Market Talk

- Good ol’ Thomas Brown is at it again. Yes, the same Thomas Brown who called the bottom in bank stocks in July 2008. Now he’s saying Nouriel Roubini and Meredith Whitney are too bearish on the banking sector.

- GDP’s 1Q revised down to 3.0% represents only a “minor disappointment” amid current economic recovery, Ryan Avent writes at The Economist’s Free Exchange blog. “America’s recovery remains young and fragile. Still, many developed nations would be happy to have a nine-month performance like the one the American economy has managed since returning to growth.”

- BofA and Citi incorrectly hid from investors billions of dollars of their debt, similar to what Lehman did to obscure its level of risk, WSJ reports, citing company documents.

-WSJ’s Matt Phillips wonders if Libor fears are overdone.

- FT’s Alphaville relays a century-long look at the US equity market, via Deutsche Bank. Blog wonders whether we’re currently mired in a cyclical bull market within a longer, structural bear market?”

- “I believe the government response to the recession has created budgetary stress sufficient to bring about the crisis much sooner. Our generation — not our grandchildren’s — will have to deal with the consequences,” David Einhorn says in his NYT op-ed.

- Banks aren’t short of cash to spend on lobbying Washington to make sure serious financial reform never gets passed. But considering what’s at stake, the best hope for stronger reform is to make the upcoming House-Senate conference in June more transparent, writes Simon Johnson, former IMF chief economist.

- Palm’s mobile design guru, Matias Duarte — who led webOS development — is leaving the company and is headed to Google (GOOG), Digital Daily blogger John Paczkowski reports, noting Duarte’s departure is a “significant loss” for Palm and H-P.

- Blogosphere has been abuzz about rumors that Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer would appear on stage at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference. But Microsoft quickly squashes those rumors. “Steve Ballmer not speaking at Apple Dev Conf. Nor appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Not riding in the Belmont. Just FYI,” Microsoft says via Twitter.

- Obama says he’s “angry and frustrated” over the spill in the gulf.

- “Either market volatility is about to increase substantially from current levels or options traders have overestimated future volatility,” Bill Luby writes. “If we have one or two more days in which stocks show average to slightly higher than usual volatility, expect the VIX to begin to move back down to a level that is a better reflection of those daily moves.” Indeed, VIX drops 9.7% to 34.61 as stocks close slightly lower, paring steep intraday losses.

- Threat of deflation isn’t as concerning as some folks like to believe, says David Beckworth. Even though the recovery has been sluggish and weak, don’t expect another collapse in spending. “Both current and expected spending are growing. It may be not be growing as fast as we want, but it is growing and there is no sign of an imminent collapse.”

- “The most important thing to know about the 1,500-page financial reform bill passed by the Senate last week — now on the way to being reconciled with the House bill — is that it’s regulatory,” says former labor secretary Robert Reich. “It does nothing to change the structure of Wall Street.”

- “Amazon (AMZN) for some time has talked up the success of its Kindle, including the claim that the device is the biggest-selling item on its site. But it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Chief Executive Jeff Bezos was trying to lower expectations at the company’s annual meeting Tuesday,” Martin Peers writes at WSJ’s Heard On The Street column.

- CNet reports Google (GOOG) offered Viacom (VIA) $592 million if the media giant agreed to license TV shows and films to YouTube. Details of the offer, made shortly after Google bought YouTube in 2006, were revealed in documents released by a Manhattan court where Viacom filed its $1 billion copyright lawsuit against Google and YouTube.

- “For a brief moment last fall, it looked as though the American housing sector might not be the persistent economic drag economists had feared,” the Economist’s Free Exchange blog says. “But the good times haven’t lasted.”

- Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs plans to deliver the keynote address at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 7, but NYT Bits blogger Nick Bilton wonders how Jobs will wow the crowd, especially since many of his secrets have been revealed. “Product images and specs have leaked out of Apple before previous keynote presentations, but this time the amount of information was a relative gusher.”

- “With margin calls back on the radar screen for the first time since the financial crisis, it’s worth noting that margin debt has hit levels not seen since early in the crisis,” Brendan Conway writes at MarketBeat.

- Calculated Risk blogger Bill McBride delves deeper into yesterday’s existing home sales report and remains worried about increasing inventory and months-of-supply levels.

- Mounting tensions in the global financial system are evident in the increasing Libor rate. “The world’s big banks continue to grow leerier about lending to one another,” writes LA Times’ Tom Petruno. Three-month dollar Libor rate earlier highest level since July, though Petruno notes it remains well off levels seen during the financial-crisis in late 2008 when credit markets froze.

- Keep an eye on the huge shift from bullishness to bearishness throughout the last few weeks.