Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Euro-Area Economic Confidence Falls More Than Forecast. Economic confidence in the euro area decreased more than economists forecast in April as the 17- nation currency bloc struggled to emerge from a recession and the bailout of Cyprus renewed debt-crisis concerns. An index of executive and consumer sentiment dropped to 88.6 from a revised 90.1 in March, the European Commission in Brussels said today. That’s the lowest since December. Economists had forecast a decline to 89.3, according to the median of 26 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Business confidence and investor sentiment in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, dropped more than expected in April. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on April 19 that the economic situation in the bloc hadn’t improved since the beginning of the month. At the same time, Draghi expects the economy to recover from a recession later this year and economists forecast growth in the second quarter, a separate Bloomberg survey shows. 

• Fiat First-Quarter Profit Falls on Chrysler Earnings Drop. Fiat SpA (F), the Italian automaker that controls Chrysler Group LLC, said first-quarter profit fell 23 percent on costs for new Jeep model rollouts.

• Europe Stocks Rise on Italy, U.S. Consumer-Spending Data. European stocks rose, pushing the Stoxx Europe 600 Index toward its longest streak of monthly gains since 1997, as Italy formed a new government and as U.S. consumer spending unexpectedly increased in March. Aberdeen Asset Management Plc surged to its highest price in 12 years after increasing its dividend. Swedish Match AB jumped the most since January 2009 after posting first-quarter profit that beat estimates. Balfour Beatty Plc dropped to the lowest price in 17 months after lowering its full-year profit forecast. The Stoxx 600 advanced 0.5 percent to 297.39, its highest level since April 2. The benchmark gauge has climbed 1.2 percent in April, its 11th month of gains, as investors bet the region’s central bank will cut rates and as companies reported better- than-expected results.

• Surveillance Cameras Sought by Cities After Boston Bombs. A pedestrian who strolls through Boston’s Financial District, an area of about 40 city blocks, can be seen by at least 233 private and public cameras. In the aftermath of the terrorist bombing there on April 15, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis wants even more cameras to boost street-level surveillance, said spokeswoman Cheryl Fiandaca. Other cities, too, now may be spurred to expand their systems, which security specialists said will fuel sales growth in the $3.2 billion video surveillance industry. Such actions increase tensions between law enforcement officials and privacy advocates, who say they worry about Big Brother intrusions into people’s legal activities.

• Hospital Stocks Rally as Medicare Tempers Budget Cut Blow. HCA Holdings Inc. (HCA), Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) and other hospital stocks rose the most in at least six months after the U.S. government proposed new Medicare payment rates that would soften the blow of federal budget cuts. HCA, the largest for-profit hospital company in the U.S., rose 5.5 percent to $40.35 at 10:59 a.m. New York time.

• Gold Futures Rise on Fed Stimulus Bets; Platinum Jumps. Gold futures for June delivery rose 1.1 percent to $1,469.90 an ounce at 11:59 a.m. on the Comex in New York. The price headed for the biggest monthly drop since December 2011 after entering a bear market on April 12.

CNBC:

• Bayer to Buy Birth-Control Devices Maker for $1.1 Billion. Germany's Bayer AG has agreed to buy U.S. contraceptive devices maker Conceptus for $1.1 billion, aiming to underpin its position as the world's largest women's healthcare provider. Bayer, whose shares were down 2.3 percent by 0823 GMT, will launch a public tender offer to acquire all Conceptus shares for $31.00 each in cash, in an offer agreed with Conceptus's management, Bayer said on Monday.

• Growth Outlook Leaves Commodity Investors Cold. Investors are staying away from commodities, fearing that the worst is yet to come after prices plunged in April on signs of slower world economic growth. Wealth managers have been pulling money from commodities since the start of the year, culminating in a major sell off in April when investors dumped gold, copper and oil. Poor economic data from China, Europe and the United States has hit global growth forecasts, making investors reassess the demand for raw materials.

• Pending Home Sales Tick Upward in March. Contracts to buy existing homes rose slightly in March, as a historically low supply of for-sale listings nationwide continues to plague the housing market. The Pending Home Sales Index from the National Association of Realtors increased 1.5 percent month to month. It is 7 percent higher than March 2012.

• Why the Jobs Outlook Just Got a Whole Lot Worse. Weak corporate top-line growth is likely to spell an equally troubled bottom line for the 11.7 million unemployed. 

Zero Hedge:

• Euro Area Savings Rate Drops To Record Low, Disposable Income Has Biggest Drop Ever. (graph)

• Spending On Services Jumps By Most Ever As Incomes Disappoint, Savings Rate Near Five Year Lows. (graph)

• Italy: "An Orgy Worthy Of Bunga Bunga". (graph)

• Dallas Fed Implodes: Biggest Drop And Miss On Record Send Market To Intraday Highs. (graph)

• This Is What Passes For A Good Earnings Season In The "New Normal". (table)

Business Insider:

• New Footage Of Attack On Cairo Cathedral Confirms The Coptics' Worst Fear. New footage from a recent attack against Coptic churchgoers in Cairo appears to show police allowing and even participating in the violence.

• CHART OF THE DAY: Corporations Are Now Growing Profits As Sales Actually Fall.

• TAMERLAN TSARNAEV: Here's What Was Known, And Who Knew It, Before The Boston Bombing.

• Most Chinese Cities Don't Need And Can't Afford The Subway Systems They're Building.

• Google's(GOOG) Next-Generation Search App Is Now Available For iPhones And iPads.

• Secretly, Some Wall Streeters Think The Industry Is Greedier Than Ever.

• Facebook(FB) Is Losing Millions Of Users In The US And Other Mature Markets.

• Why Shorting The Aussie Is The 'Trade of the Century'.

• The Horrendous State Of The European Consumer [CHART].

Reuters:

• North Korea holds back seven South Koreans at industrial zone. North Korea held back seven of 50 remaining South Koreans at the suspended jointly run factory zone north of the heavily armed border on Monday, citing last-minute checks on taxes and wages. The North withdrew its 53,000 workers from the complex this month amid spiraling tension between the two Koreas. The North had prevented South Korean workers and supplies from getting in to the zone since April 3.

• Deutsche Boerse(DB) Q1 misses forecasts as trading drags. Deutsche Boerse reported a greater-than-expected 26 percent drop in operating profit for the first quarter as low interest rates and reduced equity market volatility dented the exchange operator's revenue. 

• German, UK banks slam US plans to toughen capital rules. German and British banking lobby groups on Monday slammed plans by U.S. regulators to toughen rules on foreign banks, saying they risk fragmenting banking supervision and causing major disruption to U.S. bank operations. Germany's banking association, BdB, said the push by U.S. regulators to tighten oversight of foreign banks would put European banks at a competitive disadvantage internationally.

• As shale booms, US crude oil exports jump to 13-yr high. U.S. crude oil exports doubled in February to a 13-year high of 124,000 barrels per day (bpd), government data showed on Monday, as shipments of surplus shale crude to Canada gathered pace. Exports jumped from an average of around 60,000 bpd last year, and have soared from less than 10,000 bpd in 2002, as Canada's refineries increase rail or tanker deliveries, monthly figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed.

• Moody's: High pace of US public finance downgrades continues. Moody's Investors Service continued to downgrade more public finance ratings than it upgraded in the first quarter of 2013, primarily because of cuts to California local governments, the rating agency said on Monday. "We expect rating activity to continue to be skewed toward downgrades over 2013 as local governments continue to struggle with increasing pension and healthcare costs and constraints on key property tax and state aid revenue sources," Moody's Assistant Vice President and Analyst Eileen Hawes said in a statement.

• Copper supported by policy-easing hopes, physical demand. Copper rose on Monday, extending a recovery from 1-1/2 year lows hit last week supported by hopes for more U.S. and European central bank monetary easing and on signs of life in the physical markets.

Telegraph:

• S&P sees deepening house slump in Spain, France and Holland. Spanish house prices are to fall a further 13pc by the end of next year as the authorities flood the market with a backlog of repossessed properties, Standard and Poor’s has warned.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:

• Small-Cap Growth +.71%

Sector Underperformers:

• 1) Homebuilding -.22% 2) Gaming -.20% 3) Airlines +.08%

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:

• SBGI, LEAP, TNAV, CX, NXST, ONB, ANW, IBKC, GWAY, AUXL, CHH, ICA, ROP, EXPE, LQDT, ANGI, SBS, EMN and BC

Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:

• 1) AVP 2) HK 3) TDC 4) PRU 5) THC
  

Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:

• 1) EMN 2) UNP 3) GCI 4) BA 5) SYK
  

Charts:

• ETFs Falling on Unusual Volume

• Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:

• Large-Cap Growth +.82%

Sector Outperformers:

• 1) Hospitals +2.61% 2) Alt Energy +2.1% 3) Oil Tankers +1.57%
  

Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:

• PBR, MERU, CPTS, SINA, ACT, MDSO, WX, VRX, HCA, MCO, THC, NVDQ, HNT, ETN, SPWR, MHP, CRUS, LPNT, BIIB, SWN, AMBA, SLCA, HMA and CYH

Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:

• 1) HUN 2) THC 3) GPOR 4) ALL 5) CSTR
  

Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:

• 1) ANF 2) STI 3) AOL 4) FLIR 5) PBR
  

Charts:

• ETFs Rising on Unusual Volume 

• Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume

Monday Watch

Weekend Headlines 
Bloomberg: 

• Merkel’s Party Shuns ‘Stone Age’ Greens After Tax-Raising Pledge. Germany’s Greens party backed a campaign platform of tax increases that members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc said rules out a coalition after national elections in September. Delegates at a Greens party convention in Berlin yesterday voted through plans to raise the top rate of income tax to 49 percent for those earning 80,000 euros ($104,000) a year or more, and to 45 percent from 42 percent above 60,000 euros. They also backed a “wealth levy” on the richest to pay down 100 billion euros of Germany’s state debt over 10 years.

• China Industrial Profit Growth Slows as Economic Recovery Wanes. Growth in Chinese industrial companies’ profits slowed in March, adding to evidence the nation’s economic recovery is losing steam. Net income increased 5.3 percent from a year earlier to 464.9 billion yuan ($75 billion), down from a 17.2 percent pace in the first two months, the National Bureau of Statistics said on its website on April 27. Profit in the first quarter rose 12.1 percent to 1.17 trillion yuan, it said. China’s stocks fell for a third straight month in April amid investor concern that the recovery in the country’s economic expansion is losing momentum and will hurt corporate earnings. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) closed 1 percent lower on April 26, the last trading day before a three- day holiday ending May 1. “Profits are only growing in line with sales and with problems of overcapacity and the sluggish global picture, it doesn’t bode well for a speedy return to higher profit margins,” said Louis Kuijs, chief China economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in Hong Kong. 

• Omega Joins Patek Philippe Seeking Growth to Offset Slower China. Patek Philippe Chairman Thierry Stern had advice for Swiss watchmakers several years ago that most rivals didn’t heed: don’t overinvest in China. Amid the recent slowdown in China, the executive’s call has proved prescient. Stern said everyone laughed at him when he decided to limit sales in that market to 130 pieces a year as brands including Omega and Cartier opened shops across the mainland. Patek is now selling about 3 percent of the 53,000 watches it makes annually to shops there, reserving the bulk of its production for traditional U.S. and European markets and making Chinese customers who want its watches travel to buy them. Stern warned two years ago that market would slow down.

• China’s Military Says No Plates for Porsches in Crackdown. China will ban the use of military number plates on luxury cars, including Porsche and Bentley, in a crackdown on abuse of vehicle management within the armed forces amid President Xi Jinping’s campaign against corruption. The change was ordered by the Central Military Commission, headed by Xi, and is part of the military’s effort to reinforce discipline and protect its image, the PLA Daily, the armed forces’ official newspaper, said in a report yesterday. A new license system will go into force on May 1 to clamp down on the sale and use of legal and counterfeit military plates in order to “maintain social harmony, stability and the reputation of the military,” the paper said. Existing plates for all military vehicles will be canceled, it said. 

• Piaget Sees China Sales Slowing as Stronger Yuan Boosts Travel. Swiss luxury watchmaker Piaget said its sales in China may grow less than 10 percent this year, the slowest in eight years, as Chinese consumers take advantage of the stronger yuan and travel overseas to buy premium goods. Piaget, which makes the $53,000 Altiplano Skeleton 1200S, is also tempering the pace of store openings in China, Dimitri Gouten, its Asia Pacific president, said in an April 27 interview from Shanghai. Sales may lag the “double-digit” growth rates since around 2005, he said. The watchmaker, which is owned by Cie. Financiere Richemont SA (CFR), has 20 boutiques in China and 50 points of sale in total.

• Detained U.S. Citizen to Face Verdict in N. Korean Court. North Korea said it will hand down a verdict on a detained American citizen accused of crimes against the state, the communist country’s official Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. Pae Jun Ho, who entered North Korea’s Rason City on Nov. 3 as a tourist, will face judgment in the Supreme Court after admitting to the charges, KCNA said, without citing a source. Pae was involved with a Protestant Christian religious movement, according to a Dec. 11 CNN report that identified him as Kenneth Bae. The State Department is aware of the reports a U.S. citizen will face trial in North Korea, department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in an e-mail.

• Abe Makes First Russian Visit in Decade as China Tensions Build. Shinzo Abe is making the first visit to Russia by a Japanese prime minister in a decade, seeking to shift an almost seven-decade-long stalemate over disputed islands and win more access to energy resources.

• Asian Officials Must Respond Early to Overheating Risk, IMF Says. Asian policy makers must be ready to respond “early and decisively” to overheating risks in their economies stemming from rapid credit growth and rising asset prices, the International Monetary Fund said. Growth is set to pick up gradually during the year and inflation is expected to stay within central banks’ comfort zones, the Washington-based lender said in a report today. Greater exchange-rate flexibility in the region would play a “useful role” in curbing overheating pressures and coping with speculative capital inflows.

• Copper Declines for Second Day on U.S., China Demand Concerns. Copper dropped for a second straight session amid concern that lower-than-forecast growth in the U.S. and China, the world’s biggest consumers of the metal, will damp demand. Zinc and lead retreated. Copper for delivery in three months lost as much as 0.7 percent to $6,980 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange and was at $7,008.25 by 10:23 a.m. in Seoul. Prices slumped 2.1 percent on April 26, the most in more than a week.

• Gold Gains as Higher Physical Demand Counters Decline From ETPs. Gold advanced, trimming the worst monthly loss since December 2011, as demand for physical metal countered outflows from bullion-backed exchange-traded products. Silver climbed. Bullion for immediate delivery rose as much as 0.6 percent to $1,470.40 an ounce, and traded at $1,469.60 at 9:53 a.m. in Singapore. Gold is heading for an 8.1 percent drop in April after the metal plunged into a bear market this month.

Wall Street Journal: 

• Companies Feel Pinch on Sales in Europe. Hiding behind the profit gains of America's biggest companies is a worrying slowdown in sales growth. U.S. companies ranging from International Business Machines Corp. to United Technologies Corp. to 3M Co. to Xerox Corp. have missed revenue forecasts, hurt by a combination of Europe's malaise, a stronger dollar and sluggish consumer spending. With earnings reports in from more than half the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, first-quarter revenue for the group is expected to shrink 0.3% from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters. That would cut short the sales improvement reported at the end of last year and mark the third quarter out of the past four in which revenues have failed to grow by 1% or more.

• Uncertainty Is the Enemy of Recovery by Bill McNabb. At Vanguard, we estimate that policy uncertainty has created a $261 billion drag on the U.S. economy. Developing a credible, long-term solution to the country's staggering debt is the biggest collective challenge right now. It should be America's biggest collective priority, too. Any comprehensive deficit reduction must take on the imbalance between revenues and expenditures as a share of GDP. That means entitlement reforms, spending reductions and additional tax revenues. This does not have to be about European-style "instant austerity." Because the U.S. dollar is the world's reserve currency, America doesn't have to balance the budget tomorrow. The key is to provide clarity to businesses, financial markets and everyday savers and investors. Make no mistake: A comprehensive, long-term, binding plan that brings the budget into balance over a reasonable time frame is essential. If Washington fails to achieve one, the consequences will be harsh. 

• Hollywood Pushes Back Against New China Tax. Twentieth Century Fox is refusing to accept about $23 million it is owed on Chinese box-office receipts for producing "Life of Pi" as a result of a clash between Hollywood and Chinese authorities, studio executives say.

• Hong Kong Steps Up Flu Fight. Hong Kong immigration and hospital officials are stepping up efforts to fend off the spread of H7N9 bird flu, which surfaced outside China for the first time last week, as floods of mainland Chinese tourists descend on Hong Kong for the Labor Day holiday.

• In Stocks, Payouts Trump Potential. Investors searching for higher yields are driving up the shares of dividend-paying companies, fueling a debate over whether these traditional haven stocks are getting dangerously expensive. Some buyers argue that dividend stocks have entered a period where demand for income will keep valuations high, perhaps for years, thanks to Federal Reserve easy-money policies that are expected to remain in place at least into 2015. Skeptics say the "this time is different" thesis will prove wrong, and that investors will discover they have overpaid.

• U.S. Rejects Cash Pay Increases for GM Executives. The U.S. blocked 2013 cash pay increases for top executives at General Motors Co. but allowed several raises to stock-based compensation. The U.S. Treasury Department gained power in 2009 to approve executive compensation at firms that received exceptional federal assistance, following public outrage at bonuses paid at American International Group Inc. after the financial crisis bailouts. AIG has repaid its bailout, leaving GM and Ally Financial Inc., formerly known as GMAC Inc., as the last big firms still under the government's crisis-era bailout programs.

• This Federal Proposal on Car Loans Is a Lemon.

Marketwatch.com:

• Violence mars swearing-in of new Italy government. 2 police officers shot near site of ceremony; no connection seen.

CNBC: 

• Merger of Dugmakers Valeant(VRX), Actavis(ACT) on Hold: Source.

• China's Growth in Question as PMI Data Loom. The latest snapshot of manufacturing activity in China could be a key focus for Asian markets this week as talk of slowdown in the region's biggest economy grows.

• Loans Borrowed Against Pensions Squeeze Retirees. To retirees, the offers can sound like the answer to every money worry: convert tomorrow's pension checks into today's hard cash. But these offers, known as pension advances, are having devastating financial consequences for a growing number of older Americans, threatening their retirement savings and plunging them further into debt. The advances, federal and state authorities say, are not advances at all, but carefully disguised loans that require borrowers to sign over all or part of their monthly pension checks. They carry interest rates that are often many times higher than those on credit cards.

Zero Hedge:

• Germany's Virtuous Circle Takeover Of Europe.

• "Peak Rail" – Has The Crude Shipping Train Left The Station?

• The Good Guys Are Not Coming To Save Us.

• Europe In One Chart.

• "The Illuminati Were Amateurs" - Matt Taibbi Explains How "Everything Is Rigged".

• What Is Killing Europe.

• Europe's Fauxterity In Three Simple Charts.

• From Bust To Bubble, With No Recovery In Between? (graphs)

• Earnings - Hope Is Fading.

• Germany's Perspective: "How Europe's Crisis Countries Hide their Wealth".

• What Italian Banks Can Learn From Spain's Bad Loan Devastation.

• Chief Advisor To US Treasury Set To Become JPMorgan's(JPM) Second Most Important Man.

• As It Gets Its Latest European Lifeline, Life In Greece Is About To Get Even Harder.

Business Insider:

• The Latest Data Is Flashing Some Big Red Flags For The Economy. 

• Boston Bombing Investigators Want To Speak To More 'Persons Of Interest' Living In The United States.

• Obama Pushes Back The Goal Posts On Syrian Chemical Weapons.

• Here's What Happens When You Get Bird Flu. 

• ROBERT SCOBLE: I Just Wore Google's(GOOG) Glasses For 2 Weeks And I'm Never Taking Them Off.

• An Expected Interest Rate Cut In Europe Won't Boost Investor Confidence.

• American Rail Traffic Growth Has Nearly Ground To A Halt. (graph)

• CYPRUS ONE MONTH LATER: Uncertainty Has Broken The Morale Of The People.

• The New Methods Of Calculating GDP Make The Economy 'Bigger' Than It Used To Be.

New York Times:

• Twitter Speaks, Markets Listen, and Fears Rise.

CNN: 

• South Korea withdraws citizens from joint factory after North snubs talks. South Korea started withdrawing its last remaining citizens Saturday from the manufacturing zone jointly operated with North Korea following weeks of tensions between the two. Pyongyang this week shunned an offer by Seoul to hold talks over the Kaesong Industrial Complex after it halted activity there this month. The complex in North Korea was one of the few symbols of inter-Korean cooperation.

Reuters:

• U.S. lawmakers press Obama to take action on Syria. Republican senators on Sunday pressed U.S. President Barack Obama to intervene in Syria's civil war, saying America could attack Syrian air bases with missiles but should not send in ground troops. Pressure is mounting on the White House to do more to help Syrian rebels fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which the Obama administration last week said had probably used chemical arms in the conflict. 

• Europe austerity debate to test periphery political will. Readers of Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper were confronted by an unexpected front page headline this week when the Irish Independent proclaimed the 'End Of Austerity'. In a country that began cutting spending and hiking taxes almost five years ago, well before the scale of the euro zone's debt crisis was evident, weary Irish voters have more interest than most in the fresh debate over Europe's cornerstone policy.

Financial Times:

• China’s bosses criticised over high pay. In China, it is not a case of shareholder revolt – the government is the controlling shareholder of virtually all major Chinese companies and has the power to easily change salaries. Rather, public anger about inequality and corruption has made executive pay a focus for media attacks, even from official outlets. The government-run Xinhua news agency said in an editorial: “If the top executives of state-owned companies just fatten themselves, giving themselves high salaries and rich benefits, this is a departure from the original intent of the founding of these companies.” The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist party, said: “High pay for high-level executives and low pay for ordinary employees is immoral.

• High-frequency traders face speed limits. High-frequency traders are facing “speed limits” for the first time on a major trading platform, under a proposal that is being touted as a template for a regulatory clampdown on computer-driven activity. EBS, one of the two dominant trading platforms in the foreign exchange market, is suggesting scrapping the principle of “first in, first out” trading, which it says gives an unfair advantage to the fastest computers and has led to an arms race of spending on technology.

Telegraph:

• Spanish house prices need to fall further, Goldman warns. Spanish house prices need to fall another 10pc, posing fresh problems for the country’s troubled banking sector, Goldman Sachs has warned. House prices have already collapsed 30pc from their high but are still over-valued, the investment bank claimed as it called for a fundamental restructuring of the country’s lenders. The warning that Spain’s banks are holding the country back followed the government’s decision last week to tear up its deficit reduction plan in the face of collapsing growth. 

• Financial Transaction Tax 'may add to eurozone’s debt woes’. The world’s largest banks have warned European finance ministers that plans to impose a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) could deepen the Continent’s sovereign debt crisis. 

Der Spiegel: 

• There is no likelihood of reaching agreement with France on main problems facing Europe before Germany's September elections, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, Chancellor Angela Merkel's adviser on European politics, said in an interview. France doesn't want to hold talks with Germany before polls, he said.

Yonhap News:

• S. Korea fuming over Abe's remarks. South Korea is boiling over in anger at Japan after its prime minister suggested that Tokyo's colonization of Korea may not be determined as an "act of aggression," a remark that touched a raw nerve in the neighbor, which still deeply resents its colonial-era suffering.

• North Korea is still in process of preparing Musdan missile launch, citing presidential office spokesman Yoon Chang Jung. Yoon replied to questions on media reports that North Korea stopped millile launch preparation.

news.com.au:

• North Korea set to stage a major military operation, reports say. NORTH Korea appears to be gearing up for a major military exercise amid tensions over an expected missile test and South Korea's pullout from the joint Kaesong industrial complex.

Xinhua:

• More H7N9 cases reported in China. Five more H7N9 bird flu cases were confirmed Sunday in four Chinese provinces, according to local health authorities. The latest confirmed cases came from east China's Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Shandong provinces, as well as southeast China's Fujian Province.

Weekend Recommendations

Barron's:

• Bullish commentary on (HBI) and (DELL).

Night Trading

• Asian indices are unch. to +.25% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 111.50 +.5 basis point.

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 88.0 -.75 basis point.

• FTSE-100 futures +.05%.

• S&P 500 futures -.04%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.07%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (L)/.84

• (CNA)/.71

• (IRF)/-.38

• (HIG)/.82

• (ADVS)/.30

• (PCL)/.32

• (GGP)/.22

• (PPS)/.70

• (RVBD)/.24

• (MAS)/.13

• (BWLD)/.99

• (ESRX)/.98

• (NEM)/.77

• (HTZ)/.22  

• (RGR)/1.01

• (JEC)/.82

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

• Personal Income for March is estimated to rise +.4% versus a +1.1% gain in February.

• Personal Spending for March is estimated unch. versus a +.7% gain in February.

• The PCE Core for March is estimated to rise +.1% versus a +.1% gain in February.  

10:00 am EST

• Pending Home Sales for March are estimated to rise +.9% versus a -.4% decline in February.

10:30 am EST

•  The Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index for April is estimated to fall to 5.0 versus a reading of 7.4 in March.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Italian 10Y auction, China HSBC Manufacturing PMI, Japan Manufacturing PMI and the German CPI could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by commodity 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 week.

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 rising global growth fears, Mideast unrest, Asian tensions, rising bird flu concerns, Eurozone debt angst, earnings worries, profit-taking and technical selling. My intermediate-term trading indicators are giving neutral signals and the Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the week.

Market Week in Review

S&P 500 1,582.24 +1.73%*




The Weekly Wrap by Briefing.com.

*5-Day Change