Lacking Wow Factor

A day after the Twitter account hack of the Associated Press caused a four minute stock market crash, all we have to look forward to is the Champion's League semi-final match schedule. A poor Durable Goods Orders data-point is certainly weighing Wednesday, but Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) lack of wow factor and other corporate earnings reports have the market mixed and relatively unchanged to start the day. Find all the day’s economic data, corporate events and other business news herein.

Our founder earned clients a 23% average annual return over five years as a stock analyst on Wall Street. "The Greek" has written for institutional newsletters, Businessweek, Real Money, Seeking Alpha and others, while also appearing across TV and radio. While writing for Wall Street Greek, Mr. Kaminis presciently warned of the financial crisis.

Economic Events

Durable Goods Orders will be reported for the month of March on Wednesday at 10:00 AM ET. This is a volatile measure and a difficult one for economists to peg, because of the high ticket price of durable goods. For this reason, the data comes with and without the especially high-priced transportation segment data. Economists expect durable goods orders to show 2.8% lower for March, after February’s climb of 5.7%. Excluding transportation, though, durables are expected to just inch up by 0.5%, after falling 0.5% last month.

The latest mortgage activity data arrives from the Mortgage Bankers Association Wednesday before the market open. Last week’s report covering the period ending April 12 showed mortgage applications increased by 4.8%, after rising 4.5% the week before. Applications tied to the purchases of homes increased by 4.0% on a seasonally adjusted basis to its highest level since May of 2012. The Refinance Index increased by 5.0%, after rising 6.0% the week before. Effective interest rates mostly fell or stayed low in the period and the weather is improving and supporting the spring season as well.

Washington D.C. will play a role in trade today, with three significant events. The Joint Economic Committee is holding a hearing on the issue of long-term unemployment. Meanwhile, the House Financial Services Committee is having a hearing on housing finance and the regulatory impediments to private investment capital. Also, the Independent Community Bankers of America has their annual Washington Policy Summit today and tomorrow.

Commodity Markets (9:07 AM ET)

WTI Crude	+0.4%
Brent Crude	+0.4%
RBOB Gasoline	-0.3%
NYMEX Natural Gas	+0.2%
Gold Spot	+1.2%
Silver Spot	+1.0%
COMEX Copper	+1.8%
CBOT Corn	+0.3%
CBOT Wheat	+0.1%
CBOT Soybeans	+0.0%
ICE Sugar	-0.4%
ICE Cocoa	+0.4%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	+0.8%
CME Live Cattle	+0.5%

Look for the EIA’s regular Petroleum Status Report at 10:30 AM ET. Last week’s report covering the week ending April 12 showed crude oil inventory decreased by 1.2 million barrels, and remained well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventory decreased by 0.6 million barrels and are now above the upper limit of the average range.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	9:30 AM	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	+0.7%	NIKKEI 225	+2.3%
German DAX	+0.7%	Hang Seng	+1.7%
CAC 40	+0.9%	S&P/ASX 200	+1.7%
FTSE 100	+0.3%	Korean KOSPI	+0.9%
Greek ASE	+0.6%	BSE India SENSEX	+0.0%

Asia is higher, likely on yesterday’s driver of Europe and the U.S., the hope that poor data will drive the ECB to act in a more dovish manner. Europe is higher despite more weak data out of Germany. Australian and Indian markets are closed Wednesday.

Corporate Events

In corporate news, the Bakken Investor Conference kicks off in Minot, North Dakota. General Electric (NYSE: GE), which reported last Friday and sank 4.0% on that day, has its annual shareholder meeting. Commerzbank (OTC: CRZBY.PK) is executing a 1-for-10 reverse split.

The EPS schedule highlights reports from Boeing (NYSE: BA), EMC (NYSE: EMC), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S), Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX), EMC (NYSE: EMC), Aflac (NYSE: AFL), Agenus (Nasdaq: AGEN), Akamai Technologies (Nasdaq: AKAM), Allegheny Technologies (NYSE: ATI), Allegiant Travel (Nasdaq: ALGT), Allied World Assurance (NYSE: AWH), American Railcar (Nasdaq: ARII), Angie’s List (Nasdaq: ANGI), Arris Enterprises (Nasdaq: ARRS), Asbury Automotive (NYSE: ABG), Ashland (NYSE: ASH), Aspen Insurance (NYSE: AHL), Assurant (NYSE: AIZ), ATMI (Nasdaq: ATMI), Avery Dennison (NYSE: AVY), Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX), Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD), Brandywine Realty Trust (NYSE: BDN), BroadVision (Nasdaq: BVSN), Cabot Oil & Gas (NYSE: COG), Cadence Design (Nasdaq: CDNS), Carlisle Cos. (NYSE: CSL), China Ceramics (Nasdaq: CCCL), Churchill Downs (Nasdaq: CHDN), Citrix Systems (Nasdaq: CTXS), Clicksoftware (Nasdaq: CKSW), Cliff’s Natural Resources (NYSE: CLF), Coherent (Nasdaq: COHR), Corelogic (Nasdaq: CLGX), Corning (NYSE: GLW), Costamare (Nasdaq: CMRE), CoStar Group (Nasdaq: CSGP), Crocs (Nasdaq: CROX), Crown Castle Int’l (NYSE: CCI), Cullen/Frost Bankers (NYSE: CFR), Daimler (OTC: DDAIF.PK), Dr. Pepper Snapple (NYSE: DPS), Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), Equifax (NYSE: EFX), Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC), Euronet Worldwide (Nasdaq: EEFT), Evercore Partners (NYSE: EVR), F5 Networks (Nasdaq: FFIV), Fair Isaac (Nasdaq: FICO), Famous Dave’s of America (Nasdaq: DAVE), Federal-Mogul (Nasdaq: FDML), Flowserve (NYSE: FLS), Fox Chase Bancorp (Nasdaq: FXCB), Ford (NYSE: F), Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO), General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), Hess (NYSE: HES), Iconix Brand (Nasdaq: ICON), InterMune (Nasdaq: ITMN), International Shipping (NYSE: ISH), Jarden (NYSE: JAH), Knight Transportation (NYSE: KNX), Lam Research (Nasdaq: LRCX), Lender Processing (NYSE: LPS), Lithia Motors (NYSE: LAD), Lorillard (NYSE: LO), LSI Corp. (NYSE: LSI), Lumber Liquidators (NYSE: LL), Marine Products (NYSE: MPX), MarketAxess (Nasdaq: MKTX), Mastech (NYSE: MHH), Mattson Technology (Nasdaq: MTSN), Media General (NYSE: MEG), Mellanox (Nasdaq: MLNX), Mine Safety (NYSE: MSA), Montpelier Re (NYSE: MRH), MorningStar (Nasdaq: MORN), Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI), NASDAQ OMX (Nasdaq: NDAQ), New Oriental Education (NYSE: EDU), New York Community Bancorp (Nasdaq: NYCB), Newmarket (NYSE: NEU), Ninetowns Internet Technology (Nasdaq: NINE), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), NuStar Energy (NYSE: NS), O’Reilly Automotive (Nasdaq: ORLY), Oil States Int’l (NYSE: OIS), Omnicare (NYSE: OCR), On Assignment (Nasdaq: ASGN), OSI Systems (Nasdaq: OSIS), Owens Corning (NYSE: OC), Pacer Int’l (Nasdaq: PACR), PetroLogistics (NYSE: PDH), Praxair (NYSE: PX), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Radcom (Nasdaq: RDCM), Raymond James Fin’l (NYSE: RJF), Rimage (Nasdaq: RIMG), Rollins (NYSE: ROL), Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK), SEI Investments (Nasdaq: SEIC), Service Corp. (NYSE: SCI), Silicon Laboratories (Nasdaq: SLAB), Southern (NYSE: SO), Stamps.com (Nasdaq: STMP), Steiner Leisure (Nasdaq: STNR), Sterling Financial (Nasdaq: STSA), Stericycle (Nasdaq: SRCL), Streamline Health (Nasdaq: STRM), Stryker (NYSE: SYK), Sun Bancorp (Nasdaq: SNBC), Supervalue (NYSE: SVU), Susquehanna Bancshares (Nasdaq: SUSQ), TC Pipelines (NYSE: TCP), T. Rowe Price (Nasdaq: TROW), TE Connectivity (NYSE: TEL), Teladyne (NYSE: TDY), Teradyne (NYSE: TER), Terex (NYSE: TEX), The Cheesecake Factory (Nasdaq: CAKE), The Medicines Co. (Nasdaq: MDCO), Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO), Timken (NYSE: TKR), Titan Int’l (NYSE: TWI), Tractor Supply (Nasdaq: TSCO), TriQuint Semiconductor (Nasdaq: TQNT), TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI), Tupperware (NYSE: TUP), Tyler Tech (NYSE: TYL), Unitil (NYSE: UTL), USG (NYSE: USG), Varian Medical (NYSE: VAR), VirginMedia (Nasdaq: VMED), W.R. Grace (NYSE: GRA), Waste Management (NYSE: WM), WellPoint (NYSE: WLP), Western Digital (NYSE: WDC), Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR), Windham Worldwide (NYSE: WYN), Xenoport (Nasdaq: XNPT) and Zynga (Nasdaq: ZNGA).

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