I send a note out each morning to clients, and I am toying with the idea of also posting it here. So excuse this experiment!

Themis Thoughts April 15th, 2010

Some Thoughts:

Sorry for putting up three images today; I know that makes for more scrolling. Today you will hear no shortage of sound bytes surrounding the issue of taxation. My town is littered with Vote Yes signs, as well as Vote No signs, as we battle over school funding and property tax increases. I actually saw a young mom in khaki clam-diggers leap out from behind a bush and ambush Mr. Perry, our town’s 74 year-year old hardware store proprietor. He went down like a twig as she twisted his walker into a pretzel with her bare hands. In the media I watched Sarah Palin on three different shows this morning hurling tea party rhetoric. “Tea Party-ists” are overwhelmingly white middle-aged men from the south, according to demographers, and I suspect Mrs. Palin knows this, as does the Republican party. She appeared at a Macon Georgia  rally, wearing a tight skirt, in front of a ’72 Mustang Fastback, as Lynyrd Skynyrd blared in the background. Yes. It is Tax Day, so get your tax return filed quick, and don’t listen to the rhetoric on both sides. It’s sunny out!

April 15^th is also an anniversary of two other important dates in history. The Titanic sank on this date in 1912 (No, Joe… I will not draw parallels to our economy). And most importantly, on this date in 1947, Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, as Major League Baseball’s first African American player. At 1pm today, please put on your baseball caps, the ones near your monitors (be they Sox, Yankee, Mets, or JPMorgan caps), then take them off and salute Jackie. Then turn off CNBC and find an afternoon baseball game to watch. Your trading will not be affected. Just buy dips, and save 97% of your sell order for the closing auctions.

The Dow closed up 103 points, the S&P up 13.3 points, and the Nasdaq 39 points. Advancers outnumbered decliners 3.5 – 1. Volume was heavier, at 6.3 billion NYSE composite shares. Only healthcare companies lagged. Bullish.

Where we left off 4:00pm EST:

INDU                        11123.11                 +103.69

SPX                         1210.65                   +13.35

CCMP                       2504.86                   +38.87

Futures now at 7:00am EST:

DJA                         -20

SPA -2.8

NDA                         -5.25

Key Data out today:

08:30:                                      Jobs Data

08:30:                                      Empire Manufacturing

09:00:                                      TIC flows

09:15:                                      Industrial Production

09:15:                                      Capacity Utilization

10:00:                                      Philly Fed

13:00:                                      NAHB Housing Market Index

Since yesterday’s close, some key stories:

–          HWP being investigated by Russian and German Authorities in bribery probe.

–          China A shares lower… was yesterday’s GDP report out of China “leaked”? And   is  this bullish, or a concern that the truth is being massaged and masked?

–          Wait… did UPS surprise to the upside? Really? I mean really??????

–          Greece lower. DJ reports that Greece may cancel a US$ bond issue due to lack of interest. Again…. Really? I mean really????

–          Millicom (MICC) to issue special dividend to shareholders.

–          US foreclosures rise 7% in the first quarter, but don’t worry about it. The TV says things are good.

After the Close Yesterday:

DVAX +17.2% (Heplisav data), CCRT +16.9% (announces tender offer), FDX +1.9% (UPS sympathy). On earnings: UPS +4.4%,    LSTR +3%, YUM +2.5%. SNTS -47.7% (patent ruling on Zegerid), MGM -5.6% (earnings, $750M convertible), MAC -3.9% (18.5M share secondary), KRC -3.2% (5.5M share secondary), TIBB -2.9% (announces terms with Patriot Financial for private placement), NOG -2.1% (5M share secondary).

Significant Movers This Morning:

	US – Upside
Symbol	Name	Last	%	Mrkt Cap	Headlines
ME	Mariner Energy	$25.00	38.00%	1,841	APA deal
WTI	W&T Offshore	$12.00	8.70%	825	sympathy
MDVN	Medivation	$11.31	5.60%	364	Medivation Astellas Publication
AMSC	American Superconductor	$30.60	5.30%	1,301	DB upgrade
UPS	United Parcel	$68.60	4.80%	64,982	Earnings beat
	US – Downside
Symbol	Name	Last	%	Mrkt Cap	Headlines
B	Barnes Group	$17.46	-14.60%	1,124
MGM	MGM Mirage	$14.44	-6.29%	6,800	Earnings miss
UNM	Unum Corp	$25.27	-4.30%	8,778	RAJA downgrade
APA	Apache	$103.85	-3.89%	36,367	APA/ME deal
MAC	Macerich	$42.24	-3.40%	4,287	secondary

Earnings today:

Ticker                     Estimate                 Actual

ALNC                            0.50                         0.59

FCS                                0.24                         .025

MSW                              0.13                         0.16

PCBK                             0.05                         0.06

TITN                             0.26                         0.19

Expected Earnings Later:

AMD, ATR, CBK, CBSH, CBST, DTLK, GOOG, INDB, ISRG, PBCT, PPG, SFNC, VMI