The NFL Draft Beats This

Tonight’s 8:00 PM ET NFL Draft in prime time is more exciting than this news today for most of you. But find all your important economic, commodity, overseas and corporate news here anyway. My Eagles have the fourth pick tonight, and I’m hoping the NFL's hottest new coach Chip Kelly picks up some offensive line help or trades for an excellent defensive back. As for stocks, 3M (MMM) disappointed and Amazon.com (AMZN) reports this evening, but who cares! It's draft day.

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

Weekly Initial Jobless Claims is due for report at 8:30. Last week’s report covering the period ending April 13 showed weekly claims rose by 4K, to 352K. The four-week moving average for jobless claims rose 2,750 to 361,250. Economists see claims at about the same level this week, as is usually the case. It’s tough to predict much change in such a regularly reported economic data point.

After stabilizing recently, Bloomberg’s Consumer Comfort Index, a weekly measure of the consumer mood, shot higher by 4.8 points last week, reaching a mark of -29.2. It’s not very often that this indicator moves so much, and so I expect the change was due to an anomaly and could correct this week. Consumers are not generally in a good mood today, as was evidenced by the recent drops seen in the Conference Board and University of Michigan monthly measures.

The Kansas City Fed’s Manufacturing Survey is up for report at 11:00 AM Thursday morning. The KC Fed’s Index is expected by economists to continue to show regional contraction, though less of it in April, with the consensus forecast set for a reading of -1.0, better than March’s -5.0.

Commodity Markets (10:35 AM ET)

WTI Crude	+0.3%
Brent Crude	+0.5%
RBOB Gasoline	+1.0%
NYMEX Natural Gas	+0.5%
Gold Spot	+1.4%
Silver Spot	+2.8%
COMEX Copper	+2.8%
CBOT Corn	+0.6%
CBOT Wheat	+0.9%
CBOT Soybeans	+1.7%
ICE Sugar	-0.3%
ICE Cocoa	+0.9%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	0.00%
CME Live Cattle	0.00%

The EIA’s Natural Gas Report is due Thursday at 10:30 AM. Last week’s report covering the period ending April 12 showed working gas in storage increased by 31 Bcf. Stocks were 794 Bcf less than last year at this time and 74 Bcf below the five-year average for this time of year.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	10:40 AM ET	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	+0.1%	NIKKEI 225	+0.6%
German DAX	+0.8%	Hang Seng	+1.0%
CAC 40	0.00%	S&P/ASX 200	+1.7%
FTSE 100	+0.2%	Korean KOSPI	+0.8%
Greek ASE	+2.1%	BSE India SENSEX	+1.2%

Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the foolish figurehead who said Cyprus would be a template for all future bailouts, addresses the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee.

Corporate Events

The corporate wire has Charles Schwab’s (Nasdaq: SCHW) interim business update for institutional investors. Reader’s Digest is in bankruptcy court.

The EPS slate highlights presentations by Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR), Cerner (Nasdaq: CERN), Safeway (NYSE: SWY), 3M (NYSE: MMM), A.T. Cross (NYSE: ATX), Abaxis (Nasdaq: ABAX), Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK), Alexion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALXN), Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR), Altisource Portfolio (Nasdaq: ASPS), Altria Group (NYSE: MO), AmerisourceBergen (NYSE: ABC), Ametek (NYSE: AME), Amkor Technology (Nasdaq: AMKR), Applied Micro Circuits (Nasdaq: AMCC), Avnet (NYSE: AVT), Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL), Bemis (NYSE: BMS), Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB), BJ’s Restaurants (Nasdaq: BJRI), BorgWarner (NYSE: BWA), Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX), Box Ships (NYSE: TEU), Bridge Capital (Nasdaq: BBNK), Brink’s (NYSE: BCO), Brunswick (NYSE: BC), Builder’s FirstSource (Nasdaq: BLDR), Cabela’s (NYSE: CAB), Callaway Golf (NYSE: ELY), Cameron Int’l (NYSE: CAM), CARBO Ceramics (NYSE: CRR), Carpenter Technology (NYSE: CRS), Cash America (NYSE: CSH), CBRE Group (NYSE: CBG), Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG), Chubb (NYSE: CB), Cincinnati Financial (Nasdaq: CINF), Cirrus Logic (Nasdaq: CRUS), Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR), CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), Coca-Cola Enterprises (NYSE: CCE), Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), Columbia Sportswear (Nasdaq: COLM), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), CONSOL Energy (NYSE: CNX), Constant Contact (Nasdaq: CTCT), CRA Int’l (Nasdaq: CRAI), Dana Holding (NYSE: DAN), Decker Outdoors (Nasdaq: DECK), Deluxe (NYSE: DLX), Destination Maternity (Nasdaq: DEST), Diamond Offshore Drilling (NYSE: DO), Dominion Resources (NYSE: D), Dover Downs (NYSE: DDE), Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW), Dunkin Brands (Nasdaq: DNKN), Eastman Chemical (NYSE: EMN), Ehealth (Nasdaq: EHTH), EMCOR (NYSE: EME), Entergy (NYSE: ETR), EQT (NYSE: EQT), Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Federated Investors (NYSE: FII), Geron (Nasdaq: GERN), Global Geophysical (NYSE: GGS), Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG), HealthSouth (NYSE: HLS), Helmerich & Payne (NYSE: HP), Hercules Offshore (Nasdaq: HERO), Hershey (NYSE: HSY), Huron Consulting (Nasdaq: HURN), Iberiabank (Nasdaq: IBKC), Ikanos Communications (Nasdaq: IKAN), Intermolecular (NYSE: IMI), Invacare (NYSE: IVC), International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT), ITT Educational (NYSE: ESI), JAKKS Pacific (Nasdaq: JAKK), JetBlue Airways (Nasdaq: JBLU), KBR (NYSE: KBR), Kennametal (NYSE: KMT), KKR (NYSE: KKR), KLA-Tencor (Nasdaq: KLAC), L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL), Lear (NYSE: LEA), Leggett & Platt (NYSE: LEG), Libbey (NYSE: LBY), MarineMax (NYSE: HZO), Maxim Integrated (Nasdaq: MXIM), MBT Financial (Nasdaq: MBTF), McClatchy (NYSE: MNI), Mead Johnson (NYSE: MJN), MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS), MICROS Systems (Nasdaq: MCRS), Navigant Consulting (NYSE: NCI), Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE: NMM), Netgear (Nasdaq: NTGR), NetSuite (NYSE: N), Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL), Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY), Paragon Shipping (Nasdaq: PRGN), Parker Hannifin (NYSE: PH), Patterson-UTI Energy (Nasdaq: PTEN), PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI), Pixelworks (Nasdaq: PXLW), PMC-Sierra (Nasdaq: PMCS), Principal Financial Group (NYSE: PFG), Provident Financial (Nasdaq: PROV), Range Resources (NYSE: RRC), Rayonier (NYSE: RYN), Raytheon (NYSE: RTN), Republic Services (NYSE: RSG), Revlon (NYSE: REV), Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL), R.R. Donnelley (NYSE: RRD), Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE), SCANA (NYSE: SCG), Sigma-Aldrich (Nasdaq: SIAL), Silicon Motion (Nasdaq: SIMO), Skyworks Solutions (Nasdaq: SWKS), Sonic Foundry (Nasdaq: SOFO), Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX), Suncoke Energy (NYSE: SXC), Superior Energy (NYSE: SPN), Supreme Industries (NYSE: STS), SVB Financial (Nasdaq: SIVB), Taser Int’l (Nasdaq: TASR), Tellabs (Nasdaq: TLAB), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Trinity Biotech (Nasdaq: TRIB), United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), United Therapeutics (Nasdaq: UTHR), VCA Antech (Nasdaq: WOOF), Verisign (Nasdaq: VRSN), VistaPrint (Nasdaq: VPRT), Websense (Nasdaq: WBSN), World Acceptance (Nasdaq: WRLD), Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN), Yandex (Nasdaq: YNDX), Zimmer Holdings (NYSE: ZMH) and more.

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