Wall Street Greek: Janet Yellen Lovefest

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen

Janet Yellen testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs today. It was her con- firmation hearing, as Congress determines whether it will have her as the new Federal Reserve Chairperson. While there were varied opinions, based on our interpretation of the questioning, we know one thing for certain: the market is pleased with her. She may not be confirmed yet, but she confirmed that she will be market supportive Thursday.

Market Yearns for Yellen

Market ETF	November 14	Year-to-Date
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	+0.5%	+25.9%
SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA)	+0.4%	+21.5%
PowerShares (Nasdaq: QQQ)	+0.3%	+28.5%

Stocks got a lift from Janet Yellen’s kind words this morning, but they still may be extended as we head toward the close of the tax season. This is evident in the slides of momentum names of late.

Economic Events

ECONOMIC REPORT SCHEDULE
Economic Data Point	Prior	Expected	Actual
THURSDAY
Janet Yellen Testimony
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort	-37.9		-33.9
Weekly Jobless Claims	341K	330K	339K
EIA Natural Gas Report	35 Bcf		20 Bcf
EIA Petroleum Status	+1.6 M		+2.6 M
International Trade	$-38.7 B	$-39.1 B	$-41.8 B
Productivity & Costs
-Nonfarm Productivity	+1.8%	+2.3%	+1.9%
-Unit Labor Costs	+0.5%	-0.3%	-0.6%
Plosser Speaks
Bernanke Speaks

-R symbolizes “revised”

The future Fed-head mattered most to the market today, but a slew of other data reached the wire. First among them, in my opinion, is the significant improvement in the consumer mood, as reported by Bloomberg. This sentiment figure had figured poorly for the holiday shopping season, as it continued to slide even after the government got its act together. However, this latest improvement combined with the recent good news from Macy’s (NYSE: M) says something else.

Weekly Jobless Claims hardly changed, and just keeps offering evidence of structural change in the American labor force. In other words, so many of those lost jobs of the last crisis may never come back and this may be the new normal. That’s at least until America rediscovers a way to employ people, like maybe picking up dead birds off solar and wind farms…

Nonfarm productivity improved, but at a lesser rate than was expected by economists. The fact that the rate was better than the previous report was probably enough to keep this figure from factoring for stocks Thursday.

I’m sorry to say that if the trade deficit is expanding, that’s probably still a positive signal for the U.S. economy. It probably means Americans are doing what they do best, consuming again, and so we are exporting less than we are importing as a result. Imports increased in the reported September period, while exports actually fell; that fact may say more about European weakness than anything else.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	CLOSE	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	+1.1%	NIKKEI 225	+2.1%
German DAX	+1.1%	Hang Seng	+0.8%
CAC 40	+1.0%	S&P/ASX 200	+0.7%
FTSE 100	+0.5%	Korean KOSPI	+0.2%
Bloomberg GCC 200 Mideast	+0.3%	BSE India SENSEX	+1.0%

European stocks ignored my concern though, instead rising sharply on Janet Yellen’s yes vote for stocks. It may be too soon to say the same reason drove Asia, but look for another gain for the region Friday on Yellen’s lift.

Commodity Markets (Afternoon)

WTI Crude	-0.3%
Brent Crude	+1.3%
NYMEX Natural Gas	+1.2%
RBOB Gasoline	+2.3%
Gold Spot	+0.2%
Silver Spot	+0.5%
COMEX Copper	+0.2%
CBOT Corn	-0.8%
CBOT Wheat	-0.1%
CBOT Soybeans	-0.1%
ICE Cocoa	+0.6%
ICE Sugar	-0.9%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	+2.2%
CME Lumber	-2.0%
CME Live Cattle	+0.2%

Yellen offered a different note than economic data has supplied of late and weakened the dollar today. A softer dollar means we can buy fewer units of commodities with it, and so you see broad commodity price rise Thursday.

Corporate Events

J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM) held an open meeting on Twitter (Nasdaq: TWTR) and quickly regretted it when anti-Wall Street criticism came in the form of sarcastic questioning. The meeting was quickly adjourned as a result, but it still made for entertaining water cooler conversation on Wall Street.

HIGHLIGHTED EPS REPORTS
Company	Ticker
THURSDAY
Kohl’s	NYSE: KSS
Viacom	Nasdaq: VIAB
Helmerich & Payne	NYSE: HP
Cardium Therapeutics	NYSE: CXM
New Source Energy	NYSE: NSLP
MGT Capital Investments	NYSE: MGT
Global Telecom & Technology	Nasdaq: GTLT
Ambac Financial	Nasdaq: ABKFQ
Vasomedical	Nasdaq: VASO
Qualstar	Nasdaq: QBAK
Spine Pain Management	Nasdaq: SPIN
Ambient	Nasdaq: AMBT
Emerge Energy Services	NYSE: EMES
Document Capture Tech	Nasdaq: DCMT
Nordstrom	NYSE: JWN
NeoStem	NYSE: NBS
Corgenix Medical	Nasdaq: CONX
Intcomex	Nasdaq: ICMX
Investors Capital Holdings	NYSE: ICH
Intelligent Systems	NYSE: INS
Synthetic Biologics	NYSE: SYN
US Geothermal	NYSE: HTM
Athersys	Nasdaq: ATHX
IntriCon	Nasdaq: IIN
Matthews International	Nasdaq: MATW
Agilent	NYSE: A
Brooks Automation	Nasdaq: BRKS
International Minerals	Toronto: IMZ.TO
S&W Seed	Nasdaq: SANW
MTS Systems	Nasdaq: MTSC
Key Technology	Nasdaq: KTEC

MOST ACTIVE STOCKS
BIGGEST GAINERS	% Gain
Biostar Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: BSPM)	+60%
BioFuel Energy (Nasdaq: BIOF)	+31%
YuMe, Inc. (Nasdaq: YUME)	+32%
Tandem Diabetes Care (Nasdaq: TNDM)	+27%
China Recycling Energy (Nasdaq: CREG)	+27%
Nortech Systems (Nasdaq: NSYS)	+23%
Cinedigm (Nasdaq: CIDM)	+19%
Aeterna Zentaris (Nasdaq: AEZS)	+17%
Cancer Genetics (Nasdaq: CGIX)	+16%
ERBA Diagnostics (NYSE: ERB)	+16%
BIGGEST LOSERS	% Drop
Tile Shop (NYSE: TTS)	-40%
Epizyme (Nasdaq: EPZM)	-33%
Eagle Bulk Shipping (Nasdaq: EGLE)	-30%
RMG Networks (Nasdaq: RMGN)	-29%
Perceptron (Nasdaq: PRCP)	-22%
Qualstar (Nasdaq: QBAK)	-21%
Cosi (Nasdaq: COSI)	-18%
NeoPhotonics (Nasdaq: NPTN)	-18%
Mannatech (Nasdaq: MTEX)	-14%
Century Casinos (Nasdaq: CNTY)	-16%

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.