Stocks Rocket, Confidence Surges, Home Prices Fall

The stock market surged higher today on exploding higher Consumer Confidence figures despite a record drop in home prices and bad news from the auto sector. Home prices dropped over 19% in the first quarter, a new record decline. Auto maker, General Motors, moved closer to bankruptcy as bondholders failed to accept a debt for equity swap. The DJIA closed near the highs up +196.17 to 8473.49, the Nasdaq surged +58.42 to 1750.43 and the S&P 500 advanced +23.33 to 910.33.

Apple
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– Advanced 6.60% or $8.11 to $130.61/share upon being upgraded to overweight by Morgan Stanley.

General Motors
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Surged over 25% higher intraday on word of massive government assistance despite the imminent bankruptcy. However, shares closed lower by 2.80% or 0.04 cents to $1.39/share.

Palm
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– Jumped 10.38% or $1.05 to $11.17/share on consumer acceptance of its new phone named “pre”.

First Solar
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– Dropped 6.37% or $12.21 to $179.51/share after being downgraded to market perform by FBR Capital.

Oil climbed 0.78 cents to $62.41, Gold fell $5.60 to $953.30 and the fear index VIX fell 6.16% to 30.62.

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Market Snapshot

Dow

+196.17 8473.49

NASDAQ

+58.42 1750.43

S&P 500

+23.33 910.33

Economic
News

S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index (Mar): Consensus: -18.4%, Prior: -18.63%

Consumer Confidence (May): Consensus: 42.0, Prior: 39.2

Existing Home Sales (Apr): Consensus: 4.65M, Prior: 4.57M

Durable Goods Orders (Apr): Consensus: 0.5%, Prior: -0.8%

Durables Ex-Transport (Apr): Consensus: -0.3%, Prior: -0.6%

Initial Claims (05/23): Consensus: NA, Prior: 631K

New Home Sales (Apr): Consensus: 356K, Prior: 356K

Crude Inventories (5/22): Consensus: NA, Prior: -2.10M

GDP – Prelim. (Q1): Consensus: -5.5%, Prior: -6.1%

GDP Deflator (Q1): Consensus: 2.9%, Prior: 2.9%

Chicago PMI (May): Consensus: 42.0, Prior: 40.1

Mich Sentiment-Rev (May): Consensus: 68.0, Prior: 67.9