I am catching up after a day watching luminaries speak at the Wired Disrupt conference yesterday. I did stay somewhat plugged in, thanks to the Bloomberg iPad app.
There were a few things about recent trading action and macro data that stood out to me:
-April was the first negative month this year, following a red hot Q1;
-Markets up 10-12% for the year, appear to be backing and filling (which is healthy)
-Economic data continues to come in mixed, with some upside surprises (ie, ISM data);
-Yesterday’s market advance was on a big expansion in Volume over Monday’s pullback. Volume on the NYSE/Nasdaq rose ~15%;
-The strong day to multi-year highs back slid, however, closing rather weakly;
-Gasoline prices seem to have peaked and are slipping — down 18 cents per gallon from last month’s price of $3.740. Every 10% drop puts a few $Billion in the pockets of consumers;
-Spain, much larger than Greece, appears to be in as bad (or worse) shape.
-Friday’s NFP has the potential to surprise in either direction (duh);
–Sell in May then Go Away tends not to work in a Presidential election year.
I have a few interesting things in the hopper I am working on. Be back soon . . .
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