Today’s market started on a higher note as equity futures and global markets responded to an above-consensus reading of exports out of China (+11.5% year-over-year; consensus +2.5%). Meanwhile, positive earnings reports at home outweighed some negative economic data and a downturn in crude oil. On that note, March PPI, Retail Sales for March, and Business Inventories for February all either came in below-consensus or contained negative revisions to prior reports.
The bar is so comically low on earnings that all you have to do is breath to meet or beat estimates. Expectations are lowered, and then they are met. We’ve seen this movie before a until the market has an epiphany and we tank.
Right now its great for longs and we are getting very close to the highs gain. It will take more than earnings beats on a low bar to propel this market to new all time highs though, so lets be careful here.
I still like the action in biotech with metals and mining a close second. We are still not technically overbought, but we are getting a tad stretched in some areas.
I added CPXX long today.
See you in the morning.