FRIDAY’S MARKET: Thank You China!

The day’s gains globally were completely attributable to China and its better GDP growth. It did not hurt that Morgan Stanley reported solid results after Google blew out results last night, but China reassured investors globally that our common economy is improving. So we can some up this whole market summary with a show of appreciation. Thank you China!

Friday’s Market

Market ETF	October 18	Year-to-Date
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	+0.7%	+22.5%
SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA)	+0.1%	+17.6%
PowerShares (Nasdaq: QQQ)	+1.6%	+26.1%

Stocks got a lift today from three serious catalysts. First, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) made up for the bad financial sector news out of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) yesterday. Secondly, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) uplifted the market with its report; it especially served the NASDAQ, as you can see by the performance of the QQQ. Finally, and certainly not least of all, the economic data out of China served the global markets well. China’s growth is a barometer on both its own domestic gains and on the health of the global markets it serves and supplies.

Economic Events

ECONOMIC REPORT SCHEDULE
Economic Data Point	Prior Period	Expected	Actual
FRIDAY
Leading Economic Indicators	+0.7%	+0.6%	NA
Jeremy Stein Speaks
Daniel Tarullo Speaks
Charles Evans Speaks
Jeffrey Lacker Speaks
William Dudley Speaks

-R symbolizes “revised”

Despite the reopening of the government, Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) data was not available today. Several Fed speakers found microphones, but the important economic news came from overseas today. China reported third quarter GDP growth of 7.8%, which was up from the 7.5% pace it managed in Q2. The faster pace of growth stopped a trend of decline, and was the first improved rate in three quarters. Thus, it gave life to the global investment community.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	CLOSE	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	+0.8%	NIKKEI 225	-0.2%
German DAX	+0.6%	Hang Seng	+1.1%
CAC 40	+1.1%	S&P/ASX 200	+0.7%
FTSE 100	+0.7%	Korean KOSPI	+0.6%
Bloomberg GCC 200 Mideast	+0.01%	BSE India SENSEX	+2.3%

Stock investors celebrated better than expected economic growth in China, or reported growth anyway. As our readers know, I question the accuracy of the data that comes out of Communist China’s shady reporting bureaus. Not only do I doubt that we will ever see a recession reported by China, but we may never see 4% growth reported, at least not in my lifetime.

Commodity Markets (CLOSE)

WTI Crude	+0.1%
Brent Crude	+0.9%
NYMEX Natural Gas	+0.3%
RBOB Gasoline	+1.0%
Gold Spot	-0.3%
Silver Spot	+0.2%
COMEX Copper	-0.2%
CBOT Corn	-0.3%
CBOT Wheat	+2.9%
CBOT Soybeans	-0.2%
ICE Cocoa	-1.7%
ICE Sugar	+2.6%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	-0.2%
CME Lumber	+0.1%
CME Live Cattle	+0.2%

All was normalized today, after yesterday’s bizarre trading of commodities. Today we saw the economically sensitive energy commodities rise. Yesterday, the clearance of the U.S. legislative issues and the question about the full faith in credit of the United States was not enough to move these markets. However, given the Chinese data today, the cyclical issues had to move.

Corporate Events

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) broke a thousand dollars a share after reporting stellar results last evening. That news along with great data from Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and China helped all stocks higher.

HIGHLIGHTED EPS REPORTS
Company	Ticker
FRIDAY
MoSys	Nasdaq: MOSY
First Niagara Financial	Nasdaq: FNFG
Baker Hughes	NYSE: BHI
First Horizon National	NYSE: FHN
Laboratory Corp. of America	NYSE: LH
Textron	NYSE: TXT
SunTrust Banks	NYSE: STI
Parker Hannifin	NYSE: PH
Honeywell	NYSE: HON
Genuine Parts	NYSE: GPC
Tompkins Financial	NYSE: TMP
Schlumberger	NYSE: SLB
Interpublic Group of Cos.	NYSE: IPG
Acme United	NYSE: ACU
Metrocorp Bancshares	Nasdaq: MCBI
Morgan Stanley	NYSE: MS

MOST ACTIVE STOCKS
BIGGEST GAINERS	% Gain
VOXELJET AG (Nasdaq: VJET)	+122%
NewLead Holdings (Nasdaq: NEWL)	+52%
China Jo-Jo Drugstores (Nasdaq: CJJD)	+50%
Aetrium (Nasdaq: ATRM)	+44%
Anacor Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ANAC)	+28%
Align Technology (Nasdaq: ALGN)	+26%
DAQQ New Energy (NYSE: DQ)	+25%
Zhone Technologies (Nasdaq: ZHNE)	+25%
Bioanalytical Systems (Nasdaq: BASI)	+25%
Athenahealth (Nasdaq: ATHN)	+24%
BIGGEST LOSERS	% Drop
ARIAD Pharmaceutical (Nasdaq: ARIA)	-41%
Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partner (Nasdaq: CPRX)	-27%
pSivida (Nasdaq: PSDV)	-24%
Acacia Research (Nasdaq: ACTG)	-21%
CounterPath (Nasdaq: CPAH)	-20%
Vanda Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VNDA)	-18%
Knightsbridge Tankers (Nasdaq: VLCCF)	-17%
Bridgford Foods (Nasdaq: BRID)	-15%
WPCS International (Nasdaq: WPCS)	-15%
Platinum Group Metals (NYSE: PLG)	-14%

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.