Wall Street Greek: FRIDAY’S MARKET: Left to its Own Devices

Friday’s securities markets were left to their own devices, and so running on empty. Janet Yellen is but a fading memory today, save in Asia where the celebration is a day lagged. Economic data disappointed, making some wonder if maybe the Fed-men are speaking truth about a dependent economy. Where there might be excitement, say in the newly trading Twitter (TWTR), there’s a new initiation at “sell” by an old friend of mine (see below). So, there’s not much to do but sell stock and squirrel away chestnuts today.

Friday’s Markets

Market ETF	November 15	Year-to-Date
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	+0.1%	+26.0%
SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA)	+0.0%	+21.6%
PowerShares (Nasdaq: QQQ)	-0.1%	+28.5%

It’s the day after the market yearned for Yellen, and today it’s left to its own devices. A questionable list of economic data points gave it little to celebrate. Furthermore, varied signs of selling in some stocks with big gains on the year portends more of the same for the broader group.

Economic Events

ECONOMIC REPORT SCHEDULE
Economic Data Point	Prior	Expected	Actual
FRIDAY
Empire State Manufacturing	1.52	5.5	-2.21
Industrial Production	+0.7% R	+0.1%	-0.1%
-Capacity Utilization	78.3%	78.3%	78.1%
Int’l Trade Prices
-Import Prices	+0.1% R	-0.5%	-0.7%
-Export Prices	+0.4% R	+0.2%	-0.5%
Wholesale Trade
-Inventories	+0.8% R	+0.4%	+0.4%
-Sales			+0.6%

-R symbolizes “revised”

The data was mostly poor today, save the Wholesale Trade Report, which showed a good rate of sales growth slightly lagged by inventories, which is what you want to see. However, industrial production declined and capacity utilization slipped. The New York Fed reported contraction of regional manufacturing activity, and activity far short of economists’ expectations. Both import and export prices fell, which tends to be a bad sign for the global economy, but it also reflects declines in volatile agricultural and energy prices this particular month.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	CLOSE	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	+0.0%	NIKKEI 225	+1.9%
German DAX	+0.2%	Hang Seng	+1.7%
CAC 40	+0.2%	S&P/ASX 200	+0.9%
FTSE 100	+0.4%	Korean KOSPI	+1.9%
Bloomberg GCC 200 Mideast	+0.0%	BSE India SENSEX	+1.0%

We told you yesterday to look for a strong day in Asia today – voila! Asia is experiencing a delayed reaction to Janet Yellen’s supportive confirmation hearing yesterday. She made probably the most perfectly positive statements for the investors’ case, and so Europe and the U.S. rocketed higher yesterday. Asia fell a little short, and so we correctly saw the current day’s performance ahead of time.

Commodity Markets (Noonish)

WTI Crude	+0.0%
Brent Crude	+1.3%
NYMEX Natural Gas	+1.1%
RBOB Gasoline	-1.1%
Gold Spot	+0.1%
Silver Spot	-0.1%
COMEX Copper	+0.3%
CBOT Corn	-0.5%
CBOT Wheat	+0.0%
CBOT Soybeans	-1.9%
ICE Cocoa	+1.4%
ICE Sugar	-0.6%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	+1.2%
CME Lumber	+1.1%
CME Live Cattle	+0.1%

The dollar is trading mixed today and so we see some confusion in the commodities. The dollar is gaining against the yen today, but it has lost ground to the euro. A report just showed agricultural prices declined sharply in October, and they are trading mixed today. Cold weather finally striking the U.S. is likely affecting orange juice concentrate today; lumber is getting a lift from likely lagging mortgage rates. Housing stocks surged yesterday on the Yellen conversation, so lumber higher continues to make sense as well.

Corporate Events

My old friend Scott Kessler at S&P Capital IQ initiated coverage of Twitter (Nasdaq: TWTR) today at a “sell”. Scott and I rode the shuttle bus home together every evening when I worked there, and the two of us tended to turn the lights out at the office every night. He’s an excellent analyst, not to mention a solid person, and I happen to agree with his opinion of Twitter. I’m only sorry he said it before I did...

HIGHLIGHTED EPS REPORTS
Company	Ticker
FRIDAY
Maximus	NYSE: MMS
WidePoint	NYSE: WYY
Viaspace	Nasdaq: VSPC
Dominion Resources	NYSE: DOM
Klondex Mines	Toronto: KDX.TO
DS Healthcare Group	Nasdaq: DSKX

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BIGGEST GAINERS	% Gain
InterCloud Systems (Nasdaq: ICLD)	+213%
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Fonar (Nasdaq: FONR)	+38%
Cadence Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CADX)	+37%
Synutra International (Nasdaq: SYUT)	+32%
Andatee China Marine Fuel (Nasdaq: AMCF)	+29%
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BIGGEST LOSERS	% Drop
Summer Infant (Nasdaq: SUMR)	-23%
Crumbs Bake Shop (Nasdaq: CRMB)	-20%
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GSE Holding (NYSE: GSE)	-16%
S&W Seed (Nasdaq: SANW)	-15%
China Recycling Energy (Nasdaq: CREG)	-14%
Pingtan Marine (NYSE: PME)	-13%
Northwest Biotherapeutics (Nasdaq: NWBOW)	-13%
Bovie Medical (NYSE: BVX)	-11%

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.