THIS WEEK: May Day Mayday!

This week investors may again ignore the geopolitical squalls striking down across the globe and bid up stocks on the prospect of one more day of peace. Such is the drive provided by the greed factor. So even as eastern parts of Ukraine supposedly vote for independence in an extremely suspect referendum, and as Iran declares victory over the U.S. in Syria, and as North Korea prepares a new type of nuclear test, all signs point to higher stock prices. Yet, I say May Day brings mayday!

5-Day Chart at Yahoo Finance

Stocks climbed 1.0% Monday on the fact that no war broke out in Ukraine despite an unfavorable development. Yeah, said traders, as they offered more and more for stocks, including the momentum names like Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), which climbed more than 2 points.

Security	Year-to-Date	Last 12 Months
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	+2.8%	+16.2%
SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA)	+0.8%	+10.5%
PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQ)	+0.3%	+20.7%
SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD)	+7.5%	-10.6%
iPath S&P Crude Oil (NYSE: OIL)	+3.8%	+7.3%

But nobody noticed that gold and oil both rose as well, as the prospect of ugly war only increased across the globe. Gold and oil should meander some more over the near-term, showing no sign of direction until Vladimir Putin shows his nasty poker hand.

This Week

Janet Yellen will speak again, and so traders applaud, as she may be the easiest Fed-head we’ve had yet. Trained to please, Yellen has so far offered some of most dovish commentary since before I was born I suppose. Heck, she even put a nice spin on the fact that the Fed expects its own fed-funds rate to start moving higher in 2015.

The week ahead offers a tasty slate of economic stew. Watch for those meaty morsels coming in the form of the monthly retail sales data and the small business optimism index on Tuesday. Those two points should have something to say about where stocks will be heading on the week overall. A bunch of price data is due, with the consumer price index, producer price index and import/export prices all set for release this week. Though, they’ve hardly said anything about price increase since they did some 4 or 5 years ago. We won’t want to hear anything about that this week either.

A couple housing data points come due this week, but soft ones measuring mostly the mood of things in new home construction. Housing Starts and also the index measuring homebuilder optimism could offer reason for inflection for relative shares this week. Eventually I expect we’ll see the weather really did slow things up in construction and that more is up than we expected regarding the frames of new homes started and starting.

THIS WEEK’S ECONOMIC REPORT SCHEDULE
Economic Data Point	Prior	Expected
MONDAY
Treasury Budget	-$36.9 B	$114 B
Plosser Speaks
TUESDAY
ICSC Weekly Store Sales	-2.0%
-Year-to-Year Pace	+2.0%
Redbook Store Sales	+4.4%
NFIB Small Biz Index	93.4	94.5
Retail Sales	+1.1%	+0.4%
-Less Autos & Gas	+1.0%	+0.5%
Export Prices	+0.8%	+0.2%
-Import Prices	+0.6%	+0.4%
Business Inventories	+0.4%	+0.5%
Lacker Speaks
Lockhart Speaks
WEDNESDAY
Mortgage Activity	+5.3%
Producer Price Index	+0.5%	+0.2%
-Core PPI	+0.6%	+0.2%
EIA Petroleum Status
-Crude Oil Inventory	-1.8MB
-Gasoline Inventory	+1.6MB
Housing Market Index	47.0	49.0
Atlanta Fed Biz Inflation Exp.
THURSDAY
Weekly Jobless Claims	319K	317K
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort	37.1
EIA Natural Gas Report	+74 Bcf
Empire State Mfg. Index	1.29	5.0
Philly Fed Index	16.6	14.3
Consumer Price Index	+0.2%	+0.3%
-Core CPI	+0.2%	+0.1%
TIC Report
Industrial Production	+0.7%	+0.0%
E-Commerce Retail Sales
Janet Yellen Speaks
Dudley Speaks
FRIDAY
Housing Starts	946K	980K
-Permits	990K	1.02M
Consumer Sentiment	84.1	84.5
St. Louis Fed Bullard Speaks

Consumer sentiment will close out the data this week, but Wal-Mart’s (NYSE: WMT) earnings report will have more to say about real consumer spending than that. Wal-Mart is taking a beating though, thanks to the work of Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and others sporting their goods on the web these days. The rest of the earnings reports include a handful of recognizable names and a slew of biotechs, so there will be something to talk about, no doubt.

HIGHLIGHTED EPS REPORTS
Company	Ticker
MONDAY
Access Pharmaceuticals	Nasdaq: ACCP
Accretive Health	Nasdaq: ACHI
Acorn Energy	Nasdaq: ACFN
Aerie Pharmaceuticals	Nasdaq: AERI
Ambac Financial	Nasdaq: AMBC
American Midstream	Nasdaq: AMID
American Residential Properties	Nasdaq: ARPI
Applied DNA Sciences	Nasdaq: APDN
Arena Pharmaceuticals	Nasdaq: ARNA
BBX Capital	NYSE: BBX
Box Ships	NYSE: TEU
Bridgepoint Education	NYSE: BPI
Cache	Nasdaq: CACH
Carbon Natural Gas	Nasdaq: CRBO
China Green Agriculture	NYSE: CGA
China Yuchai Int’l	NYSE: CYD
Contango Oil & Gas	NYSE: MCF
Dealertrack Technologies	Nasdaq: TRAK
Dillard’s	NYSE: DDS
Doral Financial	NYSE: DRL
Elizabeth Arden	Nasdaq: RDEN
Everyday Health	Nasdaq: EVDY
Fairway Group	NYSE: FWM
Federal Agricultural Mortgage	NYSE: AGM
Gogo	Nasdaq: GOGO
Harvest Natural Resources	NYSE: HNR
Inovio Pharmaceuticals	NYSE: INO
Javelin Mortgage	NYSE: JMI
KBR	NYSE: KBR
LipoScience	Nasdaq: LPDX
Loral Space & Communications	Nasdaq: LORL
magicJack Vocaltec	Nasdaq: CALL
MagnaChip Semi	NYSE: MX
Mannkind	Nasdaq: MNKD
MBIA	NYSE: MBI
McKesson	NYSE: MCK
Meta Financial	Nasdaq: CASH
MMR Global	Nasdaq: MMRF
Monroe Capital	Nasdaq: MRCC
Nicholas Financial	Nasdaq: NICK
Nordic American Tanker	NYSE: NAT
Omeros	Nasdaq: OMER
Progressive	NYSE: PGR
Safe Bulkers	NYSE: SB
Sterling Construction	Nasdaq: STRL
TravelCenters of America	NYSE: TA
Trovagene	Nasdaq: TROV
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical	Nasdaq: RARE
ViaSat	Nasdaq: VSAT
Virtusa	Nasdaq: VRTU
Xenonics	Nasdaq: XNNH
Yongye International	Nasdaq: YONG
TUESDAY
Amber Road	Nasdaq: AMBR
American Electric	Nasdaq: AETI
Aratana Therapeutics	Nasdaq: PETX
Arotech	Nasdaq: ARTX
Biodel	Nasdaq: BIOD
Celladon	Nasdaq: CLDN
Cherry Hill Mortgage	Nasdaq: CHMI
China Lodging	Nasdaq: HTHT
Convergys	NYSE: CVG
Cumberland Pharmaceuticals	Nasdaq: CPIX
Deep Down	Nasdaq: DPDW
Diana Containerships	Nasdaq: DCIX
Document Security	NYSE: DSS
Egalet	Nasdaq: EGLT
Electro Scientific	Nasdaq: ESIO
Fossil	Nasdaq: FOSL
Gladstone Investment	Nasdaq: GAIN
GlobalSCAPE	NYSE: GSB
Idera Pharmaceuticals	Nasdaq: IDRA
Innovative Food Holdings	Nasdaq: IVFH
Installed Building Products	NYSE: IBP
Insys Therapeutics	Nasdaq: INSY
Intrawest Resorts	Nasdaq: SNOW
MELA Sciences	Nasdaq: MELA
OCI Partners	Nasdaq: OCIP
Odyssey Marine Exploration	Nasdaq: OMEX
Ophthotech	Nasdaq: OPTH
Osiris Therapeutics	Nasdaq: OSIR
pSivida	Nasdaq: PSDV
Quantum Fuel Systems	Nasdaq: QTWW
Rentech	NYSE: RTK
Rentech Nitrogen	NYSE: RNF
Resolute Energy	NYSE: REN
Revance Therapeutics	Nasdaq: RVNC
Rice Energy	Nasdaq: RICE
RSP Permian	Nasdaq: RSPP
Summer Infant	Nasdaq: SUMR
Synacor	Nasdaq: SYNC
Take-Two Interactive	Nasdaq: TTWO
TG Therapeutics	Nasdaq: TGTX
The Rubicon Project	Nasdaq: RUBI
URS	NYSE: URS
USA Technologies	Nasdaq: USAT
Vector Group	NYSE: VGR
Wix.com	NYSE: WIX
YuMe	Nasdaq: YUME
ZAIS Financial	NYSE: ZFC
ZaZa Energy	Nasdaq: ZAZA
WEDNESDAY
Abtech Holdings	Nasdaq: ABHD
Acxiom	Nasdaq: ACXM
Adecoagro	Nasdaq: AGRO
Agilent Technologies	NYSE: A
Agilysys	Nasdaq: AGYS
ARC Group Worldwide	Nasdaq: ARCW
Auxilio	Nasdaq: AUXO
BG Medicine	Nasdaq: BGMD
CafePress	Nasdaq: PRSS
CatchMark Timber	NYSE: CTT
Cellectar Biosciences	Nasdaq: CLRB
Cisco Systems	Nasdaq: CSCO
Coty	Nasdaq: COTY
Cvent	NYSE: CVT
Cypress Energy	Nasdaq: CELP
Deere & Co.	NYSE: DE
Diana Shipping	NYSE: DSX
Eagle Materials	NYSE: EXP
eLong	Nasdaq: LONG
Enzymotec	Nasdaq: ENZY
Exone	Nasdaq: XONE
Full House Resorts	NYSE: FLL
GasLog	Nasdaq: GLOG
Gevo	Nasdaq: GEVO
Hanwha Solarone	Nasdaq: HSOL
InSite Vision	Nasdaq: INSV
Jack in the Box	Nasdaq: JACK
JGWPT	NYSE: JGW
Kate Spade & Co.	Nasdaq: KATE
KNOT Offshore	Nasdaq: KNOP
Luxoft Holding	Nasdaq: LXFT
Macy’s	NYSE: M
Metabolix	Nasdaq: MBLX
Navios Maritime Acquisition	NYSE: NNA
NetEase	Nasdaq: NTES
New Source Energy	Nasdaq: NSLP
Norcraft Cos.	Nasdaq: NCFT
NTN Buzztime	NYSE: NTN
NV5 Holdings	Nasdaq: NVEE
Opower	Nasdaq: OPWR
Pinnacle Foods	NYSE: PF
Plug Power	Nasdaq: PLUG
Professional Diversity Network	Nasdaq: IPDN
Re/Max	Nasdaq: RMAX
Regado Biosciences	Nasdaq: RGDO
S&W Seed	Nasdaq: SANW
SeaWorld Entertainment	Nasdaq: SEAS
Sinocoking Coal	Nasdaq: SCOK
Sodastream	Nasdaq: SODA
Sprague Resource	Nasdaq: SRLP
Springleaf	Nasdaq: LEAF
StemCells	Nasdaq: STEM
Syneron Medical	Nasdaq: ELOS
Ultrapetrol	Nasdaq: ULTR
US Geothermal	NYSE: HTM
Valero Energy	NYSE: VLP
VimpelCom	NYSE: VIP
Vipshop	Nasdaq: VIPS
VOXX International	Nasdaq: VOXX
WuXi Pharmatech	NYSE: WX
Xencor	Nasdaq: XNCR
THURSDAY
Aastrom Biosciences	Nasdaq: ASTM
Acceleron Pharma	Nasdaq: XLRN
Advance Auto Parts	NYSE: AAP
Alliant Techsystems	NYSE: ATK
Allied Motion Technologies	Nasdaq: AMOT
American Power	Nasdaq: APGI
Applied Materials	Nasdaq: AMAT
Arctic Cat	Nasdaq: ACAT
Autodesk	Nasdaq: ADSK
Berkshire Bancorp	Nasdaq: BERK
Bovie Medical	NYSE: BVX
Bsquare	Nasdaq: BSQR
CA Inc.	NYSE: CA
Century Casinos	Nasdaq: CNTY
Constellation Energy Partners	NYSE: CEP
Corgenix Medical	Nasdaq: CONX
Cosi	Nasdaq: COSI
Cover-All Technologies	Nasdaq: COVR
Digital Cinema Destinations	Nasdaq: DCIN
E Commerce China Dangdang	Nasdaq: DANG
Flexible Solutions	NYSE: FSI
Flowers Foods	NYSE: FLO
Foundation Healthcare	Nasdaq: FDNH
Galectin Therapeutics	Nasdaq: GALT
Gas Natural	Nasdaq: EGAS
Global Sources	Nasdaq: GSOL
GSE Systems	NYSE: GVP
Implant Sciences	Nasdaq: IMSC
J.C. Penney	NYSE: JCP
Kohl’s	NYSE: KSS
LGI Homes	Nasdaq: LGIH
Metalico	NYSE: MEA
MFC Industrial	NYSE: MIL
Nordstrom	NYSE: JWN
Overland Storage	Nasdaq: OVRL
Paycom Software	Nasdaq: PAYC
Pioneer Power Solutions	Nasdaq: PPSI
Prestige Brands	NYSE: PBH
Puma Biotechnology	Nasdaq: PBYI
Qunar Cayman Islands	Nasdaq: QUNR
SFX Entertainment	Nasdaq: SFXE
Stonegate Mortgage	NYSE: SGM
Teekay	NYSE: TK
Teekay LNG Partners	NYSE: TGP
Teekay Offshore Partners	NYSE: TOO
Teekay Tankers	NYSE: TNK
Uroplasty	NYSE: UPI
UTStarcom	Nasdaq: UTSI
VirtualScopics	Nasdaq: VSCP
Wal-Mart	NYSE: WMT
WidePoint	NYSE: WYY
You On Demand	NYSE: YOD
ZBB Energy	NYSE: ZBB
FRIDAY
Canadian Solar	Nasdaq: CSIQ
Constellium	Nasdaq: CSTM
Qihoo 360 Technology	Nasdaq: QIHU
Saratoga Resources	Nasdaq: SARA
Tsakos Energy Navigation	NYSE: TNP
ULURU	Nasdaq: ULUR

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