Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ:SLAB) pops almost 6% following an upgrade to Buy at Wunderlich.The firm said the recent pullback creates a more favorable risk/reward scenario and the potential for upside to its earnings estimates makes the stock attractive at these levels.The firm also raised its target price to $50 from $44.
Obamas Paid 20.5 Percent Tax. That’s on the couple’s $789,674 in 2011Income. Obama, who earns a $400,000 annual salary as president,received most of the rest of his 2011 income from sales of his books.Because they earned less than $1 million in 2011, the Obamas wouldn’tbe subject to the Buffett rule, the proposed minimum tax for highearners the president has been pushing for in his re-electioncampaign.The Obamas’ charitable donations were a significant percentage oftheir income for 2011, and it’s a big reason why their tax rate islower than many households with incomes in that range.
The S&P is poised for its worst weekly drop in 2012Stocks are tumbling today, following a two-day rally, as a slowdown inChina overshadows a batch of better-than-expected earnings results.Financial, tech and industrial shares had the biggest declines. Bankof America and GE dropping nearly 2%, and all three indices are downabout a percent.And we’re back to earnings season- wrapping up the first week – and onthe bright side, 71 percent of companies to report saw their earningsbeat analyst estimates – that’s 5 out of the 7 reporting -Alcoa reallykicked things off on Monday beating estimates. Also a beat for WellsFargo and Google. And today JPMorgan reported a 3 percent drop inearnings, beating analysts estimates. Their mortgage revenue surgedand trading almost doubled from the fourth quarter. Right now itlooks like a strong start to the earnings season.
JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) reported Q1 EPS of $1.31, vs. estimates of $1.17.The company reported Q1 revenues of $26.71 billion, up 6.6% year-over-year, vs. estimates of $24.18 billion.
By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators added to their overall US dollar long positions last week to the highest level since last June while euro positions deteriorated to a net amount of over 100,000 short contracts.
Non-commercial futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, raised their total US dollar long positions to $23.199 billion on April 10th from a total long position of $17.8 billion on April 3rd, according to the CFTC COT data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.
Individual Currencies:
EuroFX: Currency speculators decreased their sentiment for the euro currency as euro net short positions or bets against the currency rose to 101,364 contracts on April 10th from the previous week’s total of 79,480 net short contracts. Euro contracts on April 3rd were at their best position since November 15th when short positions totaled 76,147 contracts before the turnaround last week.
The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions as of the previous Tuesday. It can be a useful tool for traders to gauge investor sentiment and to look for potential changes in the direction of a currency or commodity. Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, where as a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar. The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.
GBP: British pound sterling positions decreased last week following three consecutive weeks of improvements that had brought pound positions to their best placement since August. British pound positions saw a total of 18,784 net short contracts on April 10th following a total of 8,807 net short contracts registered on April 3rd.
JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts edged lower as positions were close to their lowest level since 2007 (marked on March 27th) and reversed the previous week’s slight gain. Yen positions fell to a total of 66,084 net short contracts reported on April 10th following a total of 65,108 net short contracts on April 3rd.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions improved for a second consecutive week as of April 10th. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 9,919 net short contracts on April 10th following a total of 14,676 net short contracts as of April 3rd.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions edged lower after advancing the previous week. Canadian dollar positions declined to a total of 27,967 net long contracts as of April 10th following a total of 29,487 long contracts that were reported for April 3rd. CAD positions on March 20th had reached their highest position since May 3rd 2011 when long contracts equaled 54,041 before declining retreating.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions declined for the second consecutive week last week. Australian dollar positions fell to a total net amount of 39,429 long contracts on April 10th after declining to 49,319 net long contracts reported as of April 3rd. The AUD speculative positions are now at their lowest level since long positions totaled 32,637 on December 27th 2011.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions rose higher for a second consecutive week. NZD contracts increased to a total of 7,170 net long contracts as of April 10th following a total of 5,846 net long contracts on April 3rd. NZD contracts on March 27th were the lowest level for New Zealand dollar contracts since January 3rd when contracts equaled 2,436 net long positions.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts declined lower following increases the previous two weeks. Peso long positions decreased to a total of 68,600 net long speculative positions as of April 10th following a total of 84,503 long contracts that were reported for April 3rd.
COT Currency Data Summary as of April 10, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -101364
GBP -18784
JPY -66084
CHF -9919
CAD +27967
AUD +39429
NZD +7170
MXN +68600
Other COT Trading Resources:
Trading Forex Using the COT Report
Cosi (NASDAQ:COSI), which is trading almost 10% lower Friday, announced that it intends to launch a rights offering for up to 19.9% of its common stock to shareholders.The company intends to use the proceeds for planned growth initiatives as well as general corporate purposes.
A flood of foreclosures is about to hit the housing market. Thegolden age for foreclosure squatters is over. That’s now that a $26billion dollar mortgage settlement has been approved.The settlement, agreed to by the nation’s five largest mortgagelenders, is expected to speed up the foreclosure process. It willprovide stricter guidelines for banks to follow, when repossessinghomes, which will kick a lot of foreclosures out of limbo- since fall2010 – following the so-called robo-signing scandal – that whenbanks signed off on thousands of foreclosure documents a month withminimal verification. In some states, delinquent borrowers have been squatting in theirhomes for years. In Florida, the average time was 861 days, and in NewYork it was 1,056 days — close to three years. But that’s all aboutto change. We’re going to see an increase in the speed offoreclosures and a higher number of foreclosure starts.
Shares of Caesars (NYSE:CZR) is trading lower on news that the company entered into a equity distribution agreement with Citigroup and Credit Suisse to sell up to 10 million shares of common stock.The company filed the 8-K early this morning.Shares are trading over 5% lower.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has reportedly reduced its CEO’s, Lloyd Blankfein, salary by 35% to $12.4 million.The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., a bank holding company, is a global investment banking and securities firm specializing in investment banking, trading and principal investments, asset management and securities services. The Company provides services to corporations, financial institutions, governments, and high-net worth individuals.SmarTrend alerted subscribers to take profits in Goldman Sachs Group on April 05, 2012 at $119.11, since then the stock fell 2.6%. We are now watching for any positive developments that could result in a new uptrend signal.
Quest Software (NASDAQ:QSFT) shares are on the rise, up 1.4% despite the broader market’s pullback, as speculators buy shares to bet the tech company will overcome a $23 per share bid from Insight Venture Partners.Last week shareholders filed a suit against Quest, accusing its CEO Vinny Smith of avoiding SEC investigation into Quest’s accounting.Quest is defending itself by way of a proxy filing that details the events leading to the LBO deal.
