Wednesday’s Financial Markets Summary

It’s all about taper fear today, with the Beige Book release and the economic report slate reassuring investors that the economy is improving at a pace likely to bring Fed feedback. The report in Beige seemed to indicate Fed satisfaction with the modest pace of growth it was expecting for the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, that will likely bring Fed asset purchase tapering once Janet Yellen takes over for the soon departing Ben Bernanke atop the Fed. With stocks so far stretched this year, there’s a consensus view that they’ll give way once the Fed pulls away support. Visit the blog for daily market coverage.

Wednesday’s Financial Markets

Market ETF	December 4	Year-to-Date
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	+0.1%	+26.3%
SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA)	+0.0%	+21.8%
PowerShares (Nasdaq: QQQ)	+0.2%	+31.3%

Stocks were cautiously heading lower after the Beige Book release, but have since found green ground into the close of the day’s trading. It’s a good sign, counter to trend for recent days’ trading, but I do not believe it will hold.

Economic Events

ECONOMIC REPORT SCHEDULE
Economic Data Point	Prior Period	Expected	Actual
WEDNESDAY
ADP Employment Report	+184K R	+185K	+215K
New Home Sales (Oct.)	354K	425K	444K
New Home Sales (Sept.)	379K R	420K	354K
ISM Non-Manufacturing	55.4	55.5	53.9
International Trade	-$43.0 B	-$40.2 B	-$40.6 B
Beige Book
Gallup US Job Creation Index	19		20
Mortgage Activity	-0.3%		-12.8%
EIA Petroleum Status
-Crude Oil Inventory	+3.0 M		-5.6 M
-Gasoline Inventory	+1.8 M		+1.8 M
House Committee: ACA
OPEC Meeting

 -R symbolizes “revised”

Economic data was mostly positive according to the popular press, but the good news is suspect for various reasons today. First of all, the Fed expressed satisfaction with the pace of economic activity thus far through the fourth quarter. It said as much through the Beige Book release this afternoon, and the market is keeping it to its word to taper if the economy grows modestly as it expects.

The ADP employment data is suspect, at least in my view. It’s only an estimate and often mismatches against the official government data, which is due Friday. ADP sees private nonfarm payrolls climbing by 215K, and it revised its prior month data higher as well.

The other bit of data that excited the market media mavens this morning was the New Home Sales data, today reported for the past two months. The important note was that the pace in October was reported sharply higher, to 444K, which was far above economists’ expectations for 425K. Some analysts expressed an expectation that the data would be revised, as it was inconsistent with other industry results.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	CLOSE	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	-0.7%	NIKKEI 225	-2.2%
German DAX	-0.9%	Hang Seng	-0.8%
CAC 40	-0.6%	S&P/ASX 200	+0.3%
FTSE 100	-0.3%	Korean KOSPI	-1.1%
Bloomberg GCC 200 Mideast	0.0%	BSE India SENSEX	-0.7%

With signs of economic drag in Europe ahead of this week’s ECB decision, European shares slid. Asia fell as well, probably on the geopolitical firestorm China and Japan are engaged in with regard to the uninhabited islands China reports it will defend. Defiant Japan and South Korea vow not to agree to China’s new demands for notification before flying over the rocks that they claim are theirs (mostly Japan’s).

Commodity Markets (CLOSE)

WTI Crude	+1.0%
Brent Crude	-0.7%
NYMEX Natural Gas	-0.3%
RBOB Gasoline	-0.2%
Gold Spot	+1.9%
Silver Spot	+3.5%
COMEX Copper	+2.1%
CBOT Corn	+1.2%
CBOT Wheat	-1.0%
CBOT Soybeans	+0.7%
ICE Cocoa	-1.4%
ICE Sugar	-0.8%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	-0.7%
CME Lumber	-0.4%
CME Live Cattle	+0.2%

So much for fiat currency; gold and silver are on the sharp incline today, likely due to the geopolitical issues stirring up across Eastern Europe and in the Asia Pacific regions.

Corporate Events

It was an especially light reporting day.

HIGHLIGHTED REPORTS
Company	Ticker
WEDNESDAY
Golub Capital (EPS Conf. Call)	Nasdaq: GBDC
EarthLink (Dividend Ex-Date)	Nasdaq: ELNK
Bank of America (Div. Ex-Date	NYSE: BAC
SLM Corp. (Div. Ex-Date)	Nasdaq: SLMBP
Paperclip (Div. Ex-Date)	Nasdaq: PCPJ
Ametek (Div. Ex-Date)	NYSE: AME

MOST ACTIVE STOCKS
BIGGEST GAINERS	% Gain
Oculus Innovative (Nasdaq: OCLS)	+150%
ARCA biopharma (Nasdaq: ABIO)	+40%
Tonix Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: TNXP)	+37%
Industrial Services of America (Nasdaq: IDSA)	+22%
Dataram (Nasdaq: DRAM)	+19%
CAS Medical Systems (Nasdaq: CASM)	+19%
Pacific Ethanol (Nasdaq: PEIX)	+11%
G-III Apparel Group (Nasdaq: GIII)	+10%
Oxford Resource Partners (NYSE: OXF)	+10%
BRE Properties (NYSE: BRE)	+11%
BIGGEST LOSERS	% Drop
Ambit Biosciences (Nasdaq: AMBI)	-36%
Repros Therapeutics (Nasdaq: RPRXZ)	-30%
BioTelemetry (Nasdaq: BEAT)	-24%
Turquoise Hill Resources (NYSE: TRQ)	-24%
Express Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPR)	-23%
Kewaunee Scientific (Nasdaq: KEQU)	-16%
InterCloud Systems (Nasdaq: ICLDW)	-15%
FreeSeas (Nasdaq: FREE)	-17%
Northwest Biotherapeutics (Nasdaq: NWBOW)	-14%
The Herzfeld Caribbean Basin (Nasdaq: CUBA)	-12%

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.