Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:

• Large-Cap Growth -.40%

Sector Outperformers:

• 1) Biotech +.53% 2) Telecom +.36% 3) HMOs +.36%
  

Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:

• HUM, TRLA, BGFV, EBIX, DWA, FIRE, RATE, GDOT, CAVM, NCR, REGN, GNW and WU

Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:

• 1) WU 2) AVEO 3) FIRE 4) OKE 5) REGN
  

Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:

• 1) DFRG 2) DTE 3) OFC 4) CLX 5) LMT
  

Charts:

• ETFs Rising on Unusual Volume 

• Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume

Wednesday Watch

Evening Headlines 
Bloomberg: 

• Slovenian Credit Lowered to Junk by Moody’s as Bond Sale Delayed. Slovenia’s credit rating was cut to junk by Moody’s Investors Service, forcing the government to delay the sale of its first foreign bond this year to ease a financing crunch and avoid an international bailout. The Finance Ministry postponed an offering of dollar- denominated benchmark bonds yesterday before the rating was lowered two levels to Ba1 from Baa2, on par with Turkey, and given a negative outlook. Five members of the 17-nation euro area are now rated junk by Moody’s. Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings both assess Slovenia at A-, the fourth-lowest investment grade. A major factor underpinning the downgrade “is the ongoing turmoil in the country’s banking system and the high likelihood that the sovereign will be required to provide further assistance and capital injections,” Moody’s said late yesterday in an e-mailed statement from New York. “Asset quality at the banks deteriorated considerably in 2012 and has continued to deteriorate since.”

• BOJ Veterans to ECB Pick Demographic Holes in Abe: Japan Credit. Central bank veterans are lining up to highlight the Achilles' heel of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic revival plan: the world's fastest aging society. All five ex-Bank of Japan officials in a Bloomberg News survey said any gains in government bond yields will be contained over the next two years, with four of them seeing little chance that the BOJ will achieve its 2% inflation target. People 65 or older accounted for 22.1% of Japan's total population in 2007-2011, the highest global proportion, according to Bloomberg Rankings. “What creates Japan’s deflation is the aging of society,” said Hideo Kumano, the chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute Inc. in Tokyo. “Robust economic growth and business opportunities that provide future income are needed to end deflation. Even if the central bank raises the flag of inflation, whether people will follow it is a different matter.” 

• China Manufacturing Gauge Signals Slowdown Persisting: Economy. China’s manufacturing expanded at a weaker pace in April in a sign that the slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy is extending into the second quarter. The Purchasing Managers’ Index was at 50.6, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said today in Beijing. That compared with the 50.7 median forecast of 31 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey and a March reading of 50.9.

• Australia Manufacturing Gauge Plunged to Four-Year Low in April. A gauge of Australian manufacturing slumped to a four-year low in April as the sustained strength of the nation’s currency weighed on exporters. The manufacturing index plunged 7.7 points to 36.7 last month, the Australian Industry Group said in a survey released today. The export index was the lowest since 2004, it showed. “The sharp drop in manufacturing production, employment and new orders in April, along with the continued erosion of exports, is deeply concerning,” Innes Willox, AIG’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “The strength of the Australian dollar is a major burden on domestic producers.” A gauge of employment plunged 9.4 points to 39.3 in April, while new orders dropped 7 points to 32.4, the report showed. The production measure slumped 8.6 points to 33.1. The manufacturing index’s reading on wages edged down 0.7 point to 57 last month, while inventories fell 4.8 points to 46.4, today’s report showed. Supplier deliveries slumped 7.3 points to 41.1, and selling prices dropped 2.7 points to 40.3, it showed.

• Scientists Infect Chicks in Race to Halt Bird Flu Spread. Deep inside a high-security laboratory an hour from Melbourne, scientists working behind air-locked doors inject six-week-old chickens with a virus that has killed one in five people it’s known to have infected. The pathogen is H7N9 bird flu, and it came to Australia’s second-biggest city 12 days ago in a 0.5 milliliter sample -- 10 would fit on a teaspoon -- from a patient in China’s Anhui province. Antibodies from the chickens will help create tests for the virus, part of a race to head off a global outbreak. 

• Asian Stocks Fall as Yen Gains Amid Growth Concerns; Oil Drops. Asian stocks declined from the highest level since June 2008, led lower by Japanese shares as the yen strengthened and data signaled a slowdown in global business activity. Oil and copper dropped. 

• Copper Weakens for Second Day as China’s Manufacturing Slows. Copper retreated after the biggest monthly loss since May last year as China’s manufacturing expanded at a weaker pace in April, increasing concern that slowing growth will curb demand from the biggest consumer. Copper for delivery in three months declined as much as 0.5 percent to $7,021 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange and was at $7,023.50 at 9:39 a.m. in Singapore. Nickel and zinc also fell.

• Rubber Drops on Advancing Yen, Weaker Economic Data From China. Rubber declined as Japan’s currency strengthened and data signaled a slowdown in business activity in China and the U.S., the world’s biggest users. The contract for October delivery lost as much as 1.7 percent to 258.1 yen a kilogram ($2,654 a metric ton) and was at 259.2 yen on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange at 10:35 a.m. local time. Futures fell for a third month in April and have lost 14 percent this year.

• U.S. Mint Sales of Gold Coins Jump to Highest in Three Years. Sales of gold coins by the U.S. Mint rose to the highest since December 2009 after the price of the metal in April fell the most in 16 months.

• Obama Said to Choose Watt to Lead Fannie Mae Regulator. Housing industry officials expect President Barack Obama to nominate Representative Mel Watt, a Democrat from North Carolina, as director of the Federal Finance Housing Finance Agency as early as tomorrow, according to three people briefed on the matter.

• Meredith Whitney Predicts ‘Slow Bleed’ of Wall Street Job Cuts. Job cuts on Wall Street will be a “continued slow bleed” after the industry trimmed hundreds of thousands of positions in recent years, said Meredith Whitney, a banking analyst and chief executive officer of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group. “There’s growth out there, but for the majority of financials it’s an anemic growth environment,” Whitney told Willow Bay today in a Bloomberg Television interview at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles. “What you’re seeing is stealth cuts.”

• D.C. Suburbs Have Most Concentrated Mortgage Tax Breaks. The mortgage interest deduction capital of the U.S. lies just outside the nation’s capital. More than two of every five tax filers in metropolitan Washington’s Maryland suburbs of Bethesda-Gaithersburg- Frederick claim the tax break, the highest percentage in the country, according to a report released today by the Pew Charitable Trusts. “The distribution of this tax benefit is uneven across the states for many different reasons,” said Anne Stauffer, director of Pew’s fiscal federalism initiative. “There are these large variations, which mean that the impacts of any change would actually be very different” across the U.S.

• Schwab(SCHW) Sues BofA(BAC) and Other Banks Over Libor Manipulation. Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW), whose antitrust claims against banks over manipulation of the London interbank offered rate were tossed from federal court in New York, sued Bank of America Corp. and other financial institutions for fraud in state court in San Francisco. Schwab alleged in a complaint filed yesterday that it and other company entities purchased billions of dollars in Libor- based instruments that are paying artificially low returns because the banks agreed to depress the rate.

Wall Street Journal: 

• Ebay(EBAY) Boss Expects ‘Uproar’ From Small Business Over Online Tax. Pretty much the entire online shopping industry, and all the giants of traditional retailing, have lined up in support of the Marketplace Fairness Act, a law currently before Congress that would create a new national standard for charging state sales taxes on products bought online. From Amazon to Wal-Mart, from the AFL-CIO to the Obama administration, support for the act is broad and bipartisan — except for one high-profile exception. Standing almost alone among big e-commerce companies, eBay remains a vocal opponent of the bill. That’s not because the company is opposed to the idea of online sales taxes, or much of the content of the Act, eBay CEO John Donohoe said during a visit to the WSJ today. Instead, its opposition is based on a single-issue concern: it believes small online sellers — who make up the majority of its customers — will face crippling costs complying with the law, and wants them to be exempted from the new system.

• In Reversal, Neighbors Squeeze Russia's Gazprom Over Natural-Gas Prices. Gazprom's European customers have squeezed billions of dollars in discounts from the company, and they are pressing for more, thanks in part to the U.S. shale-gas boom.  

• Obama Sees 'Bumps' for Health Law. Rollout Faces Obstacles as Many States Sit Out Medicaid Expansion and Don't Set Up Exchanges. The main goal of the 2010 law is to bring health-insurance coverage to Americans who lack it, yet two of the measure's key ways of doing this have hit obstacles. More than half of the states are on track to sit out the law's Medicaid-expansion goal initially—which means millions of low-income Americans won't have access to health insurance through Medicaid as the law anticipated.

• Apple's(AAPL) Record Plunge Into Debt Pool. Offering Sets Record; Demand Was More Than $50 Billion.

• Learning Goals Spur Backlash. New Standards Adopted by Nearly All States Are Finding a Growing Group of Foes. As more classrooms across the country roll out universal math and reading standards, a growing group of critics are pressing officials to slow their implementation or dump the learning goals entirely. This is the first school year that most states are using voluntary academic standards known as Common Core, which lay out what students should know from kindergarten through 12th grade.

• Edward Niedermeyer: Welcome to General Tso's Motors(GM). Long an important growth market, China is becoming GM's global export base. After decades of slogans like "See the USA in Your Chevrolet" and "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet," General Motors has retreated from its overtly patriotic marketing approach since emerging from government-funded bankruptcy. Maybe that was a wise move, given that American taxpayers paid for the $50 billion bailout of "Government Motors" and not all of them were happy about it. But another dynamic also seems to be at work: The auto maker has fundamentally shifted its focus. American taxpayers may have rescued GM during its moment of need, but it is China that is disproportionately benefiting from the bailout of America's erstwhile automotive icon.

Fox News: 

• Obama pledges inquiry on Benghazi survivors’ testimony. President Obama said he is unaware of longstanding efforts by Republican lawmakers to question survivors of the Benghazi attacks but pledged to investigate it. “I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody has been blocked from testifying,” the president said during a White House news conference on Tuesday. “So what I’ll do is I will find out what exactly you’re referring to.”

CNBC: 

• Market's Great…If You're Selling: Private Equity Titans. Some of the biggest and most sophisticated private equity and hedge fund investors in the world are stepping back from equities and bond markets. 

• Mayday Distress of Europe’s Anti-Austerity Left. A collective howl of protest and despair will resound through Europe's streets and squares on Wednesday at the annual May 1 rallies, which, in happier times, celebrate the dignity of human labor.

Zero Hedge: 

• Macro Collapse Pushes S&P 500 To New All-Time Nominal High And Close. (graphs)

• Why Is The VIX Not Higher (Or Much Lower)?

• Nigel Farage On "Wholesale, Violent Revolution" In Europe. (video)

• 20 Signs That The Next Great Economic Depression Has Already Started In Europe.

Business Insider:

• The Global 'Canary In The Coalmine' Is Sick. (graph)

• Analyst: My Local AT&T(T) Store Hasn't Sold A Single Facebook(FB) Phone.

• Here's The Great Disconnect That Has People Saying The Market Is Rigged By The Fed. (graph)

• US GOVERNMENT: North Dakota Has Way More Energy Than We Previously Thought.

VentureBeat:

• Get ready for more media hacks, Twitter warns. It seems even Twitter is a little shaken up about the recent rash of major media account hacks. The company sent out a letter to publications saying it expects more hacks and provided tips on how to keep Twitter accounts safe.

USA Today: 

• FDA approves over-the-counter sales for Plan B. Women and girls age 15 and over will soon be able to buy emergency contraception without a prescription. The Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it was approving Plan B One-Step, also known as the morning-after pill, to be sold in the retail aisle next to other over-the-counter medications. Customers will not have to ask a pharmacist for it. FDA officials say the announcement is unrelated to a federal judge's order earlier this month, which gave the agency 30 days to make the pill available to all girls and women without a prescription, regardless of age.

Reuters: 

• SolarWinds(SWI) forecasts second quarter below estimates. SolarWinds Inc's first-quarter revenue missed analysts' estimates and the network management software maker forecast current-quarter results below expectations as it struggles to sell new licenses. SolarWinds shares fell as much as 10 percent in extended trading.

• Speed traders eyed after Twitter hack attack, U.S. regulator says. The phony tweet from the Associated Press' hacked Twitter account, which sparked a short-lived panic in the stock market a week ago by saying that President Barack Obama was injured in two explosions at the White House, underscored the need to look at regulating automated trading, the top U.S. derivatives regulator said on Tuesday. "I think that we do need to finalize a concept release that we've been working on for many moons here at the CFTC," Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler told a public meeting of the agency on Tuesday.

• Flextronics(FLEX) revenue falls 17 percent. Contract electronics maker Flextronics International Ltd reported a loss in the fourth quarter after the loss of revenue from key customer BlackBerry and charges related to closure of factories and job cuts.

Financial Times: 

• Fed weighs tighter cap on bank leverage. Federal Reserve officials are weighing a stricter cap on bank leverage , a move that would respond to increasing demands to constrain the riskiness of large lenders. According to people familiar with the matter, Fed officials have discussed increasing the amount of equity capital banks are required to hold, setting the bar higher than the 3 per cent of assets level agreed internationally.

Telegraph: 

• Eurozone risks Japan-style trap as deflation grinds closer. The eurozone is one shock away from a Japan-style deflation crisis after a key measure of prices fell to the lowest since the launch of the single currency. 

The Daily Mail:

• BOMBSHELL: Saudi Arabia warned the United States IN WRITING about Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2012, and rejected his application for an entry visa to visit Mecca in 2011. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent a written warning about accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012, long before pressure-cooker blasts killed three and maimed hundreds, according to a senior Saudi government official with direct knowledge of the document. The Saudi warning, the official told MailOnline, was separate from the multiple red flags raised by Russian intelligence in 2011, and was based on human intelligence developed independently in Yemen. Citing security concerns, the Saudi government also denied an entry visa to the elder Tsarnaev brother in December 2011, when he hoped to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Evening Recommendations 

• None of note

Night Trading

• Asian equity indices are -.25% to unch. on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 107.50 +.5 basis point.

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 86.25 -.75 basis point.

• FTSE-100 futures +.20%.

• S&P 500 futures -.01%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.03%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (ADT)/.42

• (DVN)/.55

• (ENR)/1.27

• (VIAB)/.95

• (MA)/6.17

• (MRK)/.79

• (CVH)/.81

• (TWX)/.74

• (CVS)/.79

• (ICE)/1.97

• (EXC)/.68

• (CMCSA)/.50

• (JNY)/.15

• (CHK)/.25

• (RDC)/.52

• (HUM)/1.80

• (SPW)/.26

• (AMT)/.82

• (H)/.08

• (PSX)/1.89

• (CLX)/1.05

• (AGN)/.96

• (ALL)/1.30

• (MAR)/.40

• (ADM)/.50

• (PRU)/1.88

• (LVS)/.67

• (FB)/.13

• (V)/1.81

• (CAR)/.02

• (MET)/1.30        

Economic Releases
8:15 am EST

• ADP Employment Change for April is estimated at 150K versus 158K in March. 

10:00 am EST

• Construction Spending for March is estimated to rise +.6% versus a +1.2% gain in February.

• ISM Manufacturing for April is estimated to fall to 50.6 versus 51.3 in March.

• ISM Prices Paid for April is estimated to fall to 52.6 versus 54.5 in March. 

10:30 am EST

• Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil inventory build of +1,100,000 barrels versus a +947,000 barrel gain the prior week.  Gasoline supplies are estimated to fall by -900,000 barrels versus a -3,928,000 barrel decline the prior week. Distillate inventories are expected to rise by 250K barrels versus a 97,000 barrel gain the prior week. Finally, Refinery Utilization is estimated to rise +.68% versus a -2.8 decline the prior week.

2:00 pm EST

• The FOMC is expected to leave the benchmark fed funds rate at .25%.

Afternoon:

• Total Vehicle Sales for April are estimated at 15.22M versus 15.22M in March.

Upcoming Splits

• (JCTCF) 2-for-1

Other Potential Market Movers

• The BoJ Minutes, weekly MBA mortgage applications report, Final Markit US PMI for April, (DTE) analyst day and the (AVT) analyst day could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down 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.

Stocks Higher into Final Hour on Central Bank Hopes, Euro Bounce, Short-Covering, Tech/Commodity Sector Strength

Today's Market Take:

Broad Market Tone:

• Advance/Decline Line: Modestly Higher
  

• Sector Performance: Most Sectors Rising
  

• Volume: Below Average

• Market Leading Stocks: Performing In Line

Equity Investor Angst:

• VIX 13.73 +.15%

• ISE Sentiment Index 101.0 -36.0%

• Total Put/Call .84 -6.67%

• NYSE Arms 1.16 +52.24%

Credit Investor Angst:

• North American Investment Grade CDS Index 74.91 -1.91%

• European Financial Sector CDS Index 145.66 -4.79%

• Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 94.33 unch.

• Emerging Market CDS Index 229.30 -1.09%

• 2-Year Swap Spread 13.75 unch.

• TED Spread 22.75 unch.

• 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -17.75 +.25 bp

Economic Gauges:

• 3-Month T-Bill Yield .05% unch.

• Yield Curve 146.0 unch.

• China Import Iron Ore Spot $134.10/Metric Tonne unch.

• Citi US Economic Surprise Index -1.7 +3.6 points

• 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.34 -2 basis points

Overseas Futures:

• Nikkei Futures: Indicating +29 open in Japan

• DAX Futures: Indicating +21 open in Germany

Portfolio: 

• Slightly Higher: On gains in my retail/tech sector longs

• Disclosed Trades: Covered some of my (IWM)/(QQQ) hedges, then added them back

• Market Exposure: 50% Net Long

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg: 

• Euro-Area Unemployment Increases to Record 12.1% Amid Recession. The euro-area jobless rate rose to a record in March, increasing pressure on the European Central Bank to take additional measures to boost growth. The euro-area unemployment rate advanced to 12.1 percent from 12 percent in the previous two months, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That’s in line with the median of 31 economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Soaring unemployment “cannot be ignored, because this is the biggest fragmentation that is happening in Europe,” ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio said on April 25. “It’s even worse in what regards youth unemployment.” Today’s report showed that 19.2 million people were jobless in the euro area in March, up 62,000 from the previous month. Youth unemployment was at 24 percent.
• German Unemployment Climbs in Sign Economic Recovery Delayed. German unemployment rose for a second month in April, adding to signs that Europe’s largest economy is struggling to recover from a slump at the end of last year. The number of people out of work climbed a seasonally adjusted 4,000 to 2.94 million, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said today. Economists predicted an increase of 2,000, according to the median of 29 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The adjusted jobless rate held at 6.9 percent, just above a two-decade low of 6.8 percent.
• Slovenia Bank Rescue at 20% of GDP Means No Escaping EU Aid. Slovenia, the first former Communist nation in the euro zone, is facing a typically capitalist dilemma: whether to protect creditors of big banks. Rising loan losses resulting from a housing bust and a second recession in two years have left a hole of about 7.5 billion euros ($9.8 billion) at Slovenia-based lenders, investment bank Keefe Bruyette & Woods estimates. That’s a lot for a 35 billion-euro economy: A bank bailout would push government debt above 70 percent of economic output. Even after a successful domestic debt sale two weeks ago, the country may need assistance from the European Union, and holders of bank bonds, including the most senior creditors, could be forced to take losses, according to Raoul Ruparel, head of research at London-based Open Europe. Such a bail-in, which would be the second in the euro zone, after Cyprus, risks deepening divergence in the monetary union by keeping borrowing costs higher in economically weak nations.
• Fiat Industrial Cuts 2013 Goals on Iveco Europe Truck Sales. Fiat Industrial SpA (FI), the truck and tractor maker spun off from car manufacturer Fiat SpA (F) in 2011, cut earnings and sales targets for 2013 as a recession in Europe led to a first-quarter loss at the Iveco vehicle unit. Revenue will rise as much as 4 percent, compared with a previous forecast of 5 percent, Turin, Italy-based Fiat Industrial said today in a statement. The trading profit margin will amount to 7.5 percent to 8.3 percent of revenue, versus an earlier range prediction of 8.3 percent to 8.5 percent. Amid a recession in the 17 countries sharing the euro, demand for commercial vehicles in Europe fell for a 15th consecutive month in March. MAN SE (MAN), the region’s third-largest producer, lowered its earnings forecast for 2013 on April 26 because of the contraction. Industrywide first-quarter sales of trucks weighing more than 3.5 tons dropped 17 percent to 64,198 vehicles, according to the ACEA trade group. “The news is clearly negative and not discounted,” said Gabriele Gambarova, an analyst at Banca Akros in Milan. “Iveco encountered more difficult market conditions.” Fiat Industrial dropped as much as 5.1 percent to 8.59 euros, the biggest intraday decline since March 19, and was trading down 4.7 percent at 4:20 p.m. in Milan, valuing the manufacturer at 10.5 billion euros. 
• European Stocks Fall, Trimming 11th Straight Monthly Gain. European stocks declined, paring an 11th straight month of gains, as a report showed business activity in the U.S. unexpectedly shrank this month. Lonmin Plc tumbled 5.7 percent after shuttering a South African platinum furnace. Fiat Industrial SpA sank the most in 11 months after cutting its 2013 earnings target. UBS (UBSN) AG surged the most in six months as profit exceeded analysts’ projections. Deutsche Bank AG rallied the most since September after Germany’s largest lender announced plans to raise as much as $6.5 billion in capital.
• IBM(IBM) Raises Dividend 12%, Adds $5 Billion in Stock Buybacks. International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), the biggest computer-services company, boosted its dividend 12 percent and approved $5 billion in stock buybacks, rewarding investors after a disappointing earnings report. The dividend of 95 cents a share will be payable on June 10 to shareholders of record on May 10, IBM said today from its annual meeting in Huntsville, Alabama. With the additional buyback funds, IBM has $11.2 billion in its repurchase program. 
• Yellen Has the Right of First Refusal at Fed, Meyer Says. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen has the “right of first refusal” to become the next leader of the central bank when Ben S. Bernanke’s term ends in January, said former Fed governor Laurence Meyer. Meyer, speaking at a Bloomberg Link panel in Washington, said it’s “a bit surprising” that Bernanke couldn’t manage his calendar to allow him to take part in this year’s Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
• Dollar Drops on Weak Data as Fed Meets; Euro Gains on ECB Bets. The dollar fell versus most major peers as business activity in the U.S. unexpectedly shrank for the first time in more than three years amid bets the Federal Reserve won’t slacken its bond buying under quantitative easing. 
• Copper Users Press London Exchange to Reduce Warehouse Backlogs. A group of industrial copper users is pressing the London Metal Exchange to reduce growing queues at warehouses that they say are contributing to supply constraints and rising fees.

Fox News:

• Obama walks back 'red line' stance on Syrian government using chemical weapons. President Obama, who earlier said use of chemical weapons by Syria on its people would be a “red line” requiring action by the U.S., walked the stance back on Tuesday, saying he needs more information on the reported attacks before responding.
• Special forces could've responded to Benghazi attack, whistle-blower tells Fox News. A military special ops member who watched as the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi unfolded last September told Fox News the U.S. had highly trained forces just a few hours away, and said he and others feel the government betrayed the four men who died in the attack. Speaking on condition of anonymity, and appearing in a Fox News Channel interview with his face and voice disguised, the special operator contradicted claims by the Obama administration and a State Department review that said there wasn’t enough time for U.S. military forces to have intervened in the Sept. 11 attack in which U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, an embassy employee and two former Navy SEALs working as private security contractors were killed. “I know for a fact that C-110, the EUCOM CIF, was doing a training exercise in … not in the region of North Africa, but in Europe,” the operator told Fox News' Adam Housley. “And they had the ability to act and to respond.”

CNBC: 

• The Fed Is Destroying Jobs: Ken Griffin. Ken Griffin, the head of the Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel, is not at all pleased with Ben Bernanke. According to Griffin, low interest rates have encouraged businesses to invest in technology that reduces the demand for human labor. Meanwhile, health care reforms have increased the cost of human capital—so it's a double whammy.
• Sex Superbug Could Be 'Worse Than AIDS'.

Zero Hedge:

• Apple(AAPL) Files Bond Prospectus, Names Goldman Lead Underwriter.
• Europe's Scariest Chart Leaves 1 in 4 Young People Unemployed. (graph)
• Case-Shiller Composite Rises 0.3% In February, Back To September 2010 Levels. (graph)
• Chicago PMI Implodes To 49, First Sub-50 Print Since September 2009. (graph)
• Symantec(SYMC) Flash-Crash Destroys Over $1.5 Billion In Less Than A Second. (graph)
• US Homeownership Rate Drops To 1995 Levels. (graph)

Business Insider: 

• LEON BLACK: The Market Is Pricey, 'So We're Selling Everything That's Not Nailed Down'.
• OBAMA: Guantanamo Bay Is Not Necessary To Keep America Safe.
• Researchers Have Stumbled On A Massive Lithium Mine That Could Meet All US Demand.
• NBC Is In Such Rough Shape, It Could Just Stop Broadcasting.
• Why Investor Demand For Apple's(AAPL) Bonds Is Out Of This World — In One Chart.
• Chicago PMI Report Has Some Seriously Bad News On Jobs. (table)

Reuters: 

• Cummins(CMI) profit drops sharply, shares tumble 5 pct. Cummins Inc reported a sharper-than-expected drop in first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, citing weak demand for its turbines and engines, especially from the mining and oil and gas industries. The company's shares tumbled 5 percent in morning trading.
• METALS-Copper shows steepest monthly fall since last May.
• Empty shops, tight wallets threaten France with recession. French consumers bought fewer cars, tables and chairs, and clothes in the first part of the year, challenging the government's pledge to steer the euro zone's second largest economy away from recession. Consumer spending accounts for more than half of France's output and is the motor of the economy. It fell last year for the first time in 19 years. Record unemployment is still pushing households to keep their wallets closed. An unexpected rebound in March, largely due to heating staying on through cold weather, was not enough to stop a 0.4 percent January to March quarterly decline. The data prompted Jacques Creyssel, head of the FCD business federation, to warn of a fresh contraction in purchasing power this year. 

Telegraph:

• Germany will think twice before saving France next time. The Franco-German axis that has driven EU affairs ever since Schuman and Adenauer in the early 1950s is collapsing before our eyes.
• Spain sinks deeper into recession. Spain sunk deeper into recession, official data confirmed on Tuesday, as economic output contracted in the first three months of 2013 for the seventh successive quarter.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:

• Large-Cap Value -.27%

Sector Underperformers:

• 1) Gold & Silver -1.93% 2) Homebuilding -1.30% 3) Education -1.28%

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:

• SBS, AVEO, MPC, CIE, PFE, RIO, BBL, TNAV, LGCY, BNCL, XYL, TFX, PFMT, BWLD, PCL, MAS, CMI, EGOV, NEM, SLCA, ANV, AEIS, PBI and NUAN

Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:

• 1) AVEO 2) PBI 3) ESRX 4) GNW 5) NUAN
  

Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:

• 1) GRMN 2) CPTS 3) PBI 4) NUAN 5) DISH
  

Charts:

• ETFs Falling on Unusual Volume

• Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:

• Large-Cap Growth +.14%

Sector Outperformers:

• 1) Networking +.97% 2) Oil Tankers +.69% 3) Retail +.68%
  

Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:

• UBS, IRF, DB, MPWR, SU, WAIR, OIS, HTWR, MGAM, HPY, GTLS, IVZ, DPZ, BBY, AVP, TXRH, VSH and AGCO

Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:

• 1) HNZ 2) LTD 3) PSX 4) NUAN 5) SIRI
  

Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:

• 1) T 2) OXY 3) HTWR 4) IBM 5) CNH
  

Charts:

• ETFs Rising on Unusual Volume 

• Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume