Monday Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets

Good Morning!

Microsoft Still Seeking Yahoo Deal ... Lowe's Q1 Profit Lower, Beats Estimates ... Crude Oil Higher Despite Saudi Production Increase ... Australian Dollar at 24-Year High ... Goldman Upgrades Amazon ... Ted Kenney Hospitalized, "No Immediate Danger" ... Commodity Boom Boosts Emerging Markets Stocks ... Electronic Arts Continues Pursuit of Take-Two Interactive ... Intel, Chipmakers Up in Pre-Market

Asian stocks up ... European stocks down ... The dollar lower against Japanese yen ... And the futures are trending lower in the hour before the bell.

Join TradingMarkets CEO and co-founder Larry Connors for Session Four of the TradingMarkets Swing Trading College, Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. Eastern. Learn the techniques and methods that allow traders to succeed trading stocks, options, ETFs, E-minis and futures in the short term. Click here to learn more!

TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

Microsoft Offers Yahoo Partnership - Bloomberg
Without taking potential acquisition off the table, Microsoft extends an olive branch of sorts in the form of a deal through which Yahoo would display Microsoft search advertisements.

Housing Slump Hammers Lowes - Bloomberg
The worst housing market in decades was blamed for the home improvement retailer's first quarter earnings drop of nearly 18%.

Euro at $1.60? - DailyFX
Chief strategist for DailyFX Kathy Lien investigates how much more upside might remain in the EUR/USD. Find out what CNBC guest analyst and TradingMarkets senior market strategist Mark Whistler thinks about the currency markets on a twice-daily basis. Click here for a free trial to Whistler's Forex Focus today!

Oracle Under Glass - Barrons
Barron's congratulates Larry Ellison for turning Oracle into an IT conglomerate, but bemoans the company's sagging stock price. We look at Oracle and see a stock that has traded in a tight range since breakout out beyond its 200-day moving average. Will it be a pullback or a bounce that creates the next opportunities for traders of this stock? Find out how to trade stocks like this with a free trial to our Short Term PowerRatings!

Icahn's Proxy Fight Record - New York Times
Billionaire Carl Icahn's threat of a proxy fight helped revive interest in the Microsoft/Yahoo deal. But just how effective have this activist investor's proxy fights been in the past? The New York Times' Dealbook looks at Icahn's wins, losses and draws.

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:

• Reporting earnings Monday before the bell, Lowes (LOW | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) beat analyst estimates by one cent, reporting EPS of $0.41.
  

• A Merrill Lynch upgrade to "buy" from "neutral" catapulted shares of Stericycle (SRCL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) higher by more than 6% on Friday.
  
  
• Campbell Soup (CPB | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is scheduled to report earnings Monday morning before the market opens. Analysts expect earnings per share of $0.44.
  
  
• Soaring more than 12% on Friday, shares of Advanced Auto Parts (AAP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) benefited from earnings that handily beat Wall Street estimates.
  
  
• BMC Software (BMC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported fourth quarter profits that beat analyst expectations. The stock was up more than 6% on the day.
  
  
• Analysts expect Home Depot (HD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) which reports earnings on Tuesday morning before the open, to announce EPS of $0.37.
  

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

TradingMarkets 5 PowerRatings Stocks for Today

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

Session 4 Swing Trading College Tuesday - TradingMarkets
Markets go up and markets go down. Smart traders are able to make money regardless of which way stocks move. In session 4 of the TradingMarekts Swing Trading College, TradingMarkets co-founder and CEO Larry Connors introduces the key elements in effective short selling as a swing trader.

Best of the Week That Was - TradingMarkets
Did you catch Part 2 of our interview with financial engineer and author Emanuel Derman? How about Toni Turner's review of PowerShares? And did you know that using stops can actually hurt more than they help? Read our weekly TradingMarkets roundup, "Making Great Traders" where you can find everything you missed from last week.

Big Paulie Tops Up or Down Stock Contest - TradingMarkets
With 11 correct predictions out of 11 trys, "BigPaulie" has taken the lead in the TradingMarkets Up or Down Stock Contest for the month of May. Click here to get in the game and compete for your chance to win up to $11,000 by guessing the direction of a stock!

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