(As of 7:27 am pacific)
Stocks rally this morning on the back of Apple, as the
tech giant reports stronger than expected earnings carrying the Nasdaq above
the 3,000 level. After being beat down
6% in the month of April, Apple shares rallied back 9.1% after reporting
surprisingly strong earnings results including net income that nearly
doubled. Markets around the world were
carried into gains on the positive Apple news.
In economic news in the US, orders for durable goods fell in March by
the most in 3 years. Orders for durable
goods (big ticket items that are targeted to last more than 3 years) slid 4.2%
in March, while February’s numbers were also revised downward. Excluding the volatile defense and transport
sectors, the core capital goods declined 0.8% for the month. Investors are anticipating the press
conference of Fed Chariman Ben Bernanke later this afternoon, as the Federal
Open Market Committee wraps up its 2 day meeting. Economists believe the Fed will not make any
changes to its current asset purchase program and expect that interest rates
will remain low until 2014 as the Fed has stated on numerous occasions. In Europe, stocks rise on solid earnings from
Spanish banks. Bank BBVA jumped 3.7%
after reporting profits that beat forecasts and stating that they had met the
EU’s capital requirements. Bankinster SA
surged 7.5% after reporting a 1.8% rise in profits . Spanish yields fell slightly to 5.84%. Asian stocks also rallied as Apple news
helped to lift tech firms. In China,
stocks climbed on market speculation that Beijing may reduce the reserve
requirements for banks in order to improve liquidity. Oil prices climbed 0.32% to 103.88 while gold
traded flat to start the day at 1643.10.
The US dollar was down and the 10 yr. treasury yield bounced back to
2.00%. 30 yr. mortgage rates remained at
all time lows at 3.82%. The VIX was down
5.97% to 17.02.
