would like to thank the Academy
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
No wonder why all the harbors are polluted, LOL.
That is one heck of a HUGE miss. That is worse than when EZ said "Yep, this Edsel is the CAR OF THE FUTURE!"
Here is my favorite line:
The U.S. Federal Reserve, which is holding a two-day policy meeting, announces its latest decision at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) and the European Central Bank follows on Thursday. The Fed is likely to keep its foot on the stimulus pedal especially after a slew of disappointing economic data
Well, if they have had their dopey ass foot on the pedal for all these years now, and the economic data STILL sucks, maybe the gas pedal is NOT the one to be pressing?
y sad that even if Revs are beating or coming within consensus, they are usually LESS than last time, so the economy is NOT growing as Zero and all the boys keep saying. Glad we pumped a few TRILLION dollars of vapor currency to make things better.
US MBA Mortgage Applications (Apr 26) W/W 1.8% (Prev. 0.2%) $$
That bodes well for WLT, the calls I am NOT playing.
You are good unless you go out to dinner one night and bring the WRONG husband home!
Looks like we may see SPY $160 before the market opens. Econ data will probably stink today, but the market does NOT care, the FOMC will be all they need to know and we all know that Ben will not be changing anything.
Hmmm....Gold and Silver again losing whatever green they had overnight. Looks like those SLV Puts may happen for ya Stuff.
LOL I see we are still beating earnings, but missing on revs. Same old story, next quarter going to really stink, only so much blood you can get from a stone.
Good morning Stuff! Sorry, you weren't on just yet before I left to work on my incredible HOT body at the gym.
Today was just ABS, so it was a quickie. Going running shortly. I HATE running.
Praying for sunshine and a Normandy win!
No teleconference, you guys are stuck with me for a little longer now.
Gym time, and then friggin' teleconference time, will be back later gentlemen.
Good morning there SkeMan. Got my fingers crossed for the big draw coming up. You all ready for your Derby this weekend?
Really!!?? Why bother, the market is going only in one direction with 'ol Ben at the helm, and that is UP, no matter what crappy data comes out. I mean, damn, these guys need even MORE of an edge? They should be flogged!
LOL, oops, sorry about that. Most Saturday state items are early Sunday morning to me.
Good morning EZ.
BIG ECON DATA AND TIMES FOR TODAY
Motor Vehicle Sales
7:00 AM ET
ADP Employment Report
8:15 AM ET
PMI Manufacturing Index
8:58 AM ET
ISM Mfg Index
10:00 AM ET
Construction Spending
10:00 AM ET
EIA Petroleum Status Report
10:30 AM ET
FOMC Meeting Announcement
2:00 PM ET
Japanese Shares Fall After Best Month Since 1999
By Anna Kitanaka - May 1, 2013
Japanese shares fell, with the Topix (TPX) Index dropping after posting its biggest monthly advance since 1999, as earnings reports from Alps Electric Co. to Tokyo Electron Ltd. disappointed investors.
Alps Electric, a car audio maker, slumped 8.9 percent and semiconductor manufacturer Tokyo Electron dropped 4.1 percent after forecasting profit that missed analyst estimates. Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, slid 3 percent after reporting a loss six times bigger than its forecast. Tokuyama Corp., a chemicals maker, advanced the most on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average after forecasting a return to profit.
The Topix lost 0.6 percent to 1,158.37 at the close of trading in Tokyo, with about nine stocks falling for every seven that rose on the 1,711-member gauge. The measure yesterday capped a 13 percent advance for the month, its best gain since March 1999. The Nikkei 225 slid 0.4 percent to 13,799.35 today.
“With Japanese shares rising this far, there’s going to be some profit taking going on,” said Takashi Aoki, a Tokyo-based fund manager at Mizuho Asset Management Co., which oversees about $34 billion. “With earnings, it’s becoming clearer that there are some companies that cannot be saved just by the weaker yen.”
The Topix advanced 6 percent from mid-November as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and central bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda pledged to defeat 15 years of deflation. Brokerages, real-estate companies and makers of rubber products have led gains among the 33 industries on the gauge.
Relative Value
The Topix traded at 1.3 times book value, compared with 2.4 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 1.6 for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Of the companies that have reported annual earnings since March 31 and for which Bloomberg has estimates, 150 companies have beaten analyst projections and 114 have fallen short, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Alps Electric slumped 8.9 percent to 675 yen, the biggest drop on the Nikkei 225 and its biggest decline since October. The company forecast net income this year of 9.5 billion yen, missing the 10.8 billion yen estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Tokyo Electron, the third-biggest drag on the Nikkei 225, slid 4.1 percent to 4,785 yen after forecasting 13 billion yen in profit this year, below the 16.3 billion yen estimates of analysts before its earnings were announced.
U.S. Futures
Among other stocks that fell, Tokyo Electric Power declined 3 percent to 417 yen, after posting a net loss of 685.3 billion yen for the year ended March. The figure is more than six times worse than the company’s forecast, while also missing the 133 billion yen in analysts’ estimates.
Futures on the S&P 500 were little changed today. The U.S. equity benchmark index closed at another record yesterday as consumer confidence gained and investors bet central banks worldwide will continue their efforts to stimulate the economy.
Among stocks that rose, Tokuyama jumped 8.8 percent to 285 yen as it forecast 7.5 billion yen in net income after posting a 38 billion yen net loss last fiscal year.
Nippon Paper Industries Co. posted the second-biggest gain on the Nikkei 225 and led the pulp and paper sector higher on the Topix Index after Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. boosted its rating on the stock to outperform. The shares jumped 8.3 percent to 1,573 yen.
The Nikkei Stock Average Volatility Index fell 7.4 percent to 23.39 today, indicating traders expect a swing of about 6.8 percent on the benchmark gauge over the next 30 days. Volume on the gauge was 29 percent below its 30-day average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Markets will be closed in Japan on May 3 and 6 for public holidays.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Kitanaka in Tokyo at akitanaka@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net
My LAST time for this round, I say WE WIN IT ALL NOW!! WAHOO!
Now, how to explain it to my wife when I don't come home and go directly to some island somewhere.....
GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF US.
Russell 2000 Edging Higher - A Look at the Technicals http://stks.co/eSSb
No end in sight for Fed stimulus as inflation sags
Reuters
By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's debate over U.S. monetary policy could begin to shift away from the prospect of reducing stimulus toward a discussion about doing more, given the signs of economic weakness and slowing inflation.
But policymakers are not there yet.
At a two-day meeting that wraps up on Wednesday, the Fed is widely expected to maintain its monthly purchases of $85 billion in bonds to support an economic recovery that is nearly four years old but still too weak for the job market to truly heal.
With the central bank's favored inflation gauge slipping and employment growth faltering, Fed officials could again find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to shift from talk of curbing stimulus to the possibility of doing more.
Currently, analysts see the Fed buying a total $1 trillion in Treasury and mortgage-backed securities during the ongoing third round of quantitative easing, known as QE3. Until recently, analysts had believed the Fed would start taking the foot off the accelerator in the second half of the year.
Now, things are looking a bit more shaky.
The housing market continues to show signs of strength, with home prices posting their biggest yearly gain since 2006, the year the market began a historic slide that snowballed into a global financial crisis.
However, the industrial sector is not quite as perky. Durable goods orders posted their largest drop in seven months in March, while an index of Midwest manufacturing showed an unexpected contraction in the sector for April.
Economic growth did rebound in the first quarter after a dismal end to 2012, but the 2.5 percent annual rate of expansion fell short of economists' estimates, and economists are already penciling in a weaker second quarter.
At the same time, inflation has steadily been coming down. The Fed's preferred measure of core inflation, which excludes more volatile food and energy costs, rose just 1.1 percent in the year to March. Overall inflation was up just 1 percent, the smallest gain in 3-1/2 years.
The Fed targets inflation of 2 percent.
MORE - http://finance.yahoo.com/news/no-end-sight-fed-stimulus-040556215.html?l=1
China Manufacturing Gauge Signals Slowdown Persisting: Economy
By Bloomberg News - Apr 30, 2013
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. Readings above 50 signal expansion.
Australian stocks fell and copper declined as the report increased concern that demand from China for commodities will slow. The figures add to data showing growth in industrial companies’ profits decelerated in March and Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., the nation’s biggest producer of the lightweight metal, having a sixth straight quarterly loss.
“The debate about growth -- and just how much we should worry about this weak recovery -- is likely to build in Beijing,” said Stephen Green, head of Greater China research at Standard Chartered Plc in Hong Kong. Today’s number is “disappointing,” he said in an e-mail.
A private survey of China manufacturing by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics had a preliminary reading of 50.5 for April, down from the final level of 51.6 for March, a report showed last month. The final figure will be released tomorrow.
Signs of slowing expansion are spreading across Asia. Japanese and South Korean industrial output was less than estimates in March and Taiwan’s first-quarter growth was half the forecast pace as weakness in global demand limits recoveries in Asian economies, reports showed yesterday.
Orders Slow
A gauge of new orders in China manufacturing fell to 51.7 from 52.3 in March, while an index of new export orders dropped to 48.6 from 50.9 and the reading on inventories of finished goods declined to 47.7 from 50.2, according to today’s data, based on a survey of businesses.
Chinese stocks fell to a four-month low before the three- day Labor Day holiday that ends today on concern that a slowdown will drag on earnings. Growth risks include weakness in export demand, property-market overheating, a surge in so-called shadow banking and the damping of consumption by President Xi Jinping’s campaign to rein in official spending.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) is down 11 percent from this year’s Feb. 6 high. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of stocks fell 0.3 percent at 11:30 a.m. in Tokyo.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 0.4 percent at 12:32 p.m. in Sydney, while copper for delivery in three months declined as much as 0.5 percent to $7,020 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange and traded at $7,025.25 by 10:35 a.m. in Singapore.
Sustain Recovery
The decline in April’s index shows that the “foundation of an economic stabilization is still not solid,” Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Center, an agency advising China’s cabinet, said in a statement. “The economic growth rate may fall slightly in the future, and China needs to stabilize domestic demand to make the economic recovery more sustainable.”
The world’s second-biggest economy expanded 7.7 percent in the first quarter, less than analysts’ forecasts and below the 7.9 percent pace in the final three months of last year. Growth in industrial companies’ profits slowed in March, an April 27 report showed.
The fourth quarter’s growth rebound “was an old fashioned one led by fast implementation of fiscal programs and accelerated investment,” said Liu Li-Gang, head of Greater China economics at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Hong Kong. “Now the momentum has petered off as shown by recent slowing investment growth.”
Loosen Controls
China’s new government “must initiate a new round of reform programs to restart the sputtering economy” including plans for urbanization, reducing service-industry taxes and loosening controls on interest rates, Liu said in an e-mail.
Separately today, South Korean exports rose less than forecast in April, climbing 0.4 percent from a year earlier, while imports declined 0.5 percent, government data showed. In Indonesia, inflation slowed to 5.57 percent in April from a year earlier.
In the U.S., companies probably added 150,000 workers in April, less than the 158,000 recorded in March, economists forecast ahead of figures due today from the Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Research Institute.
In January, the Chinese federation increased the number of companies in its survey to 3,000 from 820 and reclassified the industries covered into 21 groups from 31. It hasn’t given a further breakdown of respondents.
A purchasing managers’ index for large companies fell 0.4 point from March to 51, while a gauge for mid-sized enterprises rose 0.4 to 50.7 and a reading for small businesses dropped 1.7 to 47.6, according to the statistics bureau.
“China needs to cement its domestic economic growth momentum and guard against potential risks in financial sectors,” the Politburo Standing Committee said in an April 25 statement.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Xin Zhou in Beijing at xzhou68@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at ppanckhurst@bloomberg.net
.
®2013 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
China Manufacturing PMI 50.6 on expectations of 50.8
MISS, should send markets to NEW HIGHS tomorrow.
<mish>Here We Go Again - Builders Hold Lotteries for Right to Buy a House
Here's that "froth" thing again: Builders hold lotteries for eager new homebuyers.
O'Brien Homes started holding a monthly housing lottery for its 228-unit development called Fusion in Sunnyvale, Calf., after seeing throngs of prospective buyers camp out at the openings of other new condo complexes in the area.
Each month, as new sections of the development came under construction, roughly 50 buyers would show up at O'Brien Homes' sales office hoping to be picked for one of the 10 or so sites available. The participants were already pre-qualified for a mortgage and had their down payment in place. After being assigned a number, they crossed their fingers and waited for each bingo ball to be plucked from the tumbler.
"Some people would come back month after month," said Frimel. "It got very frustrating for them."
Adding to that frustration was that home prices rose virtually every time a new group of homes went on sale. The two-, three- and four-bedroom homes started out between $420,000 and $620,000. The last grouping went for $555,000 to $815,000, a 32% increase.
Even with the price hikes, buyers kept returning. O'Brien started issuing returnees an extra bingo ball. If they lost for four straight months, they would get five chances the next time.
Here's my Greenspan imitation: "Don't worry, it's only some sections of the country. Besides it's well supported by the fundamentals. And as we all know, home prices never drop."
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/04/here-we-go-again-builders-hold.html#0MV8xctS5cEdBlp7.99
First legal online poker site goes live in Nevada
Tue, Apr 30 2013
By Ronald Grover
(Reuters) - Already home to the Las Vegas strip with its casinos and high-stakes games, Nevada on Tuesday became the first state where residents can legally play poker online for money.
Station Casinos went live with UltimatePoker.com after Nevada legalized online poker in February. New Jersey and Delaware have legalized online gambling, which could eventually generate billions of dollars in revenue for companies and local governments.
UlimatePoker.com will operate under a 30-day license, said A.G. Burnett, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, while the site works out "the kinks" before getting a formal license that he said would likely be granted.
"We have others right behind them," said Burnett.
Players compete in nightly games with a prize pool of $1,000 and a pair of $10,000 Sunday games, according to the site, which is operated by Station Casinos' subsidiary, Ultimate Gaming.
Players must be at least 21 years old and residents of Nevada.
"Other states will be watching Nevada closely to see whether it can effectively implement technology solutions that allow gambling businesses licensed there to identify the age, identity and location of their customers," Chris Krafcik, North America research director online gaming analysts Gambling Compliance, said in an email.
Internet betting was banned by Congress in 2006, but tax-hungry states are now relaxing rules.
Players put money into the pot through bank wire, mailed checks or by withdrawing cash at one of 16 Station casinos.
The site will be marketed with Ultimate Fighting Championship, the mixed martial arts competition that is operated by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, brothers who also control Station Casinos.
(Reporting by Ronald Grover in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
It was SO nice last night, a ROCKET FREE NIGHT! SLept like a baby, refreshed and ready to take on the world this morning.
Off to the post office to have mail out my Mothers Day Card to mama. Back with news and views while you sleep.
Good morning Stuff. Yeah, looks like WLT has some upward move coming, but not in it due to the high prices of those options. Really loving that C was down on a pretty nice SPY day, though XLF moved north. The banks are way overdone in this crappy economy, sell in May I believe has another year in it, especially after this huge run we have had.
And I was right, I go to sleep with SPY dropping nice, and I wake up to GREEN. I guess Zero used his mesmerizing magic again.
Very true Bunns. I just don't want to LOOK LIKE EZ, heheheheheh.
LOL, was waiting for that before hitting the sack. Got to be KIDDING me! SOmetimes I just have to nod my head, and wonder what the heck people are thinking.
Oh well, will probably launch us to new highs tonight.
GOOD NIGHT LOTTOS! Cohiba out til tomorrow. MAKE THE BIG BUCKS!
Wow, SPY dropping nice, I should have gotten some PUTS there. Did not notice while I was typing, good for my Puts.
XLF and C dropping like rocks as well. Nice to see NOW, but I am sure they will end up flat by the time I wake up tomorrow.
GOOD NIGHT ALL! DOne with my 3 trades, need to sleep or I will be buying $25 AAPL puts.
Yep, I am a little peon as well. Stuff and EZ are teh BIG money players, with their off shore accounts, vaults of gold, helicopters and Kentucky Derby horses.
1 PERCENTERS!!
Yep, X a great stock to play both ways lately. Wish I were in that CLF pop last week.
SO far, the C Put moving nice, maybe my May starts today.
WLT I think will pop after earnings, if just to burn some shorts, but not liking the prices.
Hello hot BUNNS! Yeah, usual rigged day in the market. Another big econ number coming out at 1000, consumer confidence. Don't see how that can be positive, nobody really spending, no matter what Obama says. Lots of REV misses out there.
Chicago PMI misses, but POMO saving the day after the dip. Let's see what happens today, end of month, tomorrow I am hoping for the SELL IN MAY, and for C to follow the last 3 years.
Last buy are the XLF $18 puts for .07 LOTTO for a melt down in May.
Got the $17.50 CALL calls for .55 through earnings for squeeze play.
Alright, just got me some C $46 May Puts for .59 think PMI misses and we come down hard.
Just waiting for the first 15 minutes to pass by, too much insanity out there right now.
Ugh, C moving like a jack rabbit all over the place!
C popped, watching, but loking to get in the puts for under .60