Traders are Smoking Crack

Stocks were mixed to open the day Thursday, with Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) holding up the NASDAQ and PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQ) while the S&P 500 and Dow dipped lower. Yesterday we reported that poor economic data was being completely overlooked by traders. We’ll be taking a closer looks at each data point today and examining whether traders are smoking crack, so stay in touch with our expert authored blog. Find our entire schedule of economic reports and corporate events here below, with coverage of commodities, currency and international stocks as well.

Traders on Crack!

Economic Events

Following the recent reporting of the PPI, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is due today at 8:30 AM ET. Economists see this measure of inflation showing prices fell 0.3% in April, after dropping 0.2% in March. However, when excluding volatile food and energy prices, the Core CPI is expected to have grown at a 0.2% pace, up from the 0.1% pace of the prior month. People are looking for prices to stay low or decline, but what they don't get is that it would be akin to chasing a bad girl, because lower prices would reflect lack of demand for goods and services, i.e. deflation. Bad, bad girl...

Weekly Initial Jobless Claims is due for report at 8:30. Last week’s report covering the period ending May 4 showed weekly claims decreased by 4K, to 323K. Economists see claims rising to 330K this week. The four-week moving average declined by 6,250 last week, falling to 336,750.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, a weekly measure of the consumer mood, deteriorated by 0.6 points last week, and reached a mark of -29.5. I expect the index to revisit even lower levels before long. Consumers are not generally in a good mood today, as evidenced by the trends of monthly sentiment data.

Housing Starts will be reported at 8:30 AM ET. This report covers new residential construction starts and also offers information on new permit issuance for construction. In this report for April, economists expect the annual pace of housing starts decreased to 969K, from 1.036 million in March. The economists’ consensus for permit issuance stands at 945K, which would be up from the prior month’s pace of 902K. Such a mixed result would likely leave housing stocks relatively unchanged.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s Business Outlook Survey measures the regional manufacturing mood. The report for the month of May is expected to show index improvement to a mark of 2.2, up from 1.3 in April.

Several Fed speakers are on the board for Tuesday, with Fed Governor Sarah Raskin, Philly Fed Bank President Plosser, Dallas Bank President Fisher, Richmond’s Lacker, San Francisco’s Williams and Boston’s Rosengren all scheduled to speak in the afternoon. Also, European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi is scheduled to make an address.

Commodity Markets (8:58 AM ET)

WTI Crude	+0.5%
Brent Crude	+0.5%
RBOB Gasoline	+0.6%
NYMEX Natural Gas	-0.3%
Gold Spot	-1.1%
Silver Spot	-0.6%
COMEX Copper	-0.5%
CBOT Corn	-0.1%
CBOT Wheat	+0.5%
CBOT Soybeans	+0.3%
ICE Sugar	-0.3%
ICE Cocoa	-0.9%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	-2.4%
CME Live Cattle	+0.1%

The EIA’s Natural Gas Report is due Thursday at 10:30 AM. Last week’s report covering 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	9:09 AM	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	-0.25%	NIKKEI 225	-0.39%
German DAX	-0.03%	Hang Seng	+0.17%
CAC 40	-0.42%	S&P/ASX 200	-0.5%
FTSE 100	+0.02%	Korean KOSPI	+0.79%
Greek ASE	-0.04%	BSE India SENSEX	+0.17%

President Obama is meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister in Washington.

Corporate Events

In corporate news, look for investor or analyst meetings at Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), Marsh & McLennan (NYSE: MMC), Progressive (NYSE: PGR), CoreLogic (Nasdaq: CLGX), EPL Oil & Gas (NYSE: EPL), STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), Haemonetics (NYSE: HAE) and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP). Tableau Software will offer 7.2 million shares in its IPO. The J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media & Telecom Conference highlights the presentation of SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK). The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Health Care Conference highlights the presentation of Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX).

The EPS slate highlights presentations by Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP), Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS), Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN), Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) and Autodesk (Nasdaq: ADSK). Also catch reports from 21 Vianet (Nasdaq: VNET), Aruba Networks (Nasdaq: ARUN), Bona Film (Nasdaq: BONA), Brady (NYSE: BRC), Brocade Communications (Nasdaq: BRCD), ChipMOS Technologies (Nasdaq: IMOS), Commtouch Software (Nasdaq: CTCH), Cosi (Nasdaq: COSI), Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), Derma Sciences (Nasdaq: DSCI), E Commerce China Dang Dang (Nasdaq: DANG), Edap TMS (Nasdaq: EDAP), Envestnet (NYSE: ENV), Flowers Foods (NYSE: FLO), Guanwei Recycling (Nasdaq: GPRC), Hollysys Automation Technologies (Nasdaq: HOLI), Iteris (NYSE: ITI), Prestige Brands (NYSE: PBH), ReneSola (NYSE: SOL), Sina Corp. (Nasdaq: SINA), Timios National (Nasdaq: HOMS), ViaSat (Nasdaq: VSAT), Xueda Education (NYSE: XUE) and more.

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