Teach Your Children How to Be a Responsible Adult

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Retail sales in the United States rose 0.8 percent in March, thanks in part to warmer weather and an improved economy. What do you think?

“Oh, really? Because there’s been a 14 year-old riding lawn mower in my yard for six weeks with a for-sale sign on it that says you’re full of shit.”
Joshua Gooch
Disassembler

“It must be the spring, when credit card debt statements fade in the glow of the late April sun.”
Andrew Lamey
Systems Analyst

SOURCE

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuJ96dEaxEo 450 300]

Full report

Economist say they have plans to heal the economy, but hardly any of them expect Congress to do anything….

Either an incredible genius or and incredible ego. Good or bad it does not matter since Facebook is still private…..

From under perform to hold…..

“Applications for U.S. home mortgages jumped last week as a drop in interest rates fueled demand for refinancings, though purchases tumbled, an industry group said on Wednesday.

CNBC.com

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, rose 6.9 percent in the week ended April 13.

The MBA’s seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications surged 13.5 percent, but the gauge of loan requests for home purchases dropped 11.2 percent. It was the second week in a row purchases have declined.

“Renewed concerns about sovereign debt  in Europe led to a drop in rates last week, with the 30-year rate tying our survey low, reached in early February. Refinance activity picked up in response,” Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist, said in a statement….”

Read more

Print 4ever

“TIME Magazine has released their list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and we really weren’t too surprised to find Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater—one of the most successful hedge funds in the world—and newly minted King of Hedge Funds, on the list.

To add even more fanfare to the honor, former Federal Reserve Paul Volcker wrote the short explanation of why Dalio deserves the title, citing not only Dalio’s brilliance as a hedge fund manager, but also his support of jazz music and the ownership of a ship suited for deep-sea exploration.

From TIME:

What matters more is that he has strong and a bit unorthodox convictions about the workings of the economic machine. The judgments that have emerged have been prescient. Ray was, for example, one of the first to recognize the risks of the excessive indebtedness and leveraging of the U.S. and some European economies.

Read the whole TIME piece here >“

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Don’t worry about carrier subsidies…..

Source

“Recently Nomura’s Bob Janjuah has made some sort-of bullish comments, suggesting that Bernanke would pump more money into the market again driving up risk assets.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV he said his bullish stance is just for the short-term:

“It’s a short term tactical move recognizing and reflecting I think the monetary anarchy that’s playing out. So just to summarize my view having got Q1 pretty spectacularly wrong, because completely misread the LTRO, the view here is that Q2 – 10 percent correction which probably started a couple of weeks back.

So looking for the S&P straight down into the low 1,300s, high 1200s. Later in June or July a Fed twist -inspired rally which I think could take us higher than people expect into the election. But beyond that, bearing in mind the fact that global growth, including U.S. growth, is not self-sustaining, and the fiscal cliff ahead of us, my longer term secular bearish calls still hold: S&P around 800 target and DOW-gold ratio down at 1.”

Janjuah said the Fed is being cautious about more outright QE because it would send a negative signal to the real economy and drive up commodity prices. Janjuah went so far as to say that higher gas prices could impact President Obama’s re-election campaign and that the Fed was being influenced by what is going on in the Fed arena.

He added that using S&P as a proxy for global markets he says we’re no more than a thirdy of way through what is likely to be a month or so of correcting markets.”

The silliest protest ever…..

Gapping up

DEPO +11.3%, URI +7.6%, ISRG +6%, ADES +2.9%, CSX +2.9%, SYK +2%, BBL +1.9%,

YHOO +1.9%, BHP +1.7%, AIG +1.2%,  DECK +2.2%, AIG +1.8%, MUX +1.6%, BBY +2.6% ,

ADES +2.9% , RIO +1.3%, HSI +34.9%,SXCI +12.1% , THQI +44.4%, URI +10%, ISRG +6%, PII +5.3%

TXT +4%, STX +3.1%, HAL +2%, ABT +1.3%, SYK +0.2%,

Gapping down

IN -17.7%, GNW -7.8%, TNP -6.8%, CREE -6.3%, ASML -3.3%, INTC -2.1%, IBM -2.1%, PARL -1.6%,

BEE -1.5%, MT -1.4%, LEDS -1.3%,  MSTR -1.5%, FSLR -0.8% , PNRA -0.8% ,  BRK.B -0.9%,

CHK -1.3%,  TNP -6.8% , ALU -4%, E -1.3%, TOT -0.9%, RIG -0.6%, BP -0.4%,  PARL -1.6%,

UBS -3%, NBG -2.8%, CS -2.6%, STD -2.3%, DB -1.2%, ING -0.4%, C -0.3%, SYT -3% , ASML -2.8%,

LLTC -1.7%,

Source

“Cree Inc. (CREE) : The maker of energy-efficient lighting reported third-quarter earnings of 20 cents a share, missing the average analyst estimate by 1 cent.

CSX Corp. (CSX) : The biggest U.S. eastern railroad said first-quarter profit topped analysts’ estimates as freight shipments rose.

Intel Corp. (INTC) : The world’s largest semiconductor maker predicted higher second-quarter sales than some analysts had estimated as it ships new personal-computer and server chips and shortages of hard drives abate.

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) : The world’s biggest computer-services provider reported first-quarter revenue was $24.67 billion, falling short of the average analyst estimate of $24.79 billion.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) : The maker of a robotic system to perform surgery reported first-quarter adjusted profit of $3.50 a share, surpassing the average analyst estimate of $3.12.

Stryker Corp. (SYK) : The maker of artificial hips and knees reported first-quarter sales of $2.16 billion, topping the average analyst estimate of $2.12 billion.

United Rentals Inc. (URI) : The construction-equipment rental company posted first-quarter revenue of $656 million, exceeding the average analyst estimate of $611.4 million.

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) : The largest U.S. Web portal reported earnings and sales that exceeded estimates as it benefited from growth in the online advertising market under newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Scott Thompson.”