Need to Know
APRIL 17, 2013
7 gut checks before the stock
market's opening bell
By Shawn Langlois
Good
morning.
Yesterday's rebound provided more evidence that the market, despite the
occasional belch, is still going strong. Unless you're knee deep in gold, like still-a-billionaire John Paulson .
But this isn't the kind of rally we've seen in recent years. There's
something missing, and that's tech leadership. Apple , which is bouncing
around its annual low, being the most obvious.
When investors are feeling frisky, they look to tech for their speculative
fix. They're just not in the mood, apparently, as techs have diverged from
the S&P in a big way over the past six months. Instead, it's consumer staples pacing the bull rush
here. That could change soon, however, with some "pruning and planting"
potentially on tap this earnings season that could pave the way to
the next leg up. But the weak premarket action from Yahoo and Intel isn't
exactly screaming out for a rotation into the sector.
Key market gauges: Asia finally booked gains for the
first time in three days, led by a 1.2% charge on the Nikkei . Europe
is losing its grip on early advances while futures on the Dow and the
S&P are also pushing lower.
Gold is back to its losing ways, resuming a decline that saw the
front-month contract shed 8% already this week. It's likely that
"financial markets will continue to take its cues from any further
abrupt movements in the price of the precious metal over the short
term," CMC Markets senior trader Tim Waterer said. Read more about how
gold prices are backing off gains
and check out five mutual funds that were hammered by the slide
.
The economy: We'll get an update on the state of the economy
with the Federal Reserve's Beige Book survey at 2 p.m. Eastern. The most
compelling speech is slated to start at 9:30 a.m. That's when St. Louis Fed
President James Bullard talks about "some unpleasant
implications" of the new Fed policy to target the unemployment rate. Read: The Beige Book may be blue .
Earnings: Bank of America shares are retreating early after
the company missed estimates with its first-quarter report . Later in the
day, analysts will be looking for good things
from EBay , whose stock has managed to rally more than 60% in the past
year. American Express and Mattel are also handing in their results. Read: Stocks to watch .
The buzz: Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff still top
Google's business page after a landmark paper the two penned back in 2010
was debunked by the Roosevelt Institute
yesterday. This is how you can avoid making the same Excel mistake they made
, courtesy of Quartz. Read more from The Tell and why Paul
Krugman says Reinhart and Rogoff's response is "really,
really bad."
Yahoo and Intel remain in the spotlight after they reported
results in yesterday's extended session . Yahoo,
which scores high in terms of bullish intensity on Twitter, is getting hit
hard before the open. Intel, not as bad, but still down. Read: Is Mayer's honeymoon over with these results?
Grainger , BlackRock and Coke are also high on Market IQ's
trending list. Over on StockTwits , Microsoft and Cirrus
Logic , which The Fly tags as one of the worst stocks in the market ,
are attracting attention. Read about Microsoft's recent upgrade .
The chart of the day: Coke grabbed most of the soft drink
headlines yesterday, gaining 5.7% following its quarterly earnings report . Now,
another bubbly drink maker is poised for a "monster of a run" of
its own, according to Dragonfly Capital's Greg Harmon. And that's Monster .
No, not the movie that forever ruined the Charlize Theron
fantasy for me , but the company that makes Hansen's sodas and
Monster Energy drinks. Harmon is focused on the technical case here,
pointing that a move over the $57.50 consolidation area signals a break out
higher.
The
call of the day: A bit of nostalgia for me,
thanks to Seeking Alpha's Myles McCabe, who posted a bullish call on Apache Corp. this
morning. My gramps was a great investor, a long-termer who always seemed to
end up on the right side of the trade. But he wasn't much for touting
individual stocks. Apache was one exception back in the 90s, and I made a
relative killing following his advice as the stock rallied 10-fold from
1998 to 2007. Grandpa George is gone and so is Apache's relentless
rally. But not for long, according to McCabe.
"Investors seeking to add exposure to the international energy market,
play the unrest in Egypt, or hedge their personal finances against rising
gasoline costs would be well-served by considering an investment in Apache
below $75 per share," he wrote in his "Buy Apache -- market fears
unfounded" post. His price target: $100.
Random reads: Busted! The FBI raided the Nahmad Gallery in
Manhattan, taking aim at a Russian gambling and money-laundering ring
that "stretched from Kiev and Moscow to Los Angeles and New
York."
Here's some of our streaming coverage from the Maggie Thatcher funeral
going down right outside our window here in the City of London. Speaking of
notable passings, we lost a good one in Pat Summerall .
Silicon Valley's geeky streets are paved with gold ... for prostitutes, one
of whom says she's made more than a million bucks .
"Hangover" star Bradley Cooper probably doesn't need to enlist
the services of a professional, but he DOES live with his mom .
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