Indices
- Russell 2000 912.50 -3.22%
- S&P 500 High Beta 22.56 -4.57%
- Value Line Geometric(broad market) 395.52 -3.06%
- Russell 1000 Growth 710.52 -2.11%
- Russell 1000 Value 791.49 -2.18%
- Morgan Stanley Consumer 998.27 +.51%
- Morgan Stanley Cyclical 1,118.88 -3.81%
- Morgan Stanley Technology 700.76 -4.45%
- Transports 6,034.14 -1.78%
- Bloomberg European Bank/Financial Services 88.72 -2.53%
- MSCI Emerging Markets 41.74 -1.13%
- HFRX Equity Hedge 1,089.74 -.90%
- HFRX Equity Market Neutral 939.68 -.37%
Sentiment/Internals
- NYSE Cumulative A/D Line 179,250 -1.65%
- Bloomberg New Highs-Lows Index -324.0 -1,195
- Bloomberg Crude Oil % Bulls 38.9 n/a
- CFTC Oil Net Speculative Position 210,703 -5.68%
- CFTC Oil Total Open Interest 1,764,368 -.22%
- Total Put/Call 1.10 -3.51%
- OEX Put/Call 1.03 -63.48%
- ISE Sentiment 97.0 +73.21%
- Volatility(VIX) 14.97 +24.13%
- S&P 500 Implied Correlation 56.01 +8.57%
- G7 Currency Volatility (VXY) 9.62 +4.1%
- Smart Money Flow Index 11,561.46 -1.43%
- Money Mkt Mutual Fund Assets $2.595 Trillion -1.0%
- AAII % Bulls 26.9 +39.0%
Futures Spot Prices
- Reformulated Gasoline 277.24 -.83%
- Heating Oil 278.76 -2.93%
- Bloomberg Base Metals Index 189.72 -4.10%
- US No. 1 Heavy Melt Scrap Steel 368.0 USD/Ton unch.
- China Iron Ore Spot 138.0 USD/Ton -2.13%
- UBS-Bloomberg Agriculture 1,495.70 -.29%
Economy
- ECRI Weekly Leading Economic Index Growth Rate 6.6% +40 basis points
- Philly Fed ADS Real-Time Business Conditions Index .1488 +10.5%
- S&P 500 Blended Forward 12 Months Mean EPS Estimate 115.22 +.08%
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index -4.90 -12.7 points
- Citi Emerging Mkts Economic Surprise Index -38.7 -1.0 point
- Fed Fund Futures imply 54.0% chance of no change, 46.0% chance of 25 basis point cut on 5/1
- US Dollar Index 82.71 +.72%
- Euro/Yen Carry Return Index 135.39 +.66%
- Yield Curve 147.0 -2 basis points
- 10-Year US Treasury Yield 1.70% -2 basis points
- Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet $3.252 Trillion +2.11%
- U.S. Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 32.62 +.35%
- Illinois Municipal Debt Credit Default Swap 125.0 +.81%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap Index 98.03 +.80%
- Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt CDS Index 201.50 +7.78%
- Israel Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 118.27 +1.42%
- South Korea Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 74.0 -9.76%
- China Blended Corporate Spread Index 415.0 +13 basis points
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.32% -12 basis points
- TED Spread 23.0 +1.25 basis points
- 2-Year Swap Spread 13.75 -.75 basis point
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -16.75 +1.0 basis point
- N. America Investment Grade Credit Default Swap Index 84.03 +1.42%
- European Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index 171.86 +2.57%
- Emerging Markets Credit Default Swap Index 240.05 +7.70%
- CMBS AAA Super Senior 10-Year Treasury Spread to Swaps 105.0 -5.5 basis points
- M1 Money Supply $2.441 Trillion -2.73%
- Commercial Paper Outstanding 1,015.50 -.60%
- 4-Week Moving Average of Jobless Claims 361,300 +3,300
- Continuing Claims Unemployment Rate 2.4% unch.
- Average 30-Year Mortgage Rate 3.41% -2 basis points
- Weekly Mortgage Applications 866.10 +4.84%
- Bloomberg Consumer Comfort -29.2 +4.8 points
- Weekly Retail Sales +2.0% -90 basis points
- Nationwide Gas $3.51/gallon -.05/gallon
- Baltic Dry Index 888.0 +1.49%
- China (Export) Containerized Freight Index 1,108.27 -.32%
- Oil Tanker Rate(Arabian Gulf to U.S. Gulf Coast) 17.50 unch.
- Rail Freight Carloads 241,987 +4.46%
Best Performing Style
Worst Performing Style
Leading Sectors
Lagging Sectors
Weekly High-Volume Stock Gainers (9)
- OSTK, THRX, ACOR, ANEN, PNFP, TZOO, LIFE, MRTN and NFP
Weekly High-Volume Stock Losers (25)
- WBS, BERY, CACC, JNY, CLI, ALSN, IPCM, IMGN, RTI, SKS, PBY, SNDK, FLR, WDR, KDN, TXT, RGLD, ROSE, LAYN, NTGR, CCXI, BMI, UTEK, INWK and EOPN
Weekly Charts
ETFs
Stocks
*5-Day Change
Today's Market Take:
Broad Market Tone:
- Advance/Decline Line: Higher
- Sector Performance: Most Sectors Rising
- Market Leading Stocks: Performing In Line
Equity Investor Angst:
- ISE Sentiment Index 93.0 +1.09%
- Total Put/Call 1.10 -5.17%
Credit Investor Angst:
- North American Investment Grade CDS Index 83.72 -1.7%
- European Financial Sector CDS Index 171.92 -2.06%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 98.35 -.50%
- Emerging Market CDS Index 240.11 -.37%
- 2-Year Swap Spread 13.75 -.25 bp
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -17.0 +.25 bp
Economic Gauges:
- 3-Month T-Bill Yield .05% unch.
- Yield Curve 147.0 +1 basis point
- China Import Iron Ore Spot $138.0/Metric Tonne -.43%
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index -4.9 +.1 point
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.32 +6 basis points
Overseas Futures:
- Nikkei Futures: Indicating +349 open in Japan
- DAX Futures: Indicating +11 open in Germany
Portfolio:
- Slightly Higher: On gains in my retail, biotech and medical sector longs
- Disclosed Trades: Covered some of my (IWM)/(QQQ) hedges, then added them back
- Market Exposure: 50% Net Long
Bloomberg:
- U.K.’s Top Credit Grade Cut by Fitch on Economy, Fiscal Outlook. Britain
lost its top credit grade at Fitch Ratings, which cited a weaker
economic and fiscal outlook as it became the second company to cut the
country’s rating within two months. Fitch lowered the U.K. to AA+ from
AAA with a stable
outlook, it said in a statement in London today. It cut its
growth projection and forecast that debt would peak at 101
percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year 2015-2016. “Despite the U.K.’s strong fiscal financing flexibility
underpinned by its own currency with reserve-currency status and
the long average maturity of public debt, the fiscal space to
absorb further adverse economic and financial shocks is no
longer consistent with an AAA rating,” Fitch said.
- Prodi’s Presidential Bid Vulnerable in Secret Ballot. Romano Prodi failed to win the
Italian presidency in a parliamentary vote today as his wounded
party was unable to maintain discipline and resistance from
rival forces intensified. Prodi, the two-time ex-prime minister and former European
Commission president, as defections left him more than 100 votes
short of a majority in the parliamentary vote in Rome. It was the
fourth inconclusive ballot since voting started yesterday and dealt Pier
Luigi Bersani, head of the Democratic Party, another defeat in his bid
to unlock the impasse.
- Weidmann Says ECB Would Only Cut Rates If Data Worsen. European Central Bank Governing
Council member Jens Weidmann said the bank would only cut
interest rates if economic data worsen. “We didn’t change interest
rates at our last meeting as they are currently appropriate and in
accordance with our assessment of economic developments, price stability
and our monetary analysis,” Weidmann, who heads Germany’s
Bundesbank, said today at a press conference in Washington. “Of course,
we will reassess the adequacy of the rates if the data change.”
- BofA(BAC) Sees ‘Impossible Trinity’ in Markets as Risks Underpriced. Commodities, stocks and bonds are sending conflicting signals on the
health of the global economy, an “impossible trinity” that may end with a
surge in market volatility, according to Bank of America Corp. The
S&P GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials has retreated 10 percent in
the past two months, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 1.4
percent and bond yields in emerging markets and so-called peripheral
European nations declined. Commodities are
signaling a slowdown in global growth, while stocks reflect expectations
of strong U.S. consumer spending and credit markets anticipate greater
demand from Japanese households for high-yielding assets, David Woo, the
head of global rates and currencies research at Bank of America Merrill
Lynch, wrote in a note dated yesterday. It’s unlikely all these markets
will prove correct and investors are underestimating the risk of a
“major
re-alignment” of prices, Woo said. “Something will have to give,” Woo
wrote.
- SAP's(SAP) McDermott Sees Choppy Public Spending in U.S., China.
SAP AG (SAP), the largest maker of business-management software,
projected a difficult market for its government business amid cuts in
U.S. federal spending and China’s transition to a new leadership. “It’s
going to be choppy out there in the public sector,” co-Chief Executive
Officer Bill McDermott said in a telephone
interview today. “Chinese purchasing patterns have definitely
slowed down.”
- U.S. Hospitals Told to Be on Lookout for H7N9 Bird Flu. U.S. hospitals are being urged to head off a spread of the new H7N9
avian influenza by looking out for people exhibiting flu-like symptoms
who have traveled to China or had contact with someone who has the
illness.
- Copper Falls to Lowest Since October 2011, Entering Bear Market.
Copper slumped into a bear market in London on concern slowing
economies from China to the U.S. will reduce demand as supply of the
metal expands. Copper for delivery in three months fell 1.4 percent to $6,990 a metric ton by the close on the London Metal Exchange
today. That was below the level of $6,992 marking a 20 percent
drop from the February 2012 closing high, a common definition of
a bear market.
- GE(GE) Falls Most Since 2011 After Power Unit Saps Industrial Profit. General Electric Co. fell the most since 2011 after a first-quarter
slide in its Power & Water business pulled total industrial earnings
down 11 percent. Profit at GE’s manufacturing
businesses fell to $2.94 billion as sales slid 5.7 percent to $22.7
billion, the company said in a statement. The decline was led by a 39
percent drop in earnings at the power and water unit, which makes
products including gas-powered and wind turbines. “We planned for a
continued challenging environment in Europe, but conditions weakened
further,” Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said in the statement,
with manufacturing and service revenue in the region declining
17 percent.
- Flu Experts Probe H7N9 Outbreak as Cases Double in a Week. Influenza
specialists from around the world are converging on China to help
authorities identify how people are catching the new H7N9 bird flu
strain after the number of reported cases there doubled in the past
week. China recorded its 88th H7N9 infection yesterday. Seventeen of the
cases have been fatal and “several” patients are in critical condition, according to the World Health Organization. “That’s a fairly high
mortality rate,” Michael O’Leary, the WHO’s China representative, told
reporters in Beijing today. Less severe cases may have escaped
detection, he said. “What we don’t know is the size of the iceberg under
this tip.
Wall Street Journal:
- Boston Gripped by High-Stakes Manhunt. Suspect Still at Large Is Identified as 19-Year-Old of Chechen Background; Older Brother Killed in Shootout. The Boston area remained on lockdown into the afternoon Friday as
authorities conducted a manhunt for one of two brothers of Chechen
background suspected in Monday's Boston Marathon bombings and a deadly
showdown that began unfolding Thursday night. Authorities identified one suspect as 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev,
who was killed in a confrontation with police in Watertown, Mass.,
according to a U.S. law-enforcement official. A manhunt was on for the second suspect, identified as Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev, 19 years old. Both brothers were believed to be involved in
the fatal shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus
police officer during Thursday night's chaotic series of events. Police warned residents that the at-large suspect was armed and
dangerous. "We believe this to be a terrorist," said Boston Police Chief
Ed Davis. "We believe this to be a man who's come here to kill people.
We need to get him in custody."
- The Boston Bombings: Live Updates.
- Texas Plant Explosion: Live Updates.
- Regulators Worry Mortgage REITs Pose Threat to Financial System.
- Boy Scouts Propose Lifting Gay Ban on Kids, but Not Adults. The Boy Scouts of America on Friday proposed to change their membership
policy to allow gay youth into its programs for the first time, but
continue to ban gay adults.
Fox News:
- Pakistan's Musharraf lashes out at accusers following arrest. Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf criticized
allegations against him as "politically motivated" Friday, following his
arrest in a case involving his decision to fire senior judges while in
power. Musharraf was arrested a day after he made a dramatic escape from a
court in Islamabad on Thursday to avoid being detained. Musharraf fled
the Islamabad High Court in a speeding vehicle and holed up in his home
on the outskirts of the city after a judge rejected his bail and ordered
his arrest. It was a new low in Musharraf's troubled return from self-imposed
exile last month to attempt a political comeback in the upcoming
parliamentary election.
CNBC:
- McDonald's(MCD) Profit Rises; Falls Short of Wall Street's Hopes. McDonald's
on Friday reported first-quarter profit that rose but fell short of
market expectations, undermined by weaker international sales and U.S.
consumers that appeared to dine out less.
- IBM's(IBM) Ominous Sign to the Stock Market. IBM's poor earnings performance in the first quarter likely foretells a rough time ahead for the stock market.
- Wall St. Redux: Arcane Names Hiding Big Risk. The alchemists of Wall Street are at it again.
The banks
that created risky amalgams of mortgages and loans during the boom — the
kind that went so wrong during the bust — are busily reviving the same
types of investments that many thought were gone for good. Once more,
arcane-sounding financial products like collateralized debt obligations
are being minted on Wall Street.
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
Reuters:
Telegraph:
Handelsblatt:
- German Companies See Sustained Weak Euro Area. German small- and
medium-sized companies expect euro area economies to remain weak in M/T,
potentially impacting cross-border investment plans, citing a TNS
Infratest survey for Commerzbank. 81% of 4,000 companies expect weak
economic growth in euro area. 68% of respondents expect increasing
finance problems for companies.
Style Underperformer:
Sector Underperformers:
- 1) Computer Services -6.3% 2) Coal -4.88% 3) Disk Drives -1.32%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
- IBM, FIO, GE, WTI, PFMT, AIRM, SAP, GCC, DELL, HUBG, GPC, ISRG, SLW, WLT, CTSH, HGSH, SSNC, EMC, HMSY, BHI, SLB, BMI, EVEP, NSIT, BTU, ACN and ACTG
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
- 1) CTL 2) FL 3) MGM 4) IBM 5) CRM
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
- 1) CAT 2) PAY 3) IBM 4) CTSH 5) ALV
Charts:
Style Outperformer:
Sector Outperformers:
- 1) Biotech +3.97% 2) Homebuilders +2.45% 3) Gaming +1.75%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
- UBS, EFII, OSTK, VRTX, IMOS, CMG, ALGN, CE, CPHD, RNF, COF, MAN, TSM, NPSP, EMN and IPG
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
- 1) CTL 2) VRTX 3) NLY 4) SWKS 5) ALGN
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
- 1) NRG 2) KBH 3) BX 4) HON 5) COF
Charts:
Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Italy Impasse Deepens as Bersani Bowed by Failed Berlusconi Deal.
Italy’s political deadlock deepened over the selection of the next
president, raising the threat of snap elections after Democratic Party
lawmakers refused orders to back a compromise candidate. Party head Pier
Luigi Bersani signaled he will abandon his nominee, Franco Marini,
after his allies rebelled over the choice, leading to two failed ballots
yesterday. Voting resumes today at 10 a.m. in Rome. “This challenge
of keeping the party together is clearly growing more acute,” said Peter
Ceretti, a Eurasia Group analyst in New York. “If a consensus candidate
can’t be elected
politically things become much more uncertain."
- Dutch Recession Woes Haunt Rutte as Deficit Breach Persists. Record
unemployment in the Netherlands is compounding Dutch Prime Minister
Mark Rutte’s dilemma on how far to push austerity measures needed to
curb the country’s deficit. Consumer confidence due today and statistics
on house prices, consumer spending and manufacturers’ confidence next
week will confirm just how far the slump has damaged sentiment in
the euro-area’s fifth largest economy. Data yesterday showed the jobless
rate reached an 18-year high of 8.1 percent in March, with 643,000
people out of work.
- South Korea’s Hyun Says Yen Bigger Issue Than North Korea.
South Korean Finance Minister Hyun Oh Seok said Japan’s weakening yen is
hurting his country’s economy more than North Korean threats, an
example of a “spillover” that merits discussion. “Japan’s economic
policies are doing their part to help the world economy recover,” Hyun
said yesterday in an interview in Washington before a meeting of Group
of 20 finance chiefs.
“But if this causes problems, and then the problems cause new
responses from partnering nations, for example a currency war,
the world economy will have a hard time.”
- China’s Anti-Carrier Missile Now Opposite Taiwan, Flynn Says.
The Chinese military has deployed its new anti-ship ballistic missile
along its southern coast facing Taiwan, the Pentagon’s top military
intelligence officer said today. The missile, designated the DF-21D,
is one of a “growing number of conventionally armed” new weapons China
is deploying to the region, adding to more than 1,200 short-range
missiles opposite the island democracy, U.S. Army Lieutenant General
Michael Flynn, the Defense Intelligence Agency director, said in a
statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
- Asian Stocks Rise as Commodity Companies Pare Weekly Drop.
Asian stocks rose, erasing earlier losses, as commodity companies pared
their worst weekly decline since August. Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Co. and Lenovo Group Ltd. led technology shares higher. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) gained 0.3 percent to 136.29 as of 11:26 a.m. in Tokyo, reversing a decline of 0.3 percent. A
gauge of material producers in the measure climbed 1.1 percent,
paring its weekly loss to 4.3 percent, the most since August.
- Copper Set for Weekly Drop Amid High Stockpiles, Economic Woes.
Copper declined in London, poised for the biggest weekly drop in 16
months as inventories swelled to the highest level since 2003 and the
outlook for the global economy weighed down metals prices. Aluminum,
zinc, nickel and lead also dropped. Copper for delivery in three
months lost as much as 1.7 percent to $6,966.75 a metric ton on the
London Metal Exchange, before trading at $6,970 by 9:41 a.m. Shanghai
time, putting on
course for a weekly decline of 6 percent.
- Rebar Rises to Pare Weekly Loss, Supported by Iron Ore, Demand. Steel reinforcement-bar futures
rose for the first time in three days, paring a weekly loss,
supported by iron ore prices and as rising demand helped draw
down inventory. The contract for October delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained as much as 1 percent to 3,687 yuan ($597) a
metric ton, before trading at 3,666 yuan at 10:23 a.m. local
time. Futures have lost 4.5 percent this week.
Wall Street Journal:
- Blackstone(BX) Ends Pursuit of Dell(DELL).
Blackstone Group LP has ended its pursuit of Dell Inc. less than a
month after the private-equity firm said it would try to top a leveraged
buyout by the computer maker's founder and a rival private-equity firm.
Blackstone had been putting together a bid for Dell to top the offer
from founder Michael Dell and private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners.
Blackstone's offer would
have kept part of the company in the hands of public shareholders. Blackstone, in a letter to the special board committee handling the deal
negotiations for Dell, cited declining personal-computer sales
industrywide as a factor in its decision, along with concerns about
declines in Dell operating income, according to people familiar with the
matter.
CNBC:
- IRS Workers Get Caught With Their Hands in Cookie Jar. Twenty-four current and former Internal Revenue Service employees
have been charged with stealing government benefits, federal prosecutors
said Wednesday. The IRS employees were indicted on charges
that they illegally received more than $250,000 in benefits, including
unemployment insurance payments, food stamps, welfare, and housing
vouchers, the U.S. attorney's office in Memphis said in a news release.
Prosecutors say 13 of the IRS employees face federal charges of lying
about being unemployed while applying for or recertifying their
government benefits. They each face up to five years in prison if
convicted of making false statements to receive the benefits. Eleven
others face state charges of theft of property over $1,000, a
felony that can carry a sentence of probation up to 12 years in prison
if they are convicted.
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
Reuters:
- Lenovo says in potential M&A talks; report of IBM server deal. Lenovo Group said on Friday
it was in preliminary talks about a potential acquisition,
following a media report that IBM Corp was negotiating
the sale of its x86 server hardware business to the Chinese
computer maker. IBM wants $5 billion to $6 billion for the business, which
sells low-priced servers traditionally used to power large
corporate data centers, said technology news site CRN, citing a
high ranking industry executive. Lenovo did not identify the acquisition target.
- Google(GOOG) Internet business solid despite Motorola losses.
Google Inc's core Internet business grew net revenue 23 percent in the
first quarter, softening the effect of a sharp decline in its Motorola
mobile phone division. Shares of Google, which reached an all-time high of $844 in
March, were up 1.5 percent to $777.75 in after hours trading on
Thursday.
- U.S. Fed balance sheet grows to record again in latest week. The U.S. Federal Reserve's
balance sheet hit a new record in the latest week on increased
holdings of U.S. government debt and mortgage-backed securities,
Fed data released on Thursday showed.
The Fed's balance sheet - a broad gauge of its lending to
the financial system - stood at $3.252 trillion on April 17, up
from $3.210 trillion on April 10.
The Fed's holdings of Treasuries totaled $1.825 trillion as
of Wednesday, April 17, versus $1.814 trillion the previous
week.
- FAA warns of 3.5 hour flight delays this summer. Flight delays of up to 3-1/2 hours are expected at some busy U.S. airports this summer because of furloughs of air-traffic controllers, the top U.S. aviation regulator warned on Thursday. The estimate from the Federal Aviation Administration
is the first to detail, in minutes and hours, the potential delays from
the agency's decision to furlough 10 percent of its staff, starting
Sunday, as it struggles to meet budget cuts required under so-called
sequestration.
Financial Times:
- Osborne girds for battle with IMF. Mr
Osborne believes that the change of heart at the IMF on Britain
reflects a power struggle within the fund between fiscal hawks and
Keynesians, including Olivier Blanchard, chief economist, and David
Lipton, first deputy managing director and a former adviser to Barack
Obama, US president. The chancellor believes the UK has become a pawn in a bigger game:
beating up Britain over its austerity programme makes it easier for the
IMF to criticise Republicans insisting on a tough US fiscal tightening.
Telegraph:
China Securities Journal:
- The city of Shenzhen may start property tax trial in near term, citing people from the real estate industry in the city.
Financial News:
- Chinese first-tier city home price surges may be driven by "hot
money," according to a commentary by Financial News, run by China's
central bank, written by reporter Xu Shaofeng today. Home prices in
1st-tier cities didn't fall after China issued new curbing policies
earlier this year, the commentary said.
People's Daily:
- China's urbanization shouldn't be used as excuse for some local
governments to accumulate excessive debt and pursue blind investment,
according to a commentary today written by reporter Liu Xianyun. Governments
should be aware of risks in the drop in the value of land used as
collateral, slower fiscal revenue growth and shrinking investment
returns, the commentary said.
Evening Recommendations
Night Trading
- Asian equity indices are unch. to +1.0% on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 116.50 +1.0 basis point.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 91.75 -.25 basis point.
- NASDAQ 100 futures +.46%.
Morning Preview Links
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
Economic Releases
Upcoming Splits
Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed's Stein speaking could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by real estate and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.
