missle rocket

Traders and investors returned from a long weekend feeling pretty bullish.  Except for Facebook's investors, who sent the stock down 9.6 percent today.
First the scoreboard:
Dow: 12,580, +125.8, +1.0%

S&P 500: 1,332, +14.6, +1.1%

NASDAQ: 2,870, +33.4, +1.1%

And now the top stories:
  • Recently, the only thing more exciting than American election polls are the Greek election polls.  The latest numbers show that the left-wing, anti-bailout SYRIZA party is losing ground to the the pro-bailout New Democracy.  Basically, this means that the odds of Greece securing new bailout financing is improving and the chance of the country leaving the euro currency are diminishing.  The Greek markets reacted favorably to the news.  U.S. markets likely benefited as well. 

  • Spain, however, delivered more bad news on the health of its economy.  Retail sales in the debt-laden country plummeted 9.8 percent year-over-year in April.  This was the largest collapse in recorded history.  Government borrowing rates continue to surge.  A recent report also showed that wholesale olive oil prices hit a ten-year low.  Olive oil is a major export for Spain, Italy, and Greece.


  • The Case-Shiller home price index climbed by just 0.09 percent in March, which was slightly below the 0.2 percent climb economists were looking for. Atlanta, Detroit, and Chicago were among the major cities reporting dismal numbers.  However, after considering all of the major housing market metrics, it looks like the housing market bottom is here. 


  • Two other more informal reads on the U.S. economy were very disappointing.  Consumer confidence dove to 64.9 in May.  Economists were looking for an improvement to 69.6.  The Dallas Fed Manufacturing survey fell to -5.1 from -3.4 last month.  Economists were hoping the metric would improve to 3.0. 

  • Facebook shares fell 9.6 percent on no obvious news.  Reports surfaced that Facebook is developing a phone.  However, this might be a good reason for investors to run.

  • So what are the market experts saying now?  Richard Russell writes that a major Dow Theory bear market signal has been confirmed.  Societe Generale presented a realistic scenario that could send stocks below 2009 lows.  But other experts are more optimistic.  UBS's Jonathan Golub recently boosted his estimate for S&P 500 earnings growth.  Jeff Saut of Raymond James thinks we're due for a near-term bounce.  Deutsche Bank's David Bianco writes that corporate EPS could see a major boost from big share buybacks.