Thursday’s News – PC Shipments Sinking NASDAQ Names

Futures are a mixed bag Thursday morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average indicating higher while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ are about to mark lower ground. Downgrades of Microsoft and other PC players are weighing on the PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQ), after PC shipments were reported significantly lower for the first quarter.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	8:45 AM ET	ASIA/PACIFIC	8:45 AM
EURO STOXX 50	Unchanged	NIKKEI 225	+2.0%
German DAX	+0.3%	Hang Seng	+0.3%
CAC 40	+0.4%	S&P/ASX 200	+0.8%
FTSE 100	+0.2%	Korean KOSPI	+0.7%
Greek ASE	+1.2%	BSE India SENSEX	+0.7%

China reported its foreign exchange reserves rose by $128 billion to $3.44 trillion in the first quarter. The increase was the largest since Q2 2011, indicating renewed investor interest in China. The influx of capital has credit growing at a rapid pace, raising concern at one rating agency, Fitch, which cut China’s credit rating this week.

Economic Reports

Weekly Initial Jobless Claims is due for report at 8:30. Last week’s report covering the period ending March 30 showed weekly claims spiked higher by 28K, rising to 385K. The four-week moving average for jobless claims rose 11,250 to 354,250. Last week I said another higher figure would raise investor concern, and it did. Economists see claims dropping to 365K this week.

Import and Export Price data will be released Thursday for the month of March. Economists expect export prices edged higher by 0.1%, after rising by 0.8% in February. Import prices are seen falling by 0.5% this month, versus the 1.1% increase seen last month. Large changes in export prices are usually due to agricultural exports while changes in import pricing are typically petroleum related.

Bloomberg’s Consumer Comfort Index stabilized last week after declining over the two prior weeks. The weekly measure of the consumer mood edged up 0.3 points last week, reaching a mark of -34.1.

The SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee reviews target date funds. Also, look for Fed-speak from representatives Plosser and Bullard Thursday.

Commodity Markets (8:40 AM ET)

WTI Crude	-0.3%
Brent Crude	-0.1%
RBOB Gasoline	+0.3%
NYMEX Natural Gas	+0.3%
Gold Spot	Unchanged
Silver Spot	-0.2%
COMEX Copper	-0.3%
CBOT Corn	+0.9%
CBOT Wheat	+0.5%
CBOT Soybeans	+0.1%
ICE Sugar	-1.1%
ICE Cocoa	+0.9%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	-0.4%
CME Live Cattle	+0.3%

The EIA’s Natural Gas Report is due Thursday at 10:30 AM. Last week’s report covering the period ending March 29 showed working gas in storage declined by 94 Bcf. Stocks were 779 Bcf less than last year at this time and 37 Bcf below the five-year average for this time of year.

Corporate Events

The corporate wire has the chain store sales of individual retailers for the month of March. An increasing number of them are not reporting this data.

Look for shareholder and analyst meetings at NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA), The Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE: HIG), H.B. Fuller (NYSE: FUL), Acadia Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ACAD) and Siemens (NYSE: SI). Look for an IPO from transaction processing firm Evertec. Residential Capital and Reader’s Digest are in bankruptcy court.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is bearing the weight of two downgrades today, after PC shipments plunged 13.9% year-over-year in the first quarter. Shares of Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) and others may also find pressure.

Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) is under pressure due to a sales slump in China on the latest bird flu strain H7N9.

The EPS slate highlights presentations by China Finance Online (Nasdaq: JRJC), Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR), J.B. Hunt (Nasdaq: JBHT), Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD), Bank of Ozarks (Nasdaq: OZRK), Ceres (Nasdaq: CERE), Commerce Bankshares (Nasdaq: CBSH), Crumbs Bake Shop (Nasdaq: CRMB), Fuwei Films (Nasdaq: FFHL), GigaMedia (Nasdaq: GIGM), iGATE (Nasdaq: IGTE), Northern Technologies Int’l (Nasdaq: NTIC), SemiLEDs (Nasdaq: LEDS) and more.

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