The Sexiest Man Alive Says...

We surveyed the sexiest man alive about today's market, and I responded, stocks are lower today because of a weak wholesale trade data point and deteriorated consumer sentiment measure. Monthly chain store sales are coming in mixed, but I expect that the final tally will show a weak result. This data is likely also weighing on a market that has been on a jobs report high since last Friday, and due for a soft day. Stick with us for daily reviews of economic data and corporate events, plus commodities and international markets.

Economic Events

Weekly Initial Jobless Claims covering the period ending May 4 showed weekly claims decreased by another 4K after dropping by 18K the week before. Claims at a flow rate of 323K are enthusing for stocks. Economists expected claims to rise to 335K, but this forecast is not worth paying attention to due to the regularity of the data point. The four-week moving average for jobless claims declined by 6,250, falling to 336,750. This data was holding stocks up this morning, but some other news discussed hereunder is weighing more heavily.

Bloomberg bragged that its Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, a weekly measure of the consumer mood, held near its highest level in five years. However, it did fall 0.6 points to negative 29.5, and the direction and velocity matter more than the absolute value. I continue to expect the index to revisit lower levels before long.

The monthly Wholesale Trade Report reached the wire at 10:00 AM this morning. In this report for the month of March, wholesale inventories rose 0.4%, matching economists’ expectations and bettering the 0.3% decline of the month before. However to really understand this data, we must compare to wholesale sales, which fell 1.6% in March, leading the inventory-to-sales ratio to rise in unhealthy fashion to 1.21.

The Philly Fed’s Charles Plosser is scheduled to speak to monetary policy at the Simon NYC conference in New York City.

Commodity Markets (9:09 AM ET)

WTI Crude	-0.5%
Brent Crude	-0.5%
RBOB Gasoline	-0.3%
NYMEX Natural Gas	-0.6%
Gold Spot	-0.6%
Silver Spot	-0.4%
COMEX Copper	-1.3%
CBOT Corn	+0.6%
CBOT Wheat	+0.0%
CBOT Soybeans	+1.2%
ICE Sugar	+0.1%
ICE Cocoa	-0.8%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	-0.8%
CME Live Cattle	+0.1%

The EIA’s Natural Gas Report for the period ending May 3 showed working gas in storage increased by 88 Bcf. Stocks were 737 Bcf less than last year at this time and 99 Bcf below the five-year average for this time of year.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	9:19 AM	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	-0.4%	NIKKEI 225	-0.7%
German DAX	+0.0%	Hang Seng	-0.1%
CAC 40	-0.6%	S&P/ASX 200	-0.0%
FTSE 100	+0.1%	Korean KOSPI	+1.2%
Greek ASE	+1.1%	BSE India SENSEX	-0.3%

Corporate Events

The Wells Fargo Securities 2013 Industrial and Construction Conference highlights a presentation by CSX (NYSE: CSX). Look for the annual shareholders meeting of Ford (NYSE: F) and AES (NYSE: AES). L Brands (NYSE: LTD) and many other retailers hold their April sales calls today. Retailers are reporting their April same-store sales, or those who still report monthly data are anyway. You won’t find news from Wal-Mart (WMT) or Macy’s (M).

The EPS slate highlights presentations by Advisory Board (Nasdaq: ABCO), Aeroflex (NYSE: ARX), AES (NYSE: AES), Agrium (NYSE: AGU), Alexander & Baldwin (Nasdaq: ALEX), Alexza Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALXA), Allscripts Healthcare (Nasdaq: MDRX), Ameresco (Nasdaq: AMRC), American Greetings (NYSE: AM), American Pacific (Nasdaq: APFC), American Public Education (Nasdaq: APEI), Anacor Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ANAC), Analysts International (Nasdaq: ANLY), Apache (NYSE: APA), Assured Guaranty (NYSE: AGO), Asta Funding (Nasdaq: ASFI), Bacterin Int’l (Nasdaq: BONE), bebe Stores (Nasdaq: BEBE), Bitauto Holding (Nasdaq: BITA), Black Box (Nasdaq: BBOX), Boingo Wireless (Nasdaq: WIFI), Bsquare (Nasdaq: BSQR), Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), Callon Petroleum (NYSE: CPE), CareFusion (NYSE: CFN), Chembio Diagnostics (Nasdaq: CEMI), Chesapeake Granite (Nasdaq: CHKR), Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB), Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE: CDE), Cornerstone Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CRTX), Crosstex Energy (Nasdaq: XTXI), Crosstex Energy LP (Nasdaq: XTEX), CTPartners Executive Search (NYSE: CTP), Dean Foods (NYSE: DF), DENTSPLY Int’l (Nasdaq: XRAY), Diodes (Nasdaq: DIOD), DISH Network (Nasdaq: DISH), eMagin (Nasdaq: EMAN), Encore Capital (Nasdaq: ECPG), Endeavor Int’l (NYSE: END), FTI Consulting (NYSE: FCN), GigOptix (NYSE: GIG), Global Partners (NYSE: GLP), Great Plains Energy (NYSE: GXP), Harsco (NYSE: HSC), ID Systems (Nasdaq: IDSY), Infinity Property & Casualty (Nasdaq: IPCC), Intersections (Nasdaq: INTX), Inuvo (Nasdaq: INUV), Kips Bay Medical (Nasdaq: KIPS), Kosmos Energy (NYSE: KOS), LIN TV (NYSE: TVL), Local Corp. (Nasdaq: LOCM), Luna Innovations (Nasdaq: LUNA), magicJack Vocaltec (Nasdaq: CALL), Management Network Group (Nasdaq: TMNG), Mannkind (Nasdaq: MNKD), MAXIMUS (NYSE: MMS), MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR), Molycorp (NYSE: MCP), Natural Gas Services (NYSE: NGS), NeoPhotonics (Nasdaq: NPTN), Niska Gas Storage (NYSE: NKA), Nortek (NYSE: NTK), NTN Buzztime (NYSE: NTN), Numerex (Nasdaq: NMRX), NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA), Oncothyreon (Nasdaq: ONTY), Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW), PCM (Nasdaq: PCMI), PDL BioPharma (Nasdaq: PDLI), PMFG (Nasdaq: PMFG), Precision Castparts (NYSE: PCP), Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN), Rentech (NYSE: RTK), Rentech Nitrogen Partners (NYSE: RNF), Sapient (Nasdaq: SAPE), Sarepta Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SRPT), SemGroup (Nasdaq: SEMG), Sequenom (Nasdaq: SQNM), Sotheby’s (NYSE: BID), StarTek (NYSE: SRT), Suburban Propane (NYSE: SPH), Sunesis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: SNSS), TheStreet.com (NYSE: TST), Vanda Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VNDA), Verenium (Nasdaq: VRNM), Visteon (NYSE: VC), WageWorks (Nasdaq: WAGE), XO Group (Nasdaq: XOXO), Zogenix (Nasdaq: ZGNX), Zygo (Nasdaq: ZIGO) and more.

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