in Japan
  • DAX Futures: Indicating +9 open in Germany
Portfolio: 
  • Slightly Lower: On losses in my retail sector longs and emerging markets shorts
  • Disclosed Trades: None
  • Market Exposure: 50% Net Long

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg: 
  • Euro Exports Fell in Fourth Quarter as Slump Deepened: Economy. Euro-area exports fell in the fourth quarter for the first time in more than three years and investment declined as the sovereign debt crisis pushed the region deeper into a recession. Shipments from the euro area dropped 0.9 percent in the last three months of 2012, helping to drive gross domestic product down 0.6 percent, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. Exports last declined in the second quarter of 2009. Imports also fell 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter. “Real economic activity is yet to show major improvement in many countries and it looks highly likely that growth will remain a major struggle for the euro zone for some time to come,” Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight in London, wrote in a note today.
  • Bersani Says Recession Emergency as He Bids for Premiership. Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani called on Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement and Prime Minister Mario Monti’s coalition to back his efforts to form a government based on a program of easing austerity in recession-wracked Italy. The nation’s priority is getting “out of the austerity cage,” Bersani, whose bloc won the most votes in inconclusive election last month, told about 100 members of the party’s top body in Rome today. Italy’s next government should be an “active protagonist of a rectification of the European policies for stability,” he said.
  • Monti Won’t Back Italian Government That Threatens EU Reforms. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said he won’t back a new government that would threaten his country’s commitments to the Europe Union and that Italy should hold a new vote rather than install an administration that could reverse fiscal discipline. In his most detailed comments since Feb. 24-25 elections produced a hung parliament and saw his coalition win less than 10 percent of the vote, Monti said none of Italy’s political parties is capable of addressing the country’s problems. “If the alternative is a government oriented to interrupting Italy’s European path or the way of reforms, I believe it would be better to hold new elections,” Monti said at a press conference in Rome today.
  • Kuroda to Hit ‘Wall of Reality’ at BOJ, Ex-Board Member Says. Haruhiko Kuroda will have limited options for aggressive easing if he’s confirmed as central bank governor as more Japanese government bond purchases heighten the risk of a market bubble, a former BOJ policy board member said. “Kuroda will hit the wall of reality,” Atsushi Mizuno, vice chairman at Credit Suisse AG in Tokyo and a member of the BOJ board from 2004 to 2009, said in an interview today. “Increased bond buying would cause over-dependence on the BOJ and that’s not healthy for the market. I see the risk of a JGB bubble.”
  • AIG Betting on Homeowners as Benmosche Chases Yield: Mortgages. American International Group Inc., the insurer that was rescued by the U.S. government in 2008 after soured bets on mortgage securities, is building a unit to buy individual home loans amid a rebound in the housing market. AIG plans to buy loans backed by its United Guaranty Corp. unit, the largest seller of traditional private mortgage insurance last year, according to Donna DeMaio, 54, the unit’s chief executive officer. The debt will be held as long-term investments by AIG insurance companies.
    AIG has boosted investment in U.S. property markets less than five years after real-estate wagers forced the government to rescue the insurer, once the world’s largest. The Fed had to step in after AIG sold derivatives to banks protecting them against losses on housing debt, with the U.S. bailout reaching $182.3 billion.
  • Too-Big-to-Fail Banks Limit Prosecutor Options, Holder Testifies. The size of the largest financial institutions has made it difficult for the U.S. Justice Department to bring criminal charges, Attorney General Eric Holder said. Criminal charges against a bank -- something that could threaten its existence -- may also endanger the national or global economies in the case of the largest ones, because of their size and interconnectedness. That has “made it difficult for us to prosecute” some of those institutions, Holder said today at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Wall Street Journal:
  • Honeywell's(HON) Hiring Is Bleak. Conglomerate's CEO Says Job Growth Won't Pick Up Until GDP Growth Tops 3%. Honeywell International Inc. Chief Executive David Cote says job growth won't improve much until U.S. economic growth tops 3%, in a bleak outlook for employment as the economy continues to bump along.
  • House Approves Stopgap Budget Deal. The U.S. House on Wednesday voted to extend spending cuts that went into effect on March 1 and keep the government operating for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. The legislation is necessary to keep the federal government open after current funding runs out on March 27. It would keep in place automatic spending cuts known as the sequester for all federal agencies, while giving the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments more flexibility in setting spending priorities.
  • Syrian Rebels Seize U.N. Forces in Golan Height. Around 20 United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights were abducted by a Syrian rebel group, which said it would keep them as hostages unless the Syrian government withdraws its forces from the region within 24 hours, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday. "The U.N. Disengagement Observer Force, or Undof, has reported that, earlier today, approximately 30 armed fighters stopped and detained a group of around 20 peacekeepers" in the demilitarized zone patrolled by the U.N., said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq in New York. 
  • CIC President Warns Japan on Yen Devaluation. The president of China's giant sovereign-wealth fund warned Japan against using its neighbors as a "garbage bin" by deliberately devaluing the yen, joining a growing number of Chinese officials sounding alarms about a potential currency war. "I would hope that it doesn't do that as a responsible government," Gao Xiqing, president of China Investment Corp., said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. He was responding to questions about worries among some finance ministers and central bankers that the new Japanese government would devalue its currency to boost exports at other countries' expense.
  • Chávez Death Opens Uncertain Period. Crowds of weeping supporters surrounded the flag-draped coffin of President Hugo Chávez Wednesday as it was escorted through the streets of the capital, with many in this deeply divided nation mourning the loss of a man they considered their champion and others hoping for change after 14 years of populist policies.
Fox News:
  • Obama Falls Farther Behind in Spending Fight. “So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.” -- An email from USDA official Charles Brown rejecting a subordinate’s suggestion of a way to lessen the consequences of budget cuts for citizens. Americans have a government that now claims the power to execute its own citizens on its own soil without trial but that cannot find a way to afford public tours of government buildings.
CNBC: 
  • Retail Investor Sentiment Near All-Time High: TD Ameritrade. "Retail investors and professionals are both bullish on stocks," said Tom Bradley, president of retail distribution at TD Ameritrade on "Squawk on the Street." "Bullish sentiment is definitely high," he added, citing a TD Ameritrade index on sentiment of both retail and professional investors.
Zero Hedge: 
Business Insider: 
Propublica:
  • After Sandy, Government Lends to Rebuild in Flood Zones. The Small Business Administration has approved the restaurant for a disaster loan of almost $1 million. There’s just one problem: Newly drawn FEMA flood maps show the cafe is at high risk of flooding again, raising the question of whether it makes sense to rebuild there or move elsewhere.
Reuters:
  • China blames manipulation for iron ore price surge. China's top economic planning agency lashed out at the world's top three iron ore miners on Wednesday, accusing them and some traders of manipulating the market to drive an 80 percent rally in ore prices in just six months. "The three major miners and some traders have delayed shipments and held back cargoes to control supplies in order to send a fake market signal that there was a supply shortage," according to a report published on the National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC) website.
  • DBRS downgrades Italy's debt rating over political uncertainty. Credit-rating agency DBRS downgraded Italy's debt to A (low) from A with a negative outlook on Wednesday, the first downgrade of the heavily indebted country since elections last month produced a political stalemate. 
  • American Eagle Outfitters(AEO) outlook soft. American Eagle Outfitters Inc on Wednesday gave a profit forecast that fell short of Wall Street expectations and said same-store sales would fall in the current quarter, a setback for a company that has been winning market share from rivals. Shares were down 10.2 percent to $20.26 in late morning trading.
  • Euro slides vs dollar as ECB seen signaling future easing.
 eFXNews:
Telegraph:
Handelsblatt:
  • BDI's Grillo Sees Potential Return to Crisis. Ulrich Grillo, president of Germany's BDI industry association, cites developments in Italy and France. The Italian elections and deindustrialization of France show the danger, Grillo said in an interview.
CNTV:
  • China's property control measures may get "stricter," citing Housing and Urban-Rural Development Minister Jiang Weixin. China won't cancel its latest property curbs "for awhile," Jiang said.
Shanghai Securities News:
  • People's Bank of China adviser Qian Yingyi said today that he can't rule out an interest rate increase this year. China faces "very big" pressures in achieving M2 growth target of 13% and CPI growth target of 3.5%, Qian said.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:
  • Large-Cap Growth -.22%
Sector Underperformers:
  • 1) Oil Tankers -1.42% 2) Retail -.87% 3) Road & Rail -.78%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
  • SOHU, QIHU, TV, BTI, RBS, BKU, ARII, TEO, LGCY, PHI, HAFC, CSX, AVAV, ARI, TFM, O, FWRD, NCS, AEO, WD, JAKK, PER, SPLS, YOKU, CYOU, JCP, MFB, SQM, FGP, BKU, GTLS, MR, CWH, SDT, MITT, FGP, LOGM and HPY
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
  • 1) ITB 2) MTG 3) AEO 4) IYR 5) XRT
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
  • 1) COG 2) SQM 3) ARO 4) VNO 5) NVDA
Charts:

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:
  • Small-Cap Value +.06%
Sector Outperformers:
  • 1) Gold & Silver +2.90% 2) Gaming +1.28% 3) HMOs +.90%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
  • PBR, VIP, CTCM, ENOC, FCX, MHO, HCI, PAY, GRA, AEGR, BIG, BSFT, TIBX, WPRT, TRIP, FSLR, CLDX and LCC
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
  • 1) ALXA 2) SYK 3) SPLS 4) NDAQ 5) XLNX
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
  • 1) DF 2) BBY 3) OSIS 4) MW 5) XOM
Charts: