Indices
- Russell 2000 935.25 +2.49%
- S&P 500 High Beta 23.52 +4.24%
- Value Line Geometric(broad market) 405.30 +2.47%
- Russell 1000 Growth 723.24 +1.79%
- Russell 1000 Value 805.01 +1.71%
- Morgan Stanley Consumer 993.01 -.53%
- Morgan Stanley Cyclical 1,146.46 +2.47%
- Morgan Stanley Technology 718.13 +2.48%
- Transports 6,115.89 +1.36%
- Bloomberg European Bank/Financial Services 93.74 +5.7%
- MSCI Emerging Markets 42.34 +1.44%
- HFRX Equity Hedge 1,101.96 +1.12%
- HFRX Equity Market Neutral 942.33 +.28%
Sentiment/Internals
- NYSE Cumulative A/D Line 184,179 +1.97%
- Bloomberg New Highs-Lows Index 664.0 +988
- Bloomberg Crude Oil % Bulls 40.0 +35.0%
- CFTC Oil Net Speculative Position 211,575 +.41%
- CFTC Oil Total Open Interest 1,718,878 -2.58%
- Total Put/Call .89 -19.09%
- OEX Put/Call 2.70 +162.14%
- ISE Sentiment 113.0 +16.49%
- Volatility(VIX) 13.61 -9.09%
- S&P 500 Implied Correlation 52.79 -5.75%
- G7 Currency Volatility (VXY) 9.03 -5.74%
- Smart Money Flow Index 11,674.40 +.98%
- Money Mkt Mutual Fund Assets $2.593 Trillion -.1%
Futures Spot Prices
- Reformulated Gasoline 283.49 +2.25%
- Heating Oil 290.12 +3.91%
- Bloomberg Base Metals Index 191.55 +.96%
- US No. 1 Heavy Melt Scrap Steel 368.0 USD/Ton unch.
- China Iron Ore Spot 134.10 USD/Ton -2.8%
- UBS-Bloomberg Agriculture 1,466.95 -1.92%
Economy
- ECRI Weekly Leading Economic Index Growth Rate 6.8% +20 basis points
- Philly Fed ADS Real-Time Business Conditions Index .1727 -.98%
- S&P 500 Blended Forward 12 Months Mean EPS Estimate 114.93 -.25%
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index -12.40 -7.5 points
- Citi Emerging Mkts Economic Surprise Index -40.40 -1.7 points
- Fed Fund Futures imply 54.0% chance of no change, 46.0% chance of 25 basis point cut on 5/1
- US Dollar Index 82.50 -.30%
- Euro/Yen Carry Return Index 133.23 -1.63%
- Yield Curve 145.0 -2 basis points
- 10-Year US Treasury Yield 1.66% -4 basis points
- Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet $3.276 Trillion +.73%
- U.S. Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 32.50 -.35%
- Illinois Municipal Debt Credit Default Swap 120.0 -4.0%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap Index 96.0 -2.08%
- Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt CDS Index 190.56 -5.43%
- Israel Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 112.85 -4.58%
- South Korea Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 72.0 -2.70%
- China Blended Corporate Spread Index 409.0 -6 basis points
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.38% +6 basis points
- TED Spread 22.50 -.5 basis point
- 2-Year Swap Spread 14.25 +.5 basis point
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -18.25 -1.5 basis point
- N. America Investment Grade Credit Default Swap Index 78.19 -6.95%
- European Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index 159.26 -7.33%
- Emerging Markets Credit Default Swap Index 239.39 -.28%
- CMBS AAA Super Senior 10-Year Treasury Spread to Swaps 97.50 -7.5 basis points
- M1 Money Supply $2.514 Trillion +2.94%
- Commercial Paper Outstanding 1,009.90 -.60%
- 4-Week Moving Average of Jobless Claims 357,500 -3,800
- Continuing Claims Unemployment Rate 2.3% -10 basis points
- Average 30-Year Mortgage Rate 3.40% -1 basis point
- Weekly Mortgage Applications 868.10 +.23%
- Bloomberg Consumer Comfort -29.9 -.7 point
- Weekly Retail Sales +1.90% -10 basis points
- Nationwide Gas $3.51/gallon unch.
- Baltic Dry Index 871.0 -1.91%
- China (Export) Containerized Freight Index 1,095.30 -.16%
- Oil Tanker Rate(Arabian Gulf to U.S. Gulf Coast) 17.50 unch.
- Rail Freight Carloads 240,698 -.53%
Best Performing Style
Worst Performing Style
Leading Sectors
Lagging Sectors
Weekly High-Volume Stock Gainers (29)
- VRTX, STMP, ESI, FIO, CZR, BKI, OSTK, AKAM, LL, ANGI, NOW, CPLA, CAB, RH, IRBT, VECO, IPCM, RKT, ILMN, ACTG, LXK, ASGN, BERY, BGG, WAFD, JAH, ZINC, LTM and BIOS
Weekly High-Volume Stock Losers (12)
- INTU, SBNY, UIS, VPFG, MSI, AIRM, IIVI, PFMT, RHI, CTSH, DV and EW
Weekly Charts
ETFs
Stocks
*5-Day Change
Broad Market Tone:
- Advance/Decline Line: Lower
- Sector Performance: Mixed
- Market Leading Stocks: Performing In Line
Equity Investor Angst:
- ISE Sentiment Index 107.0 -.93%
- Total Put/Call .87 -6.35%
Credit Investor Angst:
- North American Investment Grade CDS Index 78.0 -1.38%
- European Financial Sector CDS Index 159.34 -.31%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 95.26 +.09%
- Emerging Market CDS Index 239.57 +.31%
- 2-Year Swap Spread 14.25 +.75 bp
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -18.25 -.25 bp
Economic Gauges:
- 3-Month T-Bill Yield .05% unch.
- China Import Iron Ore Spot $134.10/Metric Tonne -.37%
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index -12.40 -6.2 points
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.38 -2 basis points
Overseas Futures:
- Nikkei Futures: Indicating +3 open in Japan
- DAX Futures: Indicating +25 open in Germany
Portfolio:
- Slightly Higher: On gains in my retail/biotech sector longs and emerging markets shorts
- Disclosed Trades: Added to my (IWM)/(QQQ) hedges, then covered some of them
- Market Exposure: 50% Net Long
Bloomberg:
- Cypriot Bailout Didn’t Cause Euro-Area Deposit Flight, Data Show.
The European Union’s bailout of
Cyprus, which involved taxing deposits at Cypriot banks, didn’t
prompt savers to withdraw funds in other euro-area nations last
month. While Cypriot banks lost 1.8 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in
deposits in March, deposits rose in all other euro-area countries except
Belgium and Finland, European Central Bank data showed today. Cypriot
deposits dropped 3.9 percent from February
to 44.6 billion euros, the 10th straight decline.
- U.K. Banks Said to Be Rattled by Regulator’s Capital Silence. Britain’s new banking regulator has
rattled lenders by holding off disclosing how much capital each
firm will have to raise after ordering the industry to plug a 25
billion-pound ($38 billion) shortfall by the end of the year,
three people with knowledge of the discussions said.
- Probe Risk Sends AAA Spreads to Three-Month High: China Credit.
Borrowing costs for top-rated Chinese companies rose to a three-month
high as the central bank’s probe into the $3.7 trillion interbank bond
market drove investors into safer government securities. The People’s
Bank of China asked market participants to examine trading histories as
it cracks down on short-term transactions designed to bypass month-end
risk evaluations, two people with knowledge of the matter said this
week. The extra yield on 10-year AAA bonds over sovereign debt climbed
to 172 basis points yesterday, the highest since Jan. 22, ChinaBond
indexes show. The comparable U.S. gap is 83 basis points, according to
Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes. The investigation will force
some investors to cut their bond investments as they can no longer ask
others to hold the debt during regulatory reviews, according to Bank of
America Merrill Lynch and Guotai Junan Securities Co. That may damp
demand just as Premier Li Keqiang seeks to spur fundraising to revive
the world’s second-biggest economy. “The bond market investigation is
intensifying,” Ethan Mou, a rates
strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, said in an
email interview on April 25. “Many small banks, securities companies and
funds are de-leveraging their credit holdings due to fear of exposure.”
- Yuan Strengthens to 19-Year High on Record Fixing, Fund Inflows. China’s
yuan advanced to a 19-year high after the central bank set a record
reference rate for the currency amid signs capital inflows are gathering
pace.
China’s financial and capital account surplus was $101.8
billion in the first quarter, the most since 2010 and almost
double the $56.1 billion reported for the same period of 2012,
official data showed yesterday.
- North Korea Threatens South After Rejecting Joint Factory Talks. North Korea threatened retaliation against South Korea for demanding talks aimed at re-opening a
jointly-run industrial park that has been shuttered for more
than two weeks. The North will take “final, decisive and serious
measures” if President Park Geun Hye’s government continues to
issue ultimatums, the National Defense Commission said in a
statement on the official Korean Central News Agency. Kim Jong Un’s regime today ignored a noon deadline to accept an offer for
talks on the Gaeseong industrial zone or face what the South’s
Unification Ministry said would be “serious measures.”
- Aluminum Leads Declines as Soybeans Gain: Commodities at Close.
The Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities dropped 0.8
percent to 620.31 by 5:17 p.m. in London. The UBS Bloomberg CMCI index
of 26 raw materials was
down 1 percent at 1,466.394.
- Alcoa(AA) Outlook Revised to Negative by S&P on Aluminum Price Drop. Alcoa
Inc. (AA), the biggest U.S. aluminum producer, had its credit rating
outlook revised by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services to negative
after a slump in
the price of the metal. At current aluminum prices, Alcoa’s cashflow and
debt are
“well outside our expectations” for the company’s BBB-
corporate credit rating, Standard & Poor’s said in a statement
today. The rating is the lowest investment-grade level. “We expect the company to continue to post lower-than-
anticipated credit measures because of continuing weak aluminum
prices,” S&P said in the statement. “The company’s credit
measures will remain weak at least through 2013, reflecting
current weak prices, sluggish European demand, and slower-than-
expected growth in China thus far this year.”
Wall Street Journal:
- Junk Debt Yields Fall to New Record Low.
The party rages on for borrowers tapping the high-yield debt markets.
On Thursday, yields on so-called junk bonds slipped to a record low of
5.39%, according to a Barclays index dating back to July 1983. That beat
the previous low of 5.47% reached just two weeks ago on debt issued by
companies with ratings that
fall below investment grade.
Fox News:
- Mother of bomb suspects eyed in radicalizing son; was on terror database. The mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects is a "person of
interest" to federal authorities seeking to learn who radicalized one or
both of her sons, according to lawmakers, and a separate report said
she was on a federal terrorism database some 18 months before the
attack. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who had reportedly become more militant in her
Muslim faith around the same time as her son, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was
added to the classified intelligence database known by the acronym TIDE
at the CIA's request. Two key lawmakers said authorities now want to
know if she helped put her son, who died a week ago following a shootout
with police in Massachusetts, on the road to radicalism.
MarketWatch:
CNBC:
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
US News:
- It's Time to Worry About the New Chinese Bird Flu. It's time for the world's public health officials to pay very close
attention to the new bird flu outbreak in China first detected in March.
To put it bluntly, there are now some seriously dangerous developments
occurring around the new disease outbreak in China that infectious
disease specialists and international public health specialists need to
track closely.
Reuters:
Financial Times:
- French socialists attack ‘selfish’ Merkel. Simmering
tensions between Paris and Berlin have been laid bare by a ruling
French Socialist party document denouncing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
“selfish intransigence” and accusing her of thinking only about German
savers.
Telegraph:
La Tribune:
- French Car Registrations Fell Almost 9% April 1-23. Peugeot Citroen new car registrations fell 15% during the period.
Style Underperformer:
Sector Underperformers:
- 1) Gold & Silver -4.10% 2) Steel -2.10% 3) Internet -2.03%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
- IM, TNAV, HBHC, RRC, NGD, TVL, IBKC, LGCY, FIO, PKI, NATI, SIMO, COV, ITRI, ECHO, BIDU, AMZN, MCRS, EXPE, KLAC, MXIM, CRUS, PER, FEIC, DECK, CPSI, ABAX, GT, VRSN, CRR, PFMT, ALTR, DRC, SSD and ESI
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
- 1) EFA 2) AMZN 3) PHM 4) EWM 5) WYNN
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
- 1) RJF 2) FFIV 3) CAT 4) JPM 5) CRR
Charts:
Style Outperformer:
Sector Outperformers:
- 1) Homebuilders +2.49% 2) Hospitals +.37% 3) Utilities +.12%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
- SYNA, THRX, QLIK, WOOF, CSTR, LOGM, FSL, GNC, ALV, DLB, UIS, INFA, CERN, DHI, AXS and JCP
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
- 1) WMB 2) CERN 3) GRPN 4) QLIK 5) AMZN
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
- 1) LOGM 2) AFL 3) R 4) K 5) AVP
Charts:
Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- ECB Data to Show Extent of Capital Flight in Cyprus.
The European Central Bank will publish data today showing how much money
savers withdrew from the euro region’s banks after a botched attempt to
tax Cypriot savers as part of a European Union-led bailout. The ECB
will publish data for euro-area bank deposits including Cyprus after 10
a.m. in Frankfurt. In February, the month before the rescue, Cypriot
deposits decreased 2.2 percent to 46.4 billion euros, down from 47.4
billion the previous
month. It was the ninth straight decline.
- China’s Politburo Warns on Financial Risks as Recovery Falters. China’s
top leaders said the country must guard against financial risks and
boost consumption amid signs that the recovery in the world’s
second-biggest economy is faltering. “China needs to cement its domestic
economic growth momentum and guard against potential risks in financial
sectors,” the Politburo Central Committee said in a statement late yesterday published by the official Xinhua News Agency.
- Japan’s Bigger Price Decline Shows Size of Kuroda Task: Economy.
Japan’s consumer prices fell the most in two years, underscoring the
challenge facing Bank of Japan (8301) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda as he
works to meet a 2 percent inflation target. Consumer prices excluding
fresh food slid 0.5 percent in March from a year earlier, the
statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. The median estimate of 25
economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.4 percent decline.
Overall prices dropped 0.9 percent.
- Japan-China Defense Officials to Meet as Island Tensions Flare. Defense
officials from Japan and China will meet today in Beijing, signaling
Asia’s two biggest economies are trying to soothe rising tensions over
East China Sea islands claimed by both. The officials are scheduled
to meet this evening, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told
reporters in Tokyo. The two sides will discuss ways to improve maritime
communication
over territorial issues, he said.
- S. Korea Demands North Respond Today on Joint Factory Talks. South
Korea demanded North Korea agree by today to negotiations aimed at
re-opening a jointly-run industrial park that has been shuttered for
more than two weeks
or face reprisals. North Korea hadn’t responded as of 10:47 a.m. local
time to
yesterday’s offer by Park Geun Hye’s administration to hold
talks on the Gaeseong industrial zone, Unification Ministry
spokesman Kim Hyung Suk told reporters in Seoul. The South will
wait until noon to take “serious measures” if there is no
reply, Kim said, declining to elaborate.
- Brazil May Have to Step Up Rate Raise Pace, Hamilton Says. Brazil’s
central bank may have to step up the pace of interest rate increases to
tame above-target inflation, its director for economic policy, Carlos
Hamilton, said today. Swap rates rose. “I have a growing conviction
that the Copom may be prompted to reflect on the possibility of
intensifying the use of its monetary policy tool, the Selic rate,”
Hamilton said at an event in Sao Paulo, referring to the bank’s policy
making
committee.
- Gold Advances to Highest Since Rout, Set for Best Week Since ’11. Gold headed for its best week since
October 2011 as demand rose after the worst slump in three
decades. Silver was set for the best week since November. Bullion for immediate delivery climbed as much as 1.2
percent to $1,485.50 an ounce, the highest since April 15 when it plummeted 9.1 percent. The metal traded at $1,476.33 by 10:25 a.m. in Singapore, set for a 5.2 percent gain this week.
- Brown-Vitter Bill Could Force Banks to Shrink, S&P Analysts Say. U.S. banks could be forced to break
up or shed assets because of a push by federal lawmakers to
raise capital requirements at the largest firms, Standard &
Poor’s said. Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and Republican
David Vitter of Louisiana unveiled legislation this week that
would mandate a 15 percent capital cushion for banks with more
than $500 billion in assets. Meeting the requirements may force
lenders to raise as much as $1.2 trillion in additional equity
and would drive down returns, S&P said yesterday in a report. “We do not see equity markets being able to meet the
massive level of common equity the bill requires of the largest
banks,” the analysts wrote in the report. “The largest banks
would need to break up or deleverage.”
- Baidu(BIDU) Net Income Misses Analysts’ Estimates. Baidu
Inc., the owner of China’s largest Internet search engine, reported
first-quarter profit that fell short of analysts’ estimates as
advertising revenue per customer declined. Net income climbed 8.5
percent to 2.04 billion yuan from 1.88 billion yuan a year earlier, the
Beijing-based company said in a statement today. That missed the 2.19
billion yuan average
of analysts’ estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
- Samsung Electronics Posts Record Profit on Galaxy Models. Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) posted a record quarterly profit that topped analyst estimates as surging
sales of Galaxy handsets helped Asia’s biggest technology
company overcome sluggish demand for TVs.
Wall Street Journal:
- U.S. Believes Syria Used Gas.
White House Shifts Assessment on Chemical Weapons; New Pressure to
Respond. U.S. intelligence agencies now believe the embattled regime of
Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons, the White House
told Congress on Thursday, saying the agencies have "varying degrees of
confidence" in the assessment. Coming in a detailed letter to lawmakers,
the findings mark a turning
point in the Obama administration's approach to the two-year civil war,
constituting the administration's most explicit acknowledgment that the
bloodletting in Syria has reached a point that might require U.S.
military involvement.
But administration officials, saying more proof is needed, avoided
declaring that Mr. Assad had violated restrictions set by President
Barack Obama against the use of chemical weapons.
- Fed Zeroes In on Vulnerability to Rate Rise. The Federal Reserve is scrutinizing the nation's biggest banks to
ensure they can handle an eventual rise in interest rates, as concern
grows among regulators about the risks posed by a long low-interest-rate
environment. On Thursday, a panel of federal regulators charged with identifying
market risks warned that a sudden rise in interest rates could have a
destabilizing effect on financial markets. The Financial Stability
Oversight Council, in its third annual report, cited interest-rate risk
as one of seven major vulnerabilities to financial stability. "A sudden spike in yields and volatilities could trigger a disorderly
adjustment, and potentially create outsized risks," the council said in
its report.
- Senators Pass Bill to Ease Air-Travel Delays.
- Shopping Tax Free on the Web Nears End. Online
shoppers, beware. Freedom from sales taxes is on the way out. Late
Thursday afternoon, in a 63-to-30 procedural vote, the Senate
cleared the way for passage of a bill to effectively end tax-free
shopping online. A final Senate vote is scheduled for May 6. The bill, called the Marketplace Fairness Act, would allow states to
require online sellers around the country to collect sales tax for them
on purchases made by their residents.
Fox News:
- Reps challenge DHS ammo buys, say agency using 1,000 more rounds per person than Army. Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz said Thursday that the Department of
Homeland Security is using roughly 1,000 rounds of ammunition more per
person than the U.S. Army, as he and other lawmakers sharply questioned
DHS officials on their "massive" bullet buys. "It is entirely ... inexplicable why the Department of Homeland
Security needs so much ammunition," Chaffetz, R-Utah, said at a
hearing. The hearing itself was unusual, as questions about the department's
ammunition purchases until recently had bubbled largely under the radar
-- on blogs and in the occasional news article. But as the Department of
Homeland Security found itself publicly defending the purchases,
lawmakers gradually showed more interest in the issue.
CNBC:
- Bundesbank Faults ECB Bond-Buying Plan: Paper. The head of the Bundesbank has sharply criticized
the European Central Bank's plan to buy the debt of highly indebted
states in a confidential report, according to German newspaper
Handelsblatt. In the 29-page report prepared for Germany's
Constitutional Court, the Bundesbank warns that the purchase of such
debt could "compromise the independence of the central bank" and could
be difficult to stop, the paper said in an article made available on
Thursday.
- Chinese Can't Get Enough of 'Super Cities'. Chinese investors can't seem to be getting enough of commercial real
estate abroad - having already spent $1 billion in the first quarter on
buying property, they are now on track to spend a whopping $5 billion
for the whole year, according property services firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
- Starbucks(SBUX) Earnings Meet Estimates, Guidance Misses.
Starbucks reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that met analysts'
expectations on Thursday as the company recorded record revenue. The
shares fell in
after-hours trading after disappointing third-quarter guidance.
- Electronics Arts(EA) Hit With More Layoffs.
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
New York Times:
- Southern Europe’s Recession Threatens to Spread North. No company symbolizes German industrial might like Daimler, the giant
maker of Mercedes-Benz autos and trucks. So when the company said this
week that it, too, had finally been caught in the downdraft of the
European economic crisis, it was an ominous sign for all of the
Continent, if not the whole world.
- RUSSIA TOLD U.S. BOMB SUSPECT WAS RADICAL ISLAMIST. On March 2011, the Russian security service sent a stark warning to the
FBI, reporting that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was “a follower of radical Islam”
who had “changed drastically since 2010” and was preparing to travel to
Russia’s turbulent Caucasus to connect with underground militant groups.
Six months later, Russia sent the same warning to the CIA.
- Reinhart and Rogoff: Responding to Our Critics. In an Op-Ed essay for The New York Times, we have tried to defend our
research and refute the distorted policy positions that have been
attributed to us. In this appendix, we address the technical issues
raised by our critics.
The Blaze:
Reuters:
- US-based stock funds have $7.3 bln outflow - Lipper.
- Amazon(AMZN) growth slows, while profit margins expand. Amazon.com Inc's
revenue growth slowed in the first quarter as the
world's largest Internet retail struggled overseas, but margins
jumped on lower shipping expenses and the expansion of more
profitable new businesses. Amazon shares fell 1.9 percent to $269.43 in after-hours
trading on Thursday following the results. "The message there is North America was better than expected
but international was softer. The question is ... 'Is this a
reflection of macro trends in Europe, or is there something else
going on there?'" said Telsey Advisory Group analyst Tom Forte. Europe's lackluster economies are weighing on corporate
sales in the region - even for fast-growing e-commerce
businesses. EBay Inc, Amazon's main rival, reported
disappointing results last week and noted European weakness. International revenue rose 16 percent in the most-recent
quarter, year-over-year, down from a 31 percent growth rate in
the same period of 2012.
- KLA-Tencor(KLAC) sees revenue below expectations, economy weighs. Chip equipment maker KLA-Tencor Corp
reported lower quarterly results and said its outlook
for the rest of the year has weakened due to manufacturers'
concerns about the global economy. KLA-Tencor's stock fell nearly 5 percent in extended trade
after Chief Executive Rick Wallace said on a conference call he
was seeing a pause in demand from contract manufacturers and
gave a current quarter revenue estimate that was below
expectations.
- U.S. council warns of threat of cyber attacks, market runs. Regulators should guard
against runs on the shadow banking system and watch out for
cyber attacks on banks in coming months, the top U.S. financial stability group said on Thursday.
The Financial Stability Oversight Council, which was set up after the
2007-2009 crisis to watch for developing threats to the financial
system, also urged a reform of market benchmarks after a global
rate-rigging scandal hit the Libor interbank rate. "Technological
failures, natural disasters, and cyberattacks can emanate from anywhere,
at any time," the report said. "Preparation and planning to address
these potential situations
are essential to maintain the strength and resilience of our
financial system."
- Expedia(EXPE) Warns of Lower Hotwire Profit.
Online-travel agency Expedia beta on earnings but warned of a lower
full-year profit from its discount travel website Hotwire due to higher
car-rental rates and
increased competition. The online travel agency's shares dropped more
than 7 percent after initially popping more than 4 percent.
The Economist:
- Euro Crisis: The Fankfurt Veto. AUSTERITY has been under fire from all corners, lately: from IMF reports
showing painfully high multipliers on fiscal cuts, to challenges to the
Reinhart-Rogoff debt-threshold research, to the European Commission,
whose president, Jose Manuel Barroso, noted this week that austerity in
Europea has "reached its limits".
Telegraph:
- The great Spanish nation can end its crucifixion at will by leaving EMU.
The mind goes numb. Spanish unemployment jumped by yet another 237,000
people in the first quarter to 6.2 million, or 27.2pc. This is
equivalent to roughly 8.3 million in Britain, or 39 million
in the United States. The country is losing 3,581 jobs a day. There are
1.9m households where no member of the family has a job.
Evening Recommendations
Night Trading
- Asian equity indices are -.25% to +.50% on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 111.0 -.5 basis point.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 88.75 -1.25 basis points.
- NASDAQ 100 futures -.25%.
Morning Preview Links
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
- (AEP)/.81
- (B)/45
- (BKW)/.16
- (CVX)/3.07
- (DHI)/.19
- (FLIR)/.36
- (GT)/.34
- (LYB)/1.44
- (NOV)/1.37
- (SPG)/2.01
- (TYC)/.39
- (VFC)/2.19
- (WY)/.22
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Advance 1Q GDP is estimated to rise +3.0% versus a +.4% gain in 4Q.
- Advance 1Q Personal Consumption is estimated to rise +2.8% versus a +1.8% gain in 4Q.
- Advance 1Q GDP Price Index is estimated to rise +1.3% versus a +1.0% gain in 4Q.
- Advance 1Q Core PCE is estimated to rise +1.1% versus a +1.0% gain in 4Q.
9:55 am EST
- The Final Univ. of Michigan Consumer Confidence for April is estimated to rise to 73.5 versus a prior estimate of 72.3.
Upcoming Splits
Other Potential Market Movers
- The BoJ rate decision could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by commodity and financial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.
