I know it is not Christmas Season, but sing it anyway! “Silver and gold, silver and gold, everyone wishes for silver and gold. How do you measure its worth? Just by the pleasure it gives here on Earth”: Burl Ives sings it in Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer.

Oh. And Pop Quiz time. Why not? In honor (or memoriam) of my oldest’s mid-term marking period grades:

 

1. Violence in the Middle East stemming from protests led by the general populations are mostly a result from:

      a) the United States convincing folks all over the region that our way of life trumps all others.

      b) Al Queda, rebels, and non-conformists spoiling the fun for everyone. You know, the fun.

      c) Biblical prophecies unleashed by birds dropping from the sky in the Midwest.

       d) the Bernank stealing monies from retirees and responsible savers and imposing artificially low interest rates on the world, bailing out companies that caused financial carnage and pay no taxes, who instead of spurring economic lending as it was hoped that they would do, caused speculation and HFT in all sorts of asset classes, causing copper, cotton, oil, gas, coal, gold, silver, stocks, baseball cards, art works, soy, wheat, corn, beef, poultry, chemicals, and Washington DC Real Estate to all spike in price, such that folks around the globe who have little wealth to begin with, can’t afford to make ends meet, because food and energy make up to 80% of their incomes, so times are really tough, and they can’t take care of their families, and they have nothing left to lose, so revolting and protesting seems like a pretty good idea.

2. True or False: Quantitative Easing is a great idea because there is such a thing as a free lunch after all, and after all, money printing is not the last resort of failed regimes.

3. True or False: The folks who have gained the most since the bailouts and QE have started over two years ago are the common folks, who thank goodness, are no longer unemployed.

4. True or False: The divide between the wealthiest and least fortunate in America has shrunken in recent years, even with the new President.

5. Match the following items on the left with the items and terms on the right they most correspond to:

HFT                                                    Just plain ill-conceived and wrong

Flash

Exchanges

Lobbyists

The Mets

Lady Gaga

  Charlie Sheen

  Michelle Bachman

   No-Fat Yodels

   Subarus

6. True or False: The way to reverse all the ill-conceived and wrongheaded policies of the last 20 years is to give the task to the folks who botched it up and hope they will put societal interests outside of their own, first.

I hope you all had a great long weekend!

 

Where we left off 4:00pm EST:

INDU              12,505.99                                +52.45

SPX                 1,337.38                                  +7.02

CCMP             2,820.16                                  +17.65

Futures now at 7:00 am EST:

DJA                             +29 

SPA                             +3.60

NDA                           +5.50

Key Data out today:

 

10:00:              New Home Sales

10:00:              Dallas Fed

 

Since the prior close, some key stories:

 

–       Barrick Gold agrees to buy Equinox Materials for $7.6 billion.

–       1^st Quarter profits looking goooooood.

–       Syria closes border to Jordan.

–       Yemen protests persist.

–       S&P options highest since Lehman Brothers.

–       Corn seen topping wheat, raising costs for Tyson.

–       BofA wins dismissal from Countrywide suit.

–       BA factory suspected in plane rupture (WSJ)

–       $1.2 billion in muni-bond outflows this past week.

–       Fed’s balance sheet grows to record this past week again.

–       US to supply Pakistan with 85 drones. What???!!!??!!!!!!????

–       Ford expected to post highest earnings since 1998.

–       Europe pretty much closed for trading.

–       Valeant Pharmaceuticals responds to Cephalon board letter by kind of calling the board liars.

–       Barron’s: Positive on OMG, OVTI, NKE and cautious on ZIP

 

Earnings:

 

Pre-market:  CBE, JCI, RSH, SOHU

 

After the Close: AMP, BUCY, ESRX, HMA, KND, MAS, OMI, SANM, USTR, WRB, EFII, and NFLX

 

Significant Movers This Morning:

PLCM +9%, SLV +5%, CDE +5%, IGT +4%, FE -6%, BDN -6%