TradingMarkets
Mid-Day Movers

Stocks are trading modestly
higher ahead of the holiday weekend.

With the markets closed tomorrow for the Easter holiday, Thursday saw the
release of a slew of economic data. The Labor Department reported Import Prices
fell in March, with the number surprising economists

(report)
and that Initial Jobless Claims rose last week, the rise was not expected by
economists

(report).
The Commerce Department reported Retail Sales rose in March, with the rise being
more than economists had expected

(report).
Proving economics is not called the dismal science for nothing.

In a holiday shortened session, Treasury prices are trading lower after today’s
data, with the yield on the 10yr T-note comfortably above 5%.

The US Dollar Index is trading slightly higher, boosted by the Dollar’s gains
against the Australian and Canadian Dollar. For more on the Australian Dollar
read

Dave Floyd’s article
from earlier today
.

Crude Oil futures are trading modestly lower, Natural Gas futures are more than
4% despite today’s inventory data.


Stocks In The News


Bayer
(
BAY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)


PowerRating

Launches Official Bid Worth EUR 16.5 Billion For Schering AG
(
SHR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)



PowerRating
(full
story
).

Tribune
(
TRB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)


PowerRating
Q1 Profit Drops Hurt By Weak Ad Revenues (full
story
).

GE’s
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)


PowerRating
Q1 Results Meet Expectations (full
story
).

McDonald’s
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)


PowerRating
March Comp. Sales Up 5.3%; Sees Q1 EPS Of $0.49, In Line
With Street Views (full
story
).

New York Times
(
NYT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)


PowerRating
Q1 Profit Plummets 68% On Charges (full
story
).

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


Dow
+14.98 11,144.95

NASDAQ
+16.21 2330.89

S&P 500
+1.87 1289.99
NYSE NASDAQ

Volume
979,843,000 809,780,000

Advances
1605 1868

Declines
1501 959

Up Volume
436 615

Down Volume
470 146

New Hi’s
48 60

New Lo’s
118 29


Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors

Airline
(
XAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Utility
(
UTY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Disk Drive
(
DDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Oil
(
XOI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Networking
(
NWX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Health Products
(
RXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)


Economic
News

Import Prices Down 0.4% For March (report)

Jobless Claims Up 12,000 To 313,000 (report)

Retail Sales Up 0.6% For March; Ex.-Auto Up 0.4% (report)

University Of Michigan Preliminary April Consumer Sentiment Index At 89.2

Business Inventories Unchanged In Feb.

EIA – Natual Gas Inventories Show Increase Of 19 BCF

For more reports and analysis go to our
Economic
News
section.

Ashton Dorkins

editor@tradingmarkets.com

Get your stocks
PowerRatings
here
.