Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:    

• Euro Ministers Alarmed as Bloc Shuts Down Greece Plan B. Europe’s refusal to draw up contingency plans to prepare for the failure of negotiations with Greece is alarming some euro-area finance ministers. Slovenian finance chief Dusan Mramor led the calls at a meeting of the bloc’s 19 finance chiefs on Friday to consider a “plan B” to mitigate the fallout if negotiations with Greece fail. Several others raised similar concerns during official talks and in private conversations at a meeting in Riga, Latvia, on Friday, two people with knowledge of the discussions said. “What my discussion was about was what we will do if no new program will be achieved in time for Greece to be able to refinance itself or improve liquidity,” Mramor told reporters on Saturday. “A plan B can be anything.”

• What Next Two Weeks Hold in Store in the Greek Crisis Saga. A euro area finance ministers meeting over the disbursement of bailout funds ended in acrimony on Friday, as creditors expressed frustration with the country’s refusal to comply with the terms attached to its emergency loans. While focus now turns on a May 6 interest repayment to the International Monetary Fund and the next Eurogroup meeting on May 11 in Brussels, the country has a number of funding hurdles to clear before then and beyond.  

• Author Alleges Bill Clinton Just Quit Education Company Because of 'Clinton Cash'. Former president Bill Clinton stepped down from his position at Laureate International Universities, part of Laureate Education Inc., on Friday. His five-year term as "honorary chancellor," the company and Clinton's staff said, had expired. But Peter Schweizer, the conservative author of a forthcoming book examining the Clintons’ financial dealings, suggests a different explanation: Clinton actually resigned in order to avoid a wave of negative publicity. Bloomberg Politics has obtained a chapter of the book describing what Schweizer presents as a “troubling” co-mingling of official State Department business with the private financial affairs of Bill Clinton and a nonprofit run by Laureate’s chairman, Douglas Becker.

• U.S. Bird Flu Spreads to Egg-Laying Chickens in Minnesota County. Bird flu has spread to egg-laying hens in Minnesota, the top U.S. turkey producer that’s been battling the disease since early last month. A flock of 175,000 birds in Clay County was confirmed to have the highly contagious variety of avian influenza, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement Friday. This is the first case in the state for chickens, data from the agency show. The USDA also confirmed additional cases for turkey flocks in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin.

Fox News:

• At least 1,180 killed as 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits Nepal; search for survivors. (video) A powerful earthquake struck Nepal Saturday, killing hundreds of people across a swath of four countries as the violently shaking earth collapsed houses, leveled centuries-old temples and triggered avalanches on Mt. Everest. It was the worst temblor to hit the poor South Asian nation in over 80 years. At least 1,180 people were confirmed dead in Nepal, including 181 in the capital, Kathmandu alone, according to the police. Another 34 were killed in India, 10 in Tibet and two in Bangladesh. Two Chinese citizens died at the Nepal-China border.

ZeroHedge:

• One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes - Part 6: Solutions.

• China Could Face "Sharp" Rise In Capital Outflows If Stocks, Economy Lose Momentum.

• 11 Signs That We Are Entering The Next Phase Of The Global Economic Crisis.

• Are You Faster Than A Stock Market Spoofer?

• 8 Recessionary Charts. (graph)

• 5 Things To Ponder: Market Soup. (graph)

• Nasdaq Soars To Record Highs On Dismal Data & Vapid Volume. (graph)

• Number Of Companies Beating Revenue Estimates Hits Lowest Level In Two Years. (graph)

• Germany Prepares For "Plan B", Says Greece Would "Need Not Only A Third Bailout, But Fourth, Fifth Or Even More".

• Just 6 Charts. (graph)

• Overseas Investors Have "Little Appetite" For Chasing Chinese Mania: JPM. (graph)

Business Insider:

• Trucking industry labor dispute may cripple West Coast ports again.

• The Canadian consumer is falling off a cliff.

• There is a growing disconnect in the stock market. (graph)

• The billionaire linked to the 'Clinton Cash' scandals once said something amazing about doing business with Bill Clinton.

• Chris Christie is ramping up his campaign, but this chart shows why he's in real trouble.

• Wall Street can't stop talking about the 'ridiculous' arrest of the 'Flash Crash' trader. It's been almost five years since the "Flash Crash" and regulators are suddenly blaming Navinder "Nav" Sarao, a 36-year-old who trades S&P futures from his mom and dad's house in a London suburb. Yep, regulators think a guy in saggy sweatpants and Nike Airs trading from his parents' basement did it.

Neue Zuercher Zeitung:

• Greek Default Would Be Manageable, UBS Chairman Weber Says. Consensus at IMF meeting was increasingly that a Greek default would be manageable systemically, UBS Chairman Axel Weber said.

Hindustan Times:

• In pics: Earthquake strikes Nepal, rocks India, brings panic and destruction.

ISIS has built near-impregnable base and mass appeal: New book - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/europe/story/isis-has-built-near-impregnable-base-and-mass-appeal-new-book-20150205#sthash.TSyXsl7s.dpuf

ISIS has built near-impregnable base and mass appeal: New book - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/europe/story/isis-has-built-near-impregnable-base-and-mass-appeal-new-book-20150205#sthash.TSyXsl7s.dpuf

Market Week in Review

• S&P 500 2,117.69 +1.75%*

The Weekly Wrap by Briefing.com.

*5-Day Change

Weekly Scoreboard*

Indices

• S&P 500 2,117.69 +1.75%

• DJIA 18,080.14 +1.42%

• NASDAQ 5,092.08 +3.25%

• Russell 2000 1,2567.54 +1.25%

• S&P 500 High Beta 35.64 +1.16% 

• Goldman 50 Most Shorted 140.78 -.12% 

• Wilshire 5000 22,183.78 +1.65%

• Russell 1000 Growth 1,021.76 +2.38%

• Russell 1000 Value 1,033.11 +.96%

• S&P 500 Consumer Staples 504.47 +.06%

• Solactive US Cyclical 138.93 +.91%

• Morgan Stanley Technology 1,050.29 +2.99%

• Transports 8,880.17 +2.69%

• Utilities 597.81 +2.49%

• Bloomberg European Bank/Financial Services 120.27 +3.28%

• MSCI Emerging Markets 43.67 +2.75%

• HFRX Equity Hedge 1,227.46 -.09%

• HFRX Equity Market Neutral 991.75 -.31%

Sentiment/Internals

• NYSE Cumulative A/D Line 242,710 +1.20%

• Bloomberg New Highs-Lows Index 214 +34

• Bloomberg Crude Oil % Bulls 26.8 +13.1%

• CFTC Oil Net Speculative Position 323,092 +14.51%

• CFTC Oil Total Open Interest 1,723,025 -2.92%

• Total Put/Call .76 -32.14%

• OEX Put/Call 1.84 +18.71%

• ISE Sentiment 95.0 +11.76%

• NYSE Arms 1.0 -11.5%

• Volatility(VIX) 12.29 -11.52%

• S&P 500 Implied Correlation 68.43 +1.92%

• G7 Currency Volatility (VXY) 10.31 +.1%

• Emerging Markets Currency Volatility (EM-VXY) 9.95 +.61%

• Smart Money Flow Index 17,730.05 -.05%

• ICI Money Mkt Mutual Fund Assets $2.588 Trillion -.27%

• ICI US Equity Weekly Net New Cash Flow -$5.700 Billion

• AAII % Bulls 31.5 -1.9%

• AAII % Bears 23.2 +1.8%

Futures Spot Prices

• CRB Index 224.05 +.05%

• Crude Oil 57.15 +1.79%

• Reformulated Gasoline 200.79 +3.67%

• Natural Gas 2.53 -4.17%

• Heating Oil 192.83 +1.94%

• Gold 1,175.0 -2.35%

• Bloomberg Base Metals Index 174.16 -.27%

• Copper 274.80 -1.79%

• US No. 1 Heavy Melt Scrap Steel 230.0 USD/Ton+.88%

• China Iron Ore Spot 57.81 USD/Ton +13.51%

• Lumber 258.50 +5.25%

• UBS-Bloomberg Agriculture 1,112.41 -.60%

Economy

• ECRI Weekly Leading Economic Index Growth Rate -.7% +70.0 basis points

• Philly Fed ADS Real-Time Business Conditions Index -.5070 +5.75%

• S&P 500 Blended Forward 12 Months Mean EPS Estimate 123.07 +.12%

• Citi US Economic Surprise Index -57.7 -3.5 points

• Citi Eurozone Economic Surprise Index 20.50 -32.9 points

• Citi Emerging Markets Economic Surprise Index -13.50 -2.0 points

• Fed Fund Futures imply 50.0% chance of no change, 50.0% chance of 25 basis point cut on 4/29

• US Dollar Index 96.92 -.54%

• Euro/Yen Carry Return Index 135.12 +.68%

• Yield Curve 140.0 +4.0 basis points

• 10-Year US Treasury Yield 1.91% +4.0 basis points

• Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet $4.456 Trillion +.10%

• U.S. Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 16.14 -5.99%

• Illinois Municipal Debt Credit Default Swap 173.0 -.77%

• Western Europe Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap Index 26.11 -1.66%

• Asia Pacific Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap Index 60.72 -1.60%
  

• Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt CDS Index 324.46 -3.40%
  

• Israel Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 74.76 +3.12%

• Iraq Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 351.18 -.68%

• Russia Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 350.64 -3.50%

• iBoxx Offshore RMB China Corporates High Yield Index 117.29 +.66%

• 10-Year TIPS Spread 1.90% +1.0 basis point

• TED Spread 25.75 -.25 basis point

• 2-Year Swap Spread 26.0 -.25 basis point

• 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -20.5 +3.25 basis points

• N. America Investment Grade Credit Default Swap Index 61.77 -1.52%

• America Energy Sector High-Yield Credit Default Swap Index 1,068.0 +1.02%

• European Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index 73.47 -2.91%
  

• Emerging Markets Credit Default Swap Index 293.53 -3.07%
  

• CMBS AAA Super Senior 10-Year Treasury Spread  to Swaps 87.50-2.5 basis points

• M1 Money Supply $2.980 Trillion -2.02%

• Commercial Paper Outstanding 1,025.50 -.60%

• 4-Week Moving Average of Jobless Claims 284,500 +1,750

• Continuing Claims Unemployment Rate 1.7% unch.

• Average 30-Year Mortgage Rate 3.65% -2.0 basis points

• Weekly Mortgage Applications 458.40 +2.28%

• Bloomberg Consumer Comfort 45.4 -1.2 points

• Weekly Retail Sales +1.0% -10 basis points

• Nationwide Gas $2.51/gallon +.08/gallon

• Baltic Dry Index 599.0 +.33%

• China (Export) Containerized Freight Index 926.83 -2.60%

• Oil Tanker Rate(Arabian Gulf to U.S. Gulf Coast) 35.0 +7.69%

• Rail Freight Carloads 280,016 +3.53%

Best Performing Style

• Large-Cap Growth +2.4%

Worst Performing Style

• Mid-Cap Value +.9%

Leading Sectors

• Steel +14.3%

• Software +6.8%

• Internet +6.2%

• Airlines +5.2%

• Restaurants +5.1%

Lagging Sectors

• Education -.6% 

• Gold & Silver -1.4%

• 3D Printing -3.6%

• Homebuilders -4.0%

• Coal -4.7%

Weekly High-Volume Stock Gainers (22)

• AST, ECHO, CAMP, LJPC, ARRS, ADPT, MDSO, SKX, VASC, AEC, FTNT, CE, OCR, RMBS, VSI, TTS, HAS, IMPR, DLB, UTEK, CAKE and SCHL

Weekly High-Volume Stock Losers (18)

• TWC, CMG, NOW, HOG, TRN, DHI, PKG, CREE, PHM, SANM, PRO, GLF, ADTN, SMCI, ICON, FTK, NVIV and FARO

Weekly Charts
ETFs

• High-Volume Gainers

• High-Volume Losers

Stocks

• High-Volume Gainers

• High-Volume Losers

*5-Day Change

Stocks Slightly Higher into Final Hour on Central Bank Hopes, Earnings Optimism, Euro Bounce, Tech/Restaurant Sector Strength

Broad Equity Market Tone:

• Advance/Decline Line: Modestly Lower
  

• Sector Performance: Mixed
  

• Volume: Slightly Below Average

• Market Leading Stocks: Underperforming

Equity Investor Angst:

• Volatility(VIX) 12.37 -.88%

• Euro/Yen Carry Return Index 134.95 -.20%

• Emerging Markets Currency Volatility(VXY) 9.99 +.71%

• S&P 500 Implied Correlation 67.84 -.10%

• ISE Sentiment Index 89.0 -28.80%

• Total Put/Call .78 -23.53%

• NYSE Arms 1.0 -16.23% 

Credit Investor Angst:

• North American Investment Grade CDS Index 61.47 +.01%

• America Energy Sector High-Yield CDS Index 1,067.0 -.43%

• European Financial Sector CDS Index 73.48 +1.28%

• Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 26.11 +1.22%

• Asia Pacific Sovereign Debt CDS Index 60.21 +.57%

• Emerging Market CDS Index 292.89 -.12%
  

• iBoxx Offshore RMB China Corporates High Yield Index 117.29 +.17%

• 2-Year Swap Spread 26.0 -.5 basis point

• TED Spread 25.75 +.25 unch.

• 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -20.5 -.25 basis point

Economic Gauges:

• 3-Month T-Bill Yield .02% unch.

• Yield Curve 140.0 -2.0 basis points

• China Import Iron Ore Spot $57.81/Metric Tonne +5.45%

• Citi US Economic Surprise Index -57.70 -.9 point

• Citi Eurozone Economic Surprise Index 20.50 -.1 point

• Citi Emerging Markets Economic Surprise Index -13.4 +.9 point

• 10-Year TIPS Spread 1.90 +1.0 basis point

Overseas Futures:

• Nikkei Futures: Indicating +21 open in Japan

• DAX Futures: Indicating +19 open in Germany

Portfolio: 

• Higher: On gains in my tech sector longs and index hedges

• Disclosed Trades: Added to my (IWM)/(QQQ) hedges

• Market Exposure: Moved to 50% Net Long

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:  

• EU Frustration Mounts as Greeks Try to Bypass Aid Process. (video) Euro-area finance ministers voiced their frustration with Greece after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras tried to bypass their veto on financial aid with an appeal to Angela Merkel. With Greece running out of money and stalling over commitments to reform, euro-zone finance chiefs meeting in Riga, Latvia, Friday said the country’s authorities still haven’t shown sufficient progress on plans to revamp the economy to justify a loan payout. “I demand very urgently that we get results on the table,” Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling said before sitting down for talks. “If you follow the media of the past days you hear time and again that ‘Tsipras says’ and ‘Tsipras thinks’, so apparently this has been moved to leaders’ level.”

• Merkel Calls for Calm as Greek Talks Descend Into Name-Calling. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for calm after a euro-area finance ministers’ meeting on Greece descended into acrimony and name-calling. Finance chiefs meeting in Riga, Latvia, on Friday, let loose at Yanis Varoufakis, their Greek counterpart, as they ruled out making a partial aid payment in exchange for a narrower program of reforms. “It’s important that we show understanding for each other,” Merkel told a crowd at a campaign event in Bremerhaven, Germany. While all sides are working toward a deal, “we don’t know if this will work out,” she said.

• Ukraine’s President Says Martial Law Ready If Troops Attacked. President Petro Poroshenko said he’s ready to place Ukraine under martial law if his army is attacked in the embattled eastern part of the country. “If Ukrainian troops are attacked, we can do everything to introduce martial law,” Poroshenko said in an interview with the Ukraina television channel on Friday. “I will submit to parliament a corresponding bill and the country will very quickly move to a military footing.” 

• China to Crack Down on Stock Manipulation as Market Soars. China’s securities regulator started a campaign to crack down on stock-market manipulation and insider trading, the latest effort to reduce risks as an equities boom lures a record number of novice investors. The China Securities Regulatory Commission will target trading by brokerage employees using non-public information, and market manipulation, including of futures prices, the CSRC said in a Friday statement on its website. The regulator also cited insider trading in over-the-counter markets and accounting fraud in mergers and acquisition. 

• Italian Bonds Decline as Greece ‘Wide Differences’ Unresolved. Italian government bonds fell as the head of the euro-area finance ministers’ group ruled out making a partial aid payment in exchange for a narrower program of economic reforms, leaving “wide differences” unresolved.

• Pimco’s Kiesel Sees Bubble in $3 Trillion of Negative-Yield Debt. Forget high-yield bonds. The real froth in markets can be found in the swelling pool of negative-yielding government debt from Europe to Japan. That’s according to Mark Kiesel, chief investment officer for global credit at Pacific Investment Management Co., who’s increasingly wary of investors paying governments from Spain to Switzerland to lend to them. 

• European Stocks Extend Weekly Advance as HSBC, Miners Climb. European stocks rebounded, extending weekly gains, as HSBC Holdings Plc led banks higher and companies including Renault SA rose on sales and earnings releases. HSBC climbed 2.9 percent after saying that it has started a review into moving its headquarters from the U.K. Renault added 3.7 percent after reporting quarterly sales rose 14 percent. Glencore Plc, BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group led commodity producers to the biggest gain of the 19 industry groups on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index as iron ore advanced into a bull market. AstraZeneca Plc declined 1.7 percent after posting lower first-quarter earnings. The Stoxx 600 rose 0.3 percent to 408.42 at the close of trading, for a weekly gain of 1.2 percent.

• Saudi Arabia Has a Solution to the Global Oil Glut Problem. Saudi Arabia has a response to the global surplus of oil: Raise output to near-record levels and then pump even more. The world’s biggest oil exporter, having abandoned last year its role of keeping global markets in balance, now has incentive to maximize output and undermine rival producers by using its reserve capacity, according to Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG. Just meeting its own domestic demand this summer will require a lot more fuel, others estimate.

• Some of the flash crash story just makes no sense. The first question that arises from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's case against Navinder Singh Sarao is: Why did it take them five years to bring it? A guy living with his parents next to London's Heathrow Airport enters a lot of big, phony orders to sell U.S. stock market futures; the market promptly collapses on May 6, 2010; it takes five years for the army of U.S. financial regulators to work out that there might be some connection between the two events. It makes no sense.

• U.K. Trader Sarao Didn’t Cause Flash Crash, Ex-Employer Says. (video)

• Retail Stocks Flash Bearish Signal on Oil, U.S. Spending Pause. Retail stocks are trailing the broader market as the plunge in oil prices shows signs of coming to an end. The SPDR Standard & Poor’s Retail Exchange-Traded Fund -- made up of more than 100 companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. -- has fallen 0.4 percentage point since April 2, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF has risen 2.3 percentage points -- see chart. That follows a 10-month rally when the retail group outpaced the benchmark fund by 12 percentage points.

ZeroHedge:

• Why Nav Sarao Had To Be Destroyed: He Found A Way To Beat The HFTs At Their Own Game.

• Dear CFTC... Here Is Today's Illegal S&P 500 "Spoofing". (graph)

• Crude Drops After US Rig Count Decline Extends To Record 20 Weeks. (graph)

• Electric Car Sales Plunge To 4 Year Lows.

• Puerto Rico Warns Of Imminent Government Shutdown Due To "Liquidity Crisis". (graph)

• When Wall Street's Weathermen Begin To Panic. (graph)

• Worst Drop In Core Durable Goods Since December 2012. (graph)

Reuters:

• Apple(AAPL) aims to ship more than 20 million smartwatches in 2015 - sources.

Telegraph:

• 'Big big' problems on Greek deal as eurozone warns: no reform, no cash. Eurozone officials criticise 'amateur' Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, warning that time is running out to stop Greece going bankrupt.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:

• Mid-Cap Growth -.41%

Sector Underperformers:

• 1) Education -3.62% 2) Semis -2.22% 3) Oil Service -1.81%

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:

• AERI, SPNC, AWAY, UIS, EMES, PRGO, INFY, XRX, BGG, HWAY, DV, UBNT, NTGR, SCHL, TRN, NVDQ, BJRI, BIIB, CVTI, SSD, NLSN, CHTR, HBI, SRCL, VRSN, PII, RMBS, PRLB, NCR, EFII, RHI, SYA, ETH, KN, CAMP, ARRS, HCLP, HBI, FRGI, SYNA, MTSI, MPWR, MXIM, HZO, OFG, DDD, XRX, RMD, CVTI and NTGR

Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:

• 1) PII 2) XLB 3) MBI 4) ALTR 5) GPS
  

Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:

• 1) BBY 2) MTW 3) EMES 4) UBNT 5) LL
  

Charts:

• ETFs Falling on Unusual Volume

• Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume