Wall Street Greek: A Breath of Fresh Air

Investors should enjoy a breath of fresh air today. Stock market futures indicate a positive open for stocks in the United States. The only economic release was a good one, with mortgage activity recovering after several weeks of decline. A surprisingly positive euro-zone factory production data point allowed European stocks to recovery into their midday trading. Asian shares slid on a continuation of yesterday’s catalyst from the BOJ. Visit the Wall Street Greek blog for interesting video content and a portfolio of reports on various topics.

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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.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Reports for Review:

Hooked on Economic Happy Pills
GM Just Curbed Tesla

Market ETF	June 12 Premarket	Year-to-Date
SPDR S&P 500 (SPY)	+0.7%	+15.3%
SPDR Dow Jones (DIA)	+0.6%	+16.5%
PowerShares (QQQ)	+0.6%	+12.2%

Economic Events

After several weeks of high profile mortgage rate rise and a coinciding drop-off in mortgage application activity, the latest mortgage activity data arrives from the Mortgage Bankers Association this morning. Early reports indicate that despite higher mortgage rates, this week’s Market Composite Index for the period ending June 7 recovered by 5%, on the same gains in both purchase and refinance activity. Last week’s report covering the period ending May 31 showed mortgage applications decreased by 11.5%. Applications tied to the purchases of homes decreased by 2.0% on a seasonally adjusted basis. The Refinance Index decreased by 15%. In a rising rate environment, though, I favor residential real estate over stocks.

The Monthly Treasury Budget will be reported for the month of May at 2:00 PM ET. Economists expect the month to offer a budget deficit of $110 billion, versus the $112.9 billion surplus reported in April. Over the past 10 years, the average deficit for May has been $97.3 billion.

In D.C., the Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing on cyber-security. Meanwhile a House Education & Workforce subcommittee studies pension reform.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	7:53 AM ET	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	+0.6%	NIKKEI 225	-0.2%
German DAX	+0.1%	Hang Seng	-1.2%
CAC 40	+0.6%	S&P/ASX 200	-0.7%
FTSE 100	+0.4%	Korean KOSPI	-0.6%
Greek ASE	-0.4%	BSE India SENSEX	-0.5%

Securities markets are closed today in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Russia.

Euro-zone industrial output unexpectedly increased in April, aided by strength in France. Factory production was up 0.4% in April among the 17 nation region, beating economists’ expectations for no change. Production was still down 0.6% from the prior year period though.

Commodity Markets (7:35 AM ET)

WTI Crude	-0.1%
Brent Crude	+0.2%
NYMEX Natural Gas	+0.2%
RBOB Gasoline	+0.3%
Gold Spot	-0.1%
Silver Spot	+0.5%
COMEX Copper	+0.3%
CBOT Corn	-0.1%
CBOT Wheat	-0.7%
CBOT Soybeans	+0.2%
ICE Cocoa	-0.1%
ICE Sugar	-0.2%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	-0.0%
CME Live Cattle	+0.6%

Look for the EIA’s regular Petroleum Status Report at 10:30 AM ET. Last week’s report covering the week ending May 31 showed crude oil inventory decreased by 6.3 million barrels, and remained above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventory decreased by 0.4 million barrels but remained near the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.

Corporate Events

The corporate wire has analyst and shareholder meetings at Target (NYSE: TGT), SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK), Electronic Arts (NYSE: EA), Molson Coors Brewing (NYSE: TAP) and Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO). The Deutsche Bank dbAccess Global Consumer Conference offers presentations by Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO). The Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference brings news from The Gap (NYSE: GPS) and Urban Outfitters (Nasdaq: URBN). The EPS schedule highlights reports by H&R Block (NYSE: HRB), PVH Corp. (NYSE: PVH), Agilysis (Nasdaq: AGYS), Luby’s (NYSE: LUB), Men’s Wearhouse (NYSE: MW), Rand Logistics (Nasdaq: RLOG) and Sigma Designs (Nasdaq: SIGM).

Yesterday’s biggest gainers and losers were:

BIGGEST GAINERS	% Gain	BIGGEST LOSERS	% Drop
SGOCO (Nasdaq: SGOC)	+NA%	Coastal Contacts (NYSE: COA)	-NA%
CardioNet (Nasdaq: BEAT)	+NA%	Two Harbors Wt (NYSE: TWO-WT)	-NA%
Progenics (Nasdaq: PGNX)	+NA%	Owens Corning (NYSE: OC-WT)	-NA%
UQM Tech (NYSE: UQM)	+NA%	Micronet Enertec (OTC: MICTW)	-NA%
Vanda Pharma (Nasdaq: VNDA)	+NA%	Symmetry Medical (NYSE: SMA)	-NA%
Dole Food (Nasdaq: DOLE)	+NA%	GenMark Diagnostics (Nasdaq: GNMK)	-NA%
N. American Energy (NYSE: NOA)	+NA%	Alvarion (Nasdaq: ALVR)	-NA%
Questcor (Nasdaq: QCOR)	+NA%	Acorn International (NYSE: ATV)	-NA%
Universal Bus. Sol. (Nasdaq: UBPS)	+NA%	Corinthian Colleges (Nasdaq: COCO)	-NA%
Community Bank (Nasdaq: CBIN)	+NA%	Real Goods Solar (NYSE: RSOL)	-NA%

Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.