The Difference Between Can’t and Won’t:

She won’t eat carrots; I can’t reverse-crab walk.

P&G won’t recall Pampers Cruisers Diapers; Goldman Trading Chiefs can’t recall shorting Bear.

The misses won’t listen to Dave Bromberg; I can’t listen to another pro-high-freak argument.

Money Never Sleeps won’t get any awards at Cannes; I can’t believe Vince Farrell got a part in it. Unfair.

High Frequency Shops Can’t Lose (NYT reports one firm has not had a losing day in 4 years!); Joe won’t admit that sub-par coaching is responsible for his little league team’s less-than-winning-ways (wait… I must retract. Joe called me moments ago; his son’s traveling Chatham team just beat Al Leiter’s team from Summit. Taste It!).

Gold won’t go lower; Deficits can’t get wider. Ok maybe not.

By the way. This burns me: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/business/17trade.html?src=twt&twt=nytimes&adxnnlx=1274094072-YAGVy2Cc42N2ia%20vR//IaQ&pagewanted=print

One of the HFT firms featured in the article, had this to say about the meltdown in 2008: “It was like shooting fish in the barrel in 2008; Any dummy who tried a high frequency strategy back then could make money.”

Where we left off 4:00pm EST:

INDU                      10,620.16              -162.79

SPX                        1135.68                 -21.76

CCMP                    2346.85                 -47.51

Futures now at 7:30am EST:

DJA                         +16

SPA                        +4.2

NDA                        +6.50

Key Data out today: Get Ready. Phew!

08:30:                     Empire Manufacturing

09:00:                     Net Long Term Tic Flows ($50billion)

09:00:                     Total Net Tic Flows

13:00:                     NAHB Housing Market Index (20)

Since yesterday’s close, some key stories:

–          Man Group agrees to buy GLG Partners for $1.6 billion

–          INTC reportedly in talks to buy Infineon’s mobile chip unit.

–          Oil spill. Oh forget it. Almost a month long now.

–          Regulators shut 4 banks over the weekend.

–          Universal Health offered $33.75/share for Psychiatric Solutions.

–          Euro sinks on region fears.

Earnings Today:

Ticker               Estimate                 Actual

BLTI                        -.09                         -.20

CEL                        0.75                        0.85

DL                           0.01                        0.01

LOW                       0.30                        0.34

PWRD                    0.84                        0.84

Expected Earnings Later:

.A, CPL, GA, GTF, HAST, KITD, PULB, SIHI, SINA, VAL, WYY, XNN.