Ahead of the open, (04-05)

Into the trading week, ..”Longs hope is the IC’s have been deteriorating due to ‘seasonality’ (early warm weather boost, now give back), next I’C is likely critical for this assumption to be believable for much longer”.   Initial claims fell back to 360’s pre-Easter levels giving credence to the above 'weather kick back'.  Taking into effect the previous week’s upward revision, a sequential wk/wk drop of 27K took place as needed.   Why was the ES uptick faded soon after?   Well, that’s because ECB ‘wildcard’ (yesterday’s note) was hawkish, ‘current rate accommodative’.  Market reached too far with hope of any forward looking cut discussions.  In all, it was only an upside risk possibility (if dovish) and shouldn’t have negated the better IC #. The softer services ISM, mixed SSS retail sales (higher end still strong), didn’t help, but wasn’t the market driver to low 1390's again.  If anything, the European close (SP~1402) weighted on stocks. 

 

All in, market was in the twilight zone, not sure what it was thinking or doing  today,(includng bleeding the SOX/RUT to 2X SP losses).  Hopefully, it's just hesitation, a lack of buyers ahead of lowered NFP# expectations or maybe today's flippant reactions are indications market is running out of catalysts short term. (Labor market may take weeks to figure itself out). Only a print of 200K tomorrow may wake this bunch up as SP earnings season effect wanes.

  

Away from the indecisive broad market, single stock action is what it’s really about and a few more Shadowlisted stocks (LQDT, MSTR) came in with excellent EPS and were top 5 point gainers on the NASD.  Decent early entries, (even after gaps) on both stocks provided ~15pts from low to peak in just under 30minutes.  Quick trades or long holds to take some gains off the table, the names keep working Q/Q.  Also, off list , DXPE EPS pushed it to NCH, while (AMC), LKND  came in with a good report.