Lot of ground to cover in today’s show: big stock rally, earnings, the falling dollar and the rising (very, very slowly) yuan. Today’s special guest is Mike Ryan, chief investment strategist at UBS Wealth Management.
Archive for April 20th, 2011
US stocks on the launch pad as Asian and European markets engage in a spirited rally. Intel earnings credited for sparking gains, but earnings are almost a side note as US dollar index slumps to lowest levels in more than 16 months, and euro explodes higher.
EUR/USD surges above $1.45, and US stocks have a propensity to chase a bolting euro. No surprise either to see oil and gold soar. Seems sovereign debt problems — both in Europe and US — are too slow-moving, deferred and, at times, abstract for today’s capricious markets to get hung up on.
March existing home sales due at 10:00 a.m. ET. AT&T reports before the open; Apple, AmEx after the close.
S&P futures up 17.40, DJ futures up 137. Ten-year lower, yield at 3.41%.
Speaking of Intel, Kevin Kingbury posted the following:
Some mea culpas are going around on Wall Street as Intel (INTC) blew past 1Q expectations and gave a surprising strong 2Q revenue view in the face of what had been conventional wisdom about supposedly weak desktop and laptop demand. Auriga notes, “Consensus was clearly too pessimistic on PC sales (the primary source of upside).” While admitting that growth is under pressure from tablets and the economy, “data center will likely bolster both revenue and profitability.” RW Baird boosts its price target to $29 from $27 as it says INTC’s new Sandy Bridge product “is strong so far, debunking the myth about lack of demand for high-performance CPUs in PCs.” INTC up 6.2% premarket at $21.10.
