(7:11am ET) There was plenty of economic data released in the US during the day; however the equity market sidetracked until 2pm ET, when with prices at modest losing levels on the week until that point, suddenly, and for no discernable reason, there was a rally that left the indexes with small gains through Thursday. Perhaps traders were anticipating a positive quarterly report from Google (GOOG +2.4% on +151% of average daily trading volume)? After the close, the company did not disappoint, beating both revenue and EPS estimates. The company posted net income of $1.42 billion ($5.16/share), up +8% from the $1.31 billion ($4.84/share) recorded during the same period a year ago. Revenue for 1Q2009 increased +10% to $4.07 billion, from $3.7 billion, excluding traffic acquisition costs. On average, analysts had expected earnings per share of $4.93 and revenue of $4.08 billion, according to Yahoo Finance. For the first[More...]

(8:25am ET) The main focus of traders today will be the 1Q2009 earnings report from JP Morgan (JPM), and the close scrutiny of the data and hype that will follow. After hitting a low of $14.93 in early March, JPM has rallied +118.1% to yesterday’s close of $32.56. There was a high of $34.15 on Tuesday. http://tinyurl.com/da6dcv JP Morgan reported Q1 net income of $2.14 billion, or $0.40/share, down -10% from a year earlier, but beat analysts' expectations. Revenue increased +48% to $25.03 billion. WSJ reported that CEO Jamie Dimon said the firm extended about $150 billion in new credit to consumer and corporate customers during the quarter. With a last hour rally spurred by the real estate investment trusts (REITS) ($DJR +8.7%) and Banks ($BKX +5.1%) in the Financial sector (XLF +4.8%), the US equity[More...]

(9:30am ET) Stocks in NY sank at the open following various negative reports from TV talking heads, though trade volume was weak on the Easter Monday. After the close, Goldman Sachs surprised with unusually positive revenue and earnings. Today, President Obama will be making a speech on the state of the economy. Traders are confused. Yesterday was pretty much a lost day in the market. Very little of consequence happened. By the close, the DJIA’s small loss (-25.57 -0.32% to 8057.81) offset the small gain in the S&P (+2.17 +0.25% to 858.73), while the NASDAQ (+0.77 +0.05% to 1653.31) was flat. The Toronto Composite (+98.50 +1.07% to 9285.6) and the Toronto Venture Board (+11.89 +1.23% to 980.86) were stronger as the metal miners and goldminers enjoyed a good day. Except for Japan’s Nikkei 225 index (-0.92% to 8842.7), prices today were strong in the major international equity markets: Australia (+2.22% to[More...]

(8:05am ET) Stocks closed Monday's session in NY lower on a lightly-traded day, but much higher Week over Week. Through Friday, the major market indexes saw their largest four-week gains in seventy-six years. Now the market is preparing for 1Q2009 earnings season, which gets underway today with Alcoa (AA). On Monday, the DJIA (-41.74 -0.52% to 7975.85), S&P (-7.02 -0.83% to 835.48), and NASDAQ (-15.16 -0.93% to 1606.71) could not make headway against concerns the major banks may be preparing to release negative quarterly reports. The Toronto Composite (-49.59 -0.55% to 9016.17), and Venture Board (-12.42 -1.27% to 963.17) were also down on the day, but higher Week over Week. In international equity markets today, the closing prices showed losses except for Shanghai China (+0.80% to 2439.2): Australia -1.30% to 3648.5; Hong Kong -0.46% to 14929.0; India -1.80% to 10534.9; and Japan -0.28% to 8832.9. At 7:30am ET,[More...]

(8:07am ET) In his absence, Bill has asked the CTAB traders fill in for him today and maybe tomorrow as well. Bill was having connectivity and other related computer issues early Tuesday morning. Perhaps the Conficker worm virus programmed to be unleashed April 1, began slithering through the Bahamas a little ahead of schedule. The final trading day of the month opened higher, with aggressive traders nimbly positioning themselves for further short gains, after a late afternoon bounce Monday, anticipating large money managers to “mark up” equities boosting their quarter end returns. This strategy paid off nicely as the S&P future rose to 807, nearly 4% off Monday’s late afternoon low of 776. However, traders expecting prices to close near the highs were disappointed, as stocks peaked near 3pm eastern, giving up a significant portion of the day’s gains. The DJIA finished up 86.9 (+1.15%) closing at 7608.92,[More...]