Friday Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets

Good Morning!

Microsoft, Yahoo Hold Meetings... Former UBS President Calls for Breakup... Family Dollar Stores Beats Estimates... IBM Says Government Suspension Lifted... BAA Seeks $10B in Loans to Pay Off Debt... Non-farm Payrolls Fall Most in 5-Years.

Asian stocks mixed... European stocks up... Dollar down... Treasuries up... And the futures gave back some of their gains after the jobs report.

Download Larry Connors' Most Read Book "How Markets Really Work" FREE until Monday Night!
This book normally retails for $49.95 but you can download it free until Monday, April 7. Click here to download your free copy.

TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

Microsoft, Yahoo Hold Meetings - Wall Street Journal
Microsoft and Yahoo senior executives met this week to discuss Microsoft's proposal to acquire the Internet company but failed to resolve any of their differences.

U.S. Loses 80,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rate Increases - Bloomberg
The U.S. lost jobs for a third consecutive month in March and the unemployment rate rose to the highest level since September 205, pointing to an economy that may already be in a recession.

Bite of the Apple - Portfolio.com
A big deal with MySpace may give the music industry long-sought-after leverage with iTunes.

Testimony Offers Details of Bear Stearns Deal - NY Times
Federal officials and senior Wall Street executives offered their first public account on Thursday of the harrowing four days of negotiations.

Bank Write-Downs: No End Yet - Time
Mortgage-related securities continue to wreak havoc on banks' balance sheets. How much longer can this last?

For more stories as they happen, go to our Breaking News section.

TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Today

Here are 7 stocks for traders for today from TradingMarkets.com:

• Shares of Research In Motion (RIMM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) rose 5.9% after the company reported earnings per share more than doubled from a year ago.
  
  
• Micron Technology (MU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) gained 6.3%, despite reporting a worse than expected loss of $0.41 per share.
  
  
• Constellation Brands (STZ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) swung to a fourth quarter loss, but the company beat estimates and raised its year end forecast.
  
  
• Schnitzer Steel (SCHN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported much better than expected earnings and raised its outlook.
  
  
• The Wall Street Journal reported that Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is considering a bid to buy National City (NCC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating).
  
  
• After the close, Lawson Software (LWSN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported earnings of $0.08 per share, in-line with estimates.
  
  
• Before the market open on Friday, Family Dollar Stores (FDO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) beat estimates by $0.03.

For a list of today's highest PowerRating stocks, click here.

TradingMarkets 5 PowerRatings Stocks for Today

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

Download Larry Connors' Most Read Book "How Markets Really Work" FREE until Monday Night! - TradingMarkets
This book normally retails for $49.95 but you can download it free until Monday, April 7. Click here to download your free copy.

The Real Reason Why Stocks are Diving - TradingMarkets
Don't blame the short sellers! See where Gary Kaltbaum points the finger...

Free Report! The Only 3 Options Trading Strategies You'll Ever Need - TradingMarkets
There may be as many ways to trade the market as there are traders who want to do so. But the difference between the professionals and the amateurs when it comes to trading is that the majority of professional traders know that the edge lies in buying markets when they are weak and selling them when they are strong.

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