The economics calendar is crowded for Friday’s session, with April consumer prices, the May Empire State manufacturing index, March investment flow data, April industrial production and the preliminary University of Michigan consumer sentiment gauge for May all due for release.
Insurers stepped up to the plate yesterday for about $22 billion in TARP handouts. Names like HIG, LNC, ALL, AMP, and PFG showed up on bended knee with hat in hand.
Our companies are slowly breaking, and anyone who finds this as a good thing I feel is truly myopic and sadly mistaken. Just because things are collapsing with less velocity is just a sign of the cancer going into remission and not a cure by any stretch at all. It will be an interesting summer for sure. Earnings are almost out of the way and and positive catalysts will be hard to come by.
Credit cards will report April data today so keep an eye on COF, AXP, and DFS, delinquency rates have evidently slowed but charge offs are up. GM has sent termination notices to 1100 dealers and they expect that number to grow to 3600 dealers by year end. These are huge numbers.
Careful out there, and don’t buy the pundits.