Looking To Wednesday, These Earnings Plus This Report Are In Focus

Stocks were in rally mode, closing on their highs.
The Nasdaq closed over 2000–for the first time since April 12–and
above the 200-day moving average.. The rally
was ignited late in the session by the release of a Treasury Department report
which found no manipulation of the yuan–the Chinese currency..

The

PPI for April rose +0.6%, more than expected; ex -food/energy, +0.2%. The core
PPI was 0.3%, and +2.6% year/year. The reading rekindled inflation fears among
traders.  Housing starts for April rose +11% to an annualized rate of 1.97
million units; building permits rose 5.3%.

An OPEC report said oil demand may fall. Separately, Saudi Oil
Minister Ali al-Naimi said that very high oil prices are not in OPEC’s best
interest and that remaining oil reserves are abundant.

After the close, Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
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revenues ($21.6 billion) also beat slightly.  Applied Materials
(
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also beat by a penny on slightly higher revenues. Abercrombie & Fitch
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ANF |
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beat by 0.03.

Home Depot
(
HD |
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targets. The retail sector is strong on the news.

JC Penney
(
JCP |
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Staples
(
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Agilent (A)
missed by a penny and guided lower for Q3.

Saks
(
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Deere
(
DE |
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Boise Cascade will delay its IPO. The IPO market has been weak of
late: both Warner Music (WMG) and Lazard (LAZ) are both trading
below their offering prices.

The US Senate passed a $295 billion highway bill.

Larry Ellison said Oracle
(
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large acquisitions. Siebel
(
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potential takeover target.

Happy Birthday NYSE!  213 years old today.

Tomorrow morning at 8:30 ET, look for the CPI; consensus is 0.4% with
core at 0.2%.

Strong sectors were:  Gold
(
$HUI.X |
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Natural Gas 
(
$XNG.X |
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(
$RLX.X |
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+1.64%  

Weak sectors were:    Biotech
(
$BTK.X |
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PowerRating) -0.13%    

TJX
(
TJX |
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Barnes & Noble
(
BKS |
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Hershey
(
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SonicWall (SNWL)
beat by 0.04 and guided Q2 higher.

Warren Buffet
said he owns 630,000 shares of Proctor & Gamble (PG).

BJ’s Wholesale
(
BJ |
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ExxonMobil
(
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The New York Times
(
NYT |
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its online content.

Taser
(
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