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Several important economic and corporate events occurred Tuesday that we wanted to make sure you knew about. This report is usually published on the day of activity, and readers may find our daily expanded coverage of economic & corporate events and dealings in international and commodity markets as well at our stock market blog.

Economic Reports

The National Federation of Small Business (NFIB) reported its Small Business Optimism Index on Tuesday. The index increased 2.6 points in April, to 92.1, above the index average of 90.7 through the economic recovery. The economists’ consensus expectation for April was for a one point improvement to a mark of 90.5, so it’s good news. However, the historical average for this index is 100, to put things into proper perspective. Finally, 4 component measures improved, 2 deteriorated and 4 were unchanged.

Import and Export Price data reached the wire Tuesday for the month of April. Both export and import prices continued their trend of decline, reflecting the horrid state of the global economy. In each case though, the usual catalyst of big change came into play. The export price decline of 0.7% was highly impacted by the 2.2% drop in the price of agricultural exports. In the case of imports, prices fell 0.5%, affected heavily by the 1.7% price drop in fuel imports. The import price decline met expectations, but the import price drop was far deeper than the economists’ forecast for a 0.1% price decline. We said it in our weekly preview, and it played out, so here’s another case where our readers were ahead of the game.

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) weekly retail same-store sales data for the week ended May 11 showed a week-to-week sales decrease of 2.0%, versus the 1.0% decrease the week before. On a year-to-year basis, sales were higher by 1.2%, versus the 2.4% increase in the prior week.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Plosser spoke on the economy and monetary policy at the obscene hour of 2:00 AM ET, in Stockholm at SNS.

The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) held a roundtable discussion on the topic of securities’ credit ratings.

Corporate Events

In corporate news, there were analyst and investor meetings at Brightcove (Nasdaq: BCOV), EPL Oil & Gas (NYSE: EPL) and Safeway (NYSE: SWY). The J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media & Telecom Conference highlighted a presentation by Juniper Networks (Nasdaq: JNPR). The Goldman Sachs Consumer Products Symposium presented the latest from Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO). The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Health Care Conference offered presentation by Baxter International (NYSE: BAX).

Earnings news arrived from ADDvantage Technologies (NYSE: AEY), Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A), American Shares Hospital Services (NYSE: AMS), Athersys (Nasdaq: ATHX), BioFuel Energy (Nasdaq: BIOF), BioLife Solutions (Nasdaq: BLFS), CAMAC Energy (NYSE: CAK), Capstone Cos. (Nasdaq: CAPC), China Automotive Solutions (Nasdaq: CAAS), China Ceramics (Nasdaq: CCCL), China XD Plastics (Nasdaq: CXDC), Corgenix Medical (Nasdaq: CONX), Country Style Cooking Restaurant (Nasdaq: CCSC), Cover-All Technologies (Nasdaq: COVR), DGSE Cos. (Nasdaq: DGSE), Digital Cinema Destinations (Nasdaq: DCIN), Dynatronics (Nasdaq: DYNT), Eagle Materials (NYSE: EXP), Encision (Nasdaq: ECIA), ENGlobal (NYSE: ENG), Exone (Nasdaq: XONE), Fortress Int’l Group (Nasdaq: FIGI), General Finance (NYSE: GFN), Gladstone Investment (Nasdaq: GAIN), Global Sources (Nasdaq: GSOL), GlobalSCAPE (NYSE: GSB), GSE Systems (NYSE: GVP), Heska (Nasdaq: HSKA), Hi Crush Partners (Nasdaq: HCLP), Hollywood Media (Nasdaq: HOLL), NCI Building Systems (NYSE: NCS), Netlist (Nasdaq: NLST), NTS (NYSE: NTS), NuPathe (Nasdaq: PATH), Palatin Technologies (NYSE: PTN), Patient Safety Technologies (Nasdaq: PSTX), Phoenix New Media (Nasdaq: FENG), Photronics (Nasdaq: PLAB), Planet Payment (Nasdaq: PLPM), PLUG Power (Nasdaq: PLUG), Primo Water (Nasdaq: PRMW), QKL Stores (Nasdaq: QKLS), Qualstar (Nasdaq: QBAK), Regulus Therapeutics (Nasdaq: RGLS), Response Genetics (Nasdaq: RGDX), Sajan (Nasdaq: SAJA), Sino-Global Shipping (Nasdaq: SINO), SkyPeople Fruit Juice (NYSE: SPU), SPAR Group (Nasdaq: SGRP), Spine Pain Management (Nasdaq: SPIN), Sypris Solutions (Nasdaq: SYPR), Taminco (NYSE: TAM), Tandy Brands (Nasdaq: TBAC), Taylor Morrison Home (Nasdaq: TMHC), Tengasco (NYSE: TGC), Valspar (NYSE: VAL), ThermoGenesis (Nasdaq: KOOL), THT Heat Transfer Technologies (Nasdaq: THTI), TranSwitch (Nasdaq: TXCC), Tree.com (Nasdaq: TREE), Unigene (Nasdaq: UGNE), Vipshop (Nasdaq: VIPS), VOXX International (Nasdaq: VOXX), World Energy Solutions (Nasdaq: XWES), ZaZa Energy (Nasdaq: ZAZA) and more.

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