3 High Flyers

This morning I used Barchart to screen those stocks hitting new monthly highs to find 3 with charts that I like.  My screening found Market Leader (LEDR), Taser International (TASR) and Isis Pharmaceutical (ISIS)

Market Leader (LEDR)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 16 new highs and up 20.22% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 68.15%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 4.09
• Recently traded at 4.38 with a 50 day moving average of 3.57

Taser International (TASR)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 80% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 13 new highs and up 29.93% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 71.62%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 5.21
• Recently traded at 5.38 with a 50 day moving average of 4.56

Isis Pharmaceutical (ISIS)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 13 new highs and up 26.12% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 72.77%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 9.46
• Recently traded at 9.89 with a 50 day moving average of 8.48

Barchart's Morning Call 5/25

Barchart Morning Call

BC - 1 hr 43 mins ago

Overnight Developments

• June E-mini S&Ps this morning are little changed with some underlying support from reports that German Chancellor Merkel may be open to the idea of creating a joint debt redemption fund to help pay down Eurozone debt. EUR/USD is up 0.44 cents (+0.35%) on the report and the dollar index is down 0.23 points (-0.29%). June 10-year T-notes are down 1 tick. Commodity prices are mostly higher this morning with crude oil up 0.29%, gold up 0.24%, copper up 0.54%, and agricultural commodities trading mostly higher.
• The Euro Stoxx 50 index this morning is down -0.23%. Asian stocks today closed mixed: Japan +0.20%, Hong Kong +0.25%, China -0.85%, Taiwan -0.75%, Australia -0.66%, Singapore -0.24%, South Korea +0.45%, India -0.03%, Turkey -0.06%.
• German Chancellor Merkel today made a concession to the German opposition parties to reconsider a proposal on common liability for sovereign debt and discuss that plan further on June 13. Specifically, Ms. Merkel agreed to reconsider a plan published by her council of economic advisors that would create a European debt redemption fund that would help governments pay down their outstanding debt below 60% in return for constitutional commitments on economic reform. The redemption fund would be limited to 25 years, would be worth 2.3 trillion euros, and would be backed by Eurozone country gold reserves. Ms. Merkel at Wednesday's EU summit refused to consider joint euro bonds, but she is apparently becoming a bit more flexible on similar ways to help pay down Eurozone debt given her isolation. Italian Prime Minister Monti yesterday said that the majority of Eurozone leaders favor joint euro bonds and that he thought Ms. Merkel could be persuaded. A 2.3 trillion euro debt redemption fund backed by gold, should it ever come into existence, would be a huge step forward in containing the European debt crisis.
• Chinese stocks fell 0.85% today due in part to yesterday's reports that China's biggest banks will fall short of loan targets for the first time in 7 years due to reduced demand for credit. Loan demand weakened in April and May and loan demand for the year may reach only 7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion), below the government's apparent goal of 8.0-8.5 trillion yuan. China's March new bank loans fell by 33% m/m to 682 billion yuan, well below the market consensus for the report of 780 billion yuan. Recent data strongly indicates that the Chinese economy did not bottom out in Q1 as market participants had earlier expected. A recent survey by Bloomberg News found a consensus for +7.9% Chinese GDP growth in Q2 down from earlier estimates of +8.3% and down from +8.1% growth in Q1.
• China's central bank today in its annual report said that China's economy faces downward pressure and that officials will fine-tune policies as needed to address that slower growth.
• Japan's April CPI rose +0.2% y/y, which remained well below the BOJ's inflation target of +1.0% and indicated that Japan continues to face a serious deflation problem. Today's CPI report will keep the pressure on the BOJ to further expand its asset purchase target, possibly in July since the BOJ just recently boosted the target.
  Market Comments
  • June E-mini S&Ps this morning are little changed. The market remains worried about Chinese economic growth and the Eurozone debt crisis, but today's news was encouraging that Ms. Merkel will at least consider a big debt redemption fund to pay down Eurozone debt.
  • U.S. stocks on Thursday closed mixed: S&P 500 +0.14%, Dow Jones +0.27%, Nasdaq 100 -0.62%. The stock market on Thursday continued to see some short-covering after the plunge seen in stock prices in the first three weeks of May to a 4-month low last Friday. The stock market on Thursday managed to close mixed despite several bearish factors including the weaker-than-expected April durable goods orders report ex-transportation of -0.6%, the weak Eurozone manufacturing PMI report of -0.9 to 45.0, the decline in the German IFO confidence indexes, the 0.5 point decline to 48.7 in China's May HSBC/Markit May flash manufacturing purchasing managers index, and news that China's major banks will fall short of lending targets because of weak long demand. In addition, a poll was released showing that the Greek Radical Left Syriza party picked up another 2 percentage points of support in the polls to 30% and is now 4 points ahead of the pro-bailout New Democracy Party. If the anti-bailout Syriza party wins most seats in Parliament in the Greek election on June 17, the chances are higher than Greece will overplay its hand on repudiating the bailout agreement and end up leaving the Eurozone. Supportive factors on Thursday included (1) a 3.5% rally in HP on positive earnings results and cost-cutting, (2) Italy Prime Minister Monti's comment that the majority of Eurozone leaders favor joint euro bonds and that Germany can eventually be persuaded to agree to joint euro bonds, and (3) the fact there will be a third round of nuclear talks with Iran on June 18-19 and that military action is still not imminent.
  • June 10-year T-notes this morning are down 1 tick as the market treads water ahead of the holiday weekend. T-note prices on Thursday closed lower: TYM2 -10.5, FVM2 -6. T-note prices on Thursday ran into some long liquidation pressure on the mostly stable close in U.S. stock prices. The 10-year T-note yield closed the day at 1.77%, which was 11 bp above the record low of 1.67% posted last September. T-notes are consolidating near the top of their rally on (1) support from safe-haven demand tied to the European debt crisis, and (2) concerns about slowing growth in Europe and China.
  • The dollar index this morning is down 0.24 (-0.29%) and EUR/USD is up 0.0044 (+0.35%) on this morning's report that Ms. Merkel will consider a debt redemption fund. USD/JPY is down -0.07 yen (-0.09%) this morning. The dollar index on Thursday closed higher while EUR/USD fell by 0.40%: Dollar Index +0.16 (+0.19%), EUR/USD -0.0050 (-0.40%), USD/JPY +0.03 (-0.03). The dollar index on Thursday posted another new 1-2/3 year high on technical buying and ongoing concern about the European debt crisis. The euro showed further weakness as global investors dumped European investments and got out of the euro altogether due to the risks of Greece leaving the Eurozone after its June 17 election if the anti-bailout parties get control of the government.
  • July WTI crude oil prices this morning are up 0.26 (+0.29%) and July gasoline is up 0.58 (+0.21%) on some help from the lower dollar and some short-covering going into the holiday weekend. Crude oil and gasoline prices on Thursday closed moderately higher: CLN12 +1.08 (+1.20%), RBN2 +0.0220 (+0.79%). July crude oil prices were able to rally on short-covering and reduced downward pressure on the commodity complex with stocks remaining stable for the last two sessions. There was no progress to speak of at the 2-day talks with Iran on its nuclear program. A third round of talks was set for June 18-19. Iran effectively refused to make any significant concessions unless sanctions were eased, although that was a non-starter for the U.S. and Europe. If Iran cannot get sanctions eased, then its main goal is likely to drag out the talks as long as it can to defer possible military action and to build up even bigger stocks of enriched uranium.
  • For the full subscription version of this daily report (plus a 13-page big-picture weekly report), along with the earliest possible delivery in the morning, please visit CRB Fundamental Market Service trial
    Today's U.S. Earnings Reports Earnings reports (sorted by mkt cap): MENT-Mentor Graphics (consensus $0.25), BRLI-Bio-Refer Labs (0.32).
    Global Financial Calendar
    

    Friday 5/25/12
    United States
    0530 ET	Fed's Plosser speaks in Eltville, Germany.
    0955 ET	Final-May University of Michigan U.S. consumer confidence index expected unch at 77.8, early-May +1.4 to 77.8.
    Germany
    0200 ET	German Jun GfK consumer confidence survey expected unch at 5.6, May 5.6.

    Barchart.com provides Financial Quotes, Charts and Technical Analysis for Stock and Commodity Traders.

Bob Evans Farms - BOBE- Barchart's Chart of the Day

Barchart.coms Chart of the Day - Bob Evans Farms (BOBE)

Barchart Research Team - BC - Thu May 24, 5:30PM CDT

Related Stocks

BOBE - Bob Evans Farms

Sym	Last	Chg	Pct
BOBE	40.57	+0.30	+0.74%

The "Chart of the Day" is Bob Evans Farms (BOBE), which showed up on Thursday's Barchart "All-Time High" list. Bob Evans on Thursday posted a new all-time high of $40.74 and closed up +0.74%. TrendSpotter has been long since April 27 at $38.67. In recent news on the stock, the company on March 8 affirmed FY12 EPS guidance of $2.38-2.44 versus the consensus of $2.44 and said it is targeting 7-10% long-term growth. Bob Evans Farms, with a market cap of $1.1 billion, owns and operates restaurants, including Bob Evans Restaurants, Owens Family Restaurants, Bob Evans `small-town` Restaurants, and Cantina Del Rio Mexicanrestaurants. They also produce fresh and fully-cooked sausage products and fresh, deli-style salads which are distributed primarily to grocery stores in the Midwest, Southwest and Southeast.


How we found the Chart of the Day:
We found the "Chart of the Day" by scanning the Barchart "52-week Highs" page. That page shows all the stocks that have posted new 52-week highs, which is a popular sign of strong upside momentum.
The status of Barchart's Opinion trading systems are listed below. Please note that the Barchart Opinion indicators are updated live during the session every 10 minutes and can therefore change during the day as the market fluctuates. The indicator numbers shown below therefore may not match what you see live on the Barchart.com web site when you read this report.

• TrendSpotter: Buy
• Short-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Medium-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Long-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Overall Average 100% Buy

---

Barchart links for further information:

Quotes and Charts
Quote
Detailed Quote
Chart

Technical Analysis
Technicals Summary
Trader's Cheat Sheet™

Barchart Opinions
Barchart Opinion
Barchart Snapshot
Trading Strategies

Company Info
Company Profile
Key Statistics
Ratios
Income Statement-Quarterly
Income Statement-Annual
Balance Sheet-Current
Balance Sheet-Annual

---

Chart of the Day Archive
View Past Chart of the Day Reports

3 NASDAQ 100 going up

The market still needs help but this morning I used Barchart to screen the NASDAQ 100 Index stocks to see what was still moving up and found BMC Software (BMC), Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY), and Monster Beverage (MNST)

BMC Software (BMC)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 4 new highs and up 4.28% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 60.78%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 41.47
• Recently traded at 43.39 with a 50 day moving average of 40.47

Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 72% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 8 new highs and up 4.30% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 56.37%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 69.48
• Recently traded at 71.01 with a 50 day moving average of 68.65

Monster Beverage (MNST)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 64% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 5 new highs and up 10.93% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 59.95%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 68.42
• Recently traded at 70.01 with a 50 day moving average of 64.65

Barchart's Morning Call 5/24

Barchart Morning Call

BC - 41 mins ago

Overnight Developments

• June E-mini S&Ps this morning are trading mildly higher by +5.75 points (+0.44%) on this morning's 1.25% upward rebound in European stocks and some short-covering. The news overnight has generally been negative with weaker-than-expected Eurozone PMI and German IFO confidence reports and a 0.5 point drop in the China May flash manufacturing PMI to 48.7. The dollar index is slightly lower by 0.033 points on the higher trade in U.S. and European stocks. Commodity prices have rebounded higher this morning with crude oil up +1.07%, gold up 1.12%, copper up 1.41%, and agricultural commodities trading mostly higher.
• The Euro Stoxx 50 is up +1.25% this morning on some short-covering after the recent sharp losses. Yesterday's EU summit resulted in a spirited exchange of views and was not intended to deliver any policy decisions, although German Chancellor Merkel once again made clear her opposition to joint euro bonds. European Union President Herman Van Rompuy was given the task of outlining "building blocks" for a more integrated Eurozone to present at the next EU summit on June 28-29.
• Asian stocks closed mostly lower today as gloom continued to hang over the markets: Japan +0.08%, Hong Kong -0.64%, China -0.83%, Taiwan -0.32%, Australia -0.28%, Singapore -0.03%, South Korea +0.31%, India +1.72%, Turkey +0.04%.
• World powers today are meeting with Iran for a second day of the talks on Iran's nuclear program. A member of the Iranian delegation today said that "There's been no progress in this round of talks." The world powers are pressing Iran for an immediate halt to the enrichment of uranium to 20% purity.
• Today's May Eurozone PMI Manufacturing index fell by -0.9 points to 45.0 from 45.9 in April and was weaker than market expectations for a 0.1 point increase to 46.0. The May PMI services index fell by -0.4 points to 46.5 from 46.9 in April and was weaker than expectations for a -0.2 point decline to 46.7.
• Today's German IFO confidence report was substantially weaker than expected. The German May IFO Business Climate index fell by 3.0 points to 106.9 from April's 109.9 versus expectations for a 0.5 point decline to 109.4. The May IFO Current Assessment index fell by 4.2 points to 113.3 from April's 117.5 and was weaker than expectations for a 0.4 point decline to 117.1. The IFO Expectations index fell by 1.8 points to 100.9 from April's 102.7, and was weaker than expectations for a 0.7 point decline to 102.0.
• UK Q1 GDP was revised lower to -0.3% q/q (-1.2% q/q annualized) from the earlier report of -0.2% q/q (-0.8% q/q annualized).
• china's May HSBC/Markit flash manufacturing PMI fell by 0.5 points to 48.7 from 49.3 in April.
  Market Comments
  • June E-mini S&Ps this morning are up +5.75 points (+0.44%) on some follow-through technical buying from yesterday's late rally and on today's 1.25% rally in European stocks. Hewlett-Packard is up 8% in European trading this morning after HP reported above-consensus sales and profit and announced plans to cut 27,000 jobs. There are earnings reports today from COST-Costco (consensus $0.87), HNZ-Heinz (0.79), TIF-Tiffany (0.70), PAY-Verifone (0.61), SIG-Signet Jewelers (0.91).
  • U.S. stocks on Wednesday closed narrowly mixed after an upward rebound from early losses: S&P 500 +0.17%, Dow Jones -0.05%, Nasdaq 100 +0.31%. The stock market on Wednesday was down early on sharp losses in European stocks and ongoing worries about Greece, Spain, and potential conflict between France and Germany. However, the market was able to recover later in the session on some improved optimism about European cooperation and on the stronger-than-expected U.S. March new home sales (+3.3%) and March FHFA U.S. home price index (+1.8% m/m) reports. The markets were also encouraged that Spain's Economy Minister said that Bankia, Spain's fourth largest bank, will get whatever public money it needs to be recapitalized. The markets have been worried that the Spanish government has yet to produce a specific rescue plan for Bankia after it was partially nationalized two weeks ago due to its heavy losses on property loans. Also, Greece's four largest banks this week received cash from the Eurozone bailout fund to replenish their capital levels, which put the Greek banking system on a stronger footing to be able to weather the storm through the July 17 Greek parliamentary elections.
  • June 10-year T-notes this morning are down 6 ticks due to reduced safe-haven demand with the upward rebound in U.S. stock index futures and European stocks. The Treasury today sells $29 billion in 7-year T-notes. T-note prices on Wednesday closed higher: TYM2 +11.5, FVM2 +5.25. June 10-year T-note prices on Wednesday posted a new record high. The 10-year T-note yield closed the day at 1.73%, which was just 6 bp above the record low of 1.67% posted last September. T-notes continue to see strength on the recent indications of slowing world economic growth. T-notes are also receiving strong safe-haven demand with speculation that Greece may choose to leave the Eurozone and that Spain may need a bailout to recapitalize its banking sector and cover deficits for its state/regional governments.
  • The dollar index this morning is slightly lower by 0.033 points (-0.04%) due to the higher trade in U.S. and European stocks. EUR/USD is down -0.0003 (-0.02%). USD/JPY is down -0.09 (-0.11%). The dollar index on Wednesday decisively broke out to a new 1-2/3 year high and closed with fairly sharp gains: Dollar Index +0.58 (+0.72%), EUR/USD -0.0102 (-0.80%), USD/JPY -0.49 (-0.62). The dollar continues to see safe-haven demand, combined with technical buying on Wednesday's upside technical breakout. The recent events in Europe are bearish for the euro both because of a loss of confidence in the euro itself and because the ECB is coming under increasing pressure to easy monetary policy another notch either by cutting interest rates or by conducting another long-term loan operation. French President Hollande is also revived pressure for the idea of having the ECB lend money to the permanent European Stability Mechanism to boost its firepower, which would amount to an easing of monetary policy. The ECB in December and February loaned more than 800 European banks a total of 1 trillion euros to reliquefy the European banking system. French President Hollande at Wednesday's informal summit gained support from other EU leaders for his growth policies but was stonewalled by the Germans on the joint euro bond concept.
  • July WTI crude oil prices this morning are up 0.96 (+1.07%) and July gasoline is up 0.42 (+0.15%) on some short-covering after the recent sharp losses. Crude oil and gasoline prices on Wednesday closed lower once again: CLN12 -1.46 (-1.59%), RBN2 -0.0435 (-1.52%). July crude oil prices fell to a new 7-month low and closed at $90.44, the first close near $90 since last October. Meanwhile, July Brent crude oil futures closed at $105.56, which is still above $5 higher than where Saudi Oil Minister al-Naimi recently said he would like to see Brent crude oil trading. Oil prices continue to see downward pressure from the weaker global economy, the European debt crisis, rising U.S. inventories, and the Iran talks. There was little news out of yesterday's negotiating session between Iran and the world powers. Negotiations broke off at midnight Wednesday but will resume Thursday morning Baghdad time. The fact that the negotiations went into a second day was a sign of at least some modest progress, which is bearish for oil prices since the talks are delaying the day of any military attack.
  • Wednesday's DOE report showed a continued rise in crude oil inventories and a continued decline in product inventories. U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 3.299 million barrels, which was a larger increase than the consensus of +1.5 million barrels, and posted a new 21-3/4 year high. Crude oil inventories have now soared by 16% since the beginning of the year, which has been a major bearish factor for crude oil prices in recent weeks. U.S. crude oil inventories are now 8.4% above the 5-year seasonal average, the highest such level since December 2010. Crude oil inventories at the Cushing hub in the week ended May 18 rose by 1.7 million barrels to a new record high of 46.795 million barrels, but should now start to slowly decline since the Seaway pipeline to the Gulf was reversed on May 19. Gasoline inventories fell by 3.3 million barrels, which was a much tighter report than expectations for an increase of +500,000 barrels. Distillate inventories fell by 309,000 barrels, which was a little less than the consensus for a decline of 500,000 barrels. Gasoline inventories are now 3.5% below their 5-year seasonal average and distillate inventories are 10.8% below their 5-year average. The refinery utilization rate fell slightly by 0.2 points to 88.1%, which was weaker than expectations for a 0.4 point increase to 88.7%. The utilization rate is now 1.1 point above the 5-year seasonal average.
  • For the full subscription version of this report, please visit http://www.barchart.com/register/crbfms_usmc.php
    Today's U.S. Earnings Reports Earnings reports (sorted by mkt cap): COST-Costco (consensus $0.87), HNZ-Heinz (0.79), TIF-Tiffany (0.70), PAY-Verifone (0.61), SIG-Signet Jewelers (0.91).
    Global Financial Calendar
    

    Thursday 5/24/12
    United States
    0830 ET	Weekly initial unemployment claims expected unchanged at 370,000, previous unchanged at 370,000. Weekly continuing claims expected -15,000 to 3.250 mln, previous +18,000 to 3.265 mln.
    0830 ET	Apr durable goods orders expected +0.3%, Mar -3.9% m/m. Apr durable goods orders ex-transportation expected +0.8%%, Mar -1.3% m/m.
    0830 ET	USDA weekly exports.
    0900 ET	International Grains Council releases its global wheat, corn and rice production estimates.
    1030 ET	DOE natural gas storage.
    1100 ET	May Kansas City Fed manufacturing activity index expected +2 to 5, Apr 3.
    1100 ET	U.S. Climate Prediction Center issues its preseason Atlantic hurricane season forecast.
    1300 ET	Treasury auction of $29 billion in 7-year T-notes.
    1300 ET	Fed's Dudley speaks at Council on Foreign Relations in NY.
    1630 ET	Weekly money supply report and Fed balance sheet.
    Japan
    0100 ET	Bank of Japan monthly economic report.
    1930 ET	Japan Apr CPI expected +0.4% y/y, Mar +0.5% y/y. Apr CPI ex-food and energy expected -0.4% y/y, Mar -0.5% y/y. May Tokyo CPI expected -0.3% y/y, Apr -0.3% y/y. May Tokyo CPI ex-fresh food expected -0.5% y/y, Mar -0.5% y/y. May Tokyo CPI ex-food and energy expected -1.0% y/y, Apr -1.0% y/y.
    Germany
    0200 ET	German Q1 GDP expected unrevised from +0.5% q/q and +1.7% y/y.
    0330 ET	German May PMI manufacturing expected +0.8 to 47.0, Apr 46.2. May PMI Services expected -0.2 to 52.0, Apr 52.2.
    0400 ET	German May IFO business climate expected -0.5 to 109.4, Apr 109.9. May IFO current assessment expected 0.4% to 117.1, 117.5. May IFO expectations expected -0.7 to 102.0, Apr 102.7.
    Euro-Zone
    0400 ET	Eurozone May PMI composite expected -0.1 to 46.6, Apr 46.7. May PMI manufacturing expected +0.1 to 46.0, Apr 45.9. May PMI services expected -0.2 to 46.7, Apr 46.9.
    United Kingdom
    0430 ET	UK Apr BBA loans for house purchase.
    0430 ET	UK Q1 GDP expected -0.2% q/q and unch y/y, last -0.2% q/q and unch y/y.
    0430 ET	Q1 total business investment expected -1.0% q/q and +9.2% y/y, last -3.3% q/q and -0.4% y/y.
    0430 ET	UK Mar index of services expected +0.3% m/m and +0.2% 3mo/3mo, Apr -0.4% m/m and +2.2% 3mo/3mo.
    CHI
    n/a	MNI May business condition survey.

    Barchart.com provides Financial Quotes, Charts and Technical Analysis for Stock and Commodity Traders.

Toll Brothers - TOL - Barchart's Chart of the Day

Barchart.coms Chart of the Day - Toll Brothers (TOL)

Barchart Research Team - BC - Wed May 23, 5:39PM CDT

Related Stocks

TOL - Toll Brothers Inc.

Sym	Last	Chg	Pct
TOL	27.75	+0.72	+2.66%

The "Chart of the Day" is Toll Brothers (TOL), which showed up on Wednesday's Barchart "52-week High" list. Toll Brothers on Wednesday posted a new 5-year high of $28.08 and closed +2.66%. TrendSpotter has been long since April 27 at $25.56. Toll Brothers was boosted on Wednesday by a stronger-than-expected U.S. April new homes sales report of +3.3% to 343,000, which was stronger than expectations of +2.1% to 335,000, and by the 1.8% increase in the U.S. FHFA home price index, which suggested demand is firming for U.S. housing. Toll Brothers on Wednesday reported Q2 EPS of 10 cents, which was better than the consensus of 4 cents. The company said the spring selling season has been the most robust since the downturn began. Toll Brothers, with a market cap of $4.4 billion, builds single-family homes in middle and high income residential communities in thirteen states and five regions around the country.


How we found the Chart of the Day:
We found the "Chart of the Day" by scanning the Barchart "52-week Highs" page. That page shows all the stocks that have posted new 52-week highs, which is a popular sign of strong upside momentum.
The status of Barchart's Opinion trading systems are listed below. Please note that the Barchart Opinion indicators are updated live during the session every 10 minutes and can therefore change during the day as the market fluctuates. The indicator numbers shown below therefore may not match what you see live on the Barchart.com web site when you read this report.

• TrendSpotter: Buy
• Short-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Medium-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Long-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Overall Average 100% Buy

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Barchart links for further information:

Quotes and Charts
Quote
Detailed Quote
Chart

Technical Analysis
Technicals Summary
Trader's Cheat Sheet™

Barchart Opinions
Barchart Opinion
Barchart Snapshot
Trading Strategies

Company Info
Company Profile
Key Statistics
Ratios
Income Statement-Quarterly
Income Statement-Annual
Balance Sheet-Current
Balance Sheet-Annual

---

Chart of the Day Archive
View Past Chart of the Day Reports

3 Small Caps on the Move

In a choppy market there are always opportunities others miss because they don't bother to learn how to use a stock screener.  This morning I used Barchart to screen the Small Cap S&P 600 Index to find some gems and found West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) Medidata Solutions (MDSO) and Cymer (CYMI)

West Pharmaceutical Services (WST)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 10 new highs and up 8.52% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 60.50%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 44.69
• Recently traded at 45.64 with a 50 day moving average of 42.96

Medidata Solutions (MDSO)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 4 new highs and up 13.72% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 59.88%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 27.79
• Recently traded at 28.50 with a 50 day moving averages of 26.53

Cymer (CYMI)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 9 new highs and up 7.07% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 58.42%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 50.94
• Recently traded at 52.06 with a 50 day moving average of 49.55

Barchart's Moring Call 5/23

Barchart Morning Call

Wed, 23 May 2012 07:00:00 -0500

Overnight Developments

• E-mini S&Ps this morning are down 8.75 points (-0.67%), undercut by the 1.55% drop in European stocks. Commodity prices are mostly lower this morning with gold down 1.1%, copper down 1.6%, crude oil down 1%, and agricultural commodities mostly lower. The markets are worried that tensions may be building between France and Germany over French President Hollande's call for growth measures and joint euro bonds. The markets are also worried about weaker global growth with today's report that Japan's April exports showed an increase of only +7.9% y/y versus expectations of +11.8% y/y. The markets shook off comments by the Chinese government about new growth measures.
• Asian stock markets fell across the board today: Japan -1.98%, Hong Kong -1.33%, China -0.41%, Taiwan -1.75%, Australia -1.31%, Singapore -1.53%, South Korea -1.20%, India -0.49%, Turkey -1.89%.
• ECB council member Andres Lipstok today said that the ECB is not planning more stimulus at the moment despite the increased concern about Greece leaving the Eurozone. He said "we didn't discuss cutting rates below 1% in our meetings." His comments were in line with recent comments by other Eurozone members but nevertheless reiterated the ECB's message that the ECB at present does not plan to ride to the rescue of the politicians once again.
• The markets are awaiting news on today's negotiating session in Baghdad between Iran and the P5+1 negotiators (i.e., the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany). Any reports of progress are likely to cause fresh weakness in crude oil prices since the chances of a military attack on Iran would become further delayed.
• In a display of safe-haven demand for German securities, Germany today sold 4.56 billion euros of 2-year securities with a yield of 0.07%. The security carried a zero-percent coupon for the first time.
• The minutes from the May 9-10 Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting showed that the vote was 8-1 in favor of the decision to halt its quantitative easing program by holding steady its bond-purchase target at 325 billion pounds. That was supportive news for the British pound. However, the minutes also noted that the target could be raised again as conditions change.
• The Eurozone March current account balance (seasonally adjusted) rose to a surplus of 9.1 billion euros from a revised 1.2 billion euro deficit in February, which was mildly supportive for the euro.
• UK April retail sales ex-auto fuel fell by -1.0% m/m and -0.3% y/y, which was weaker than the consensus of -0.7% m/m and +0.7% y/y. The report was bearish for the British pound.
• The markets are waiting today's informal EU Summit where the markets will be watching to see how much pressure French President Hollande applies to Germany for his goals of growth measures and joint euro bonds.
• The Chinese government today made another statement in favor of stepped-up growth measures. The government posted a summary of its cabinet meeting and said, "We must proactively take policies and measures to expand demand and to create a favorable policy environment for stable and relatively fast economic growth." Separately the Chinese government said today that China will start a series of "key infrastructure projects that are vital to the overall economy and can facilitate growth" and speed up construction of existing railway, environmental protection and rural projects."
• The Bank of Japan after its 2-day meeting announced that it left its monetary policy unchanged, which was in line with market expectations. The BOJ outcome was supportive for the yen.

Overnight U.S. Stock News

• June E-mini S&Ps this morning are trading are down -8.75 points (-0.67%), undercut by the sharp 1.6% sell-off in European stocks, concern about whether French-German conflict will break out at today's EU informal summit, and today's weaker-than-expected Japanese exports report. There are earnings reports today from HPQ-Hewlett Packard (consensus $0.91), NTAP-Netapp (0.63), HRL-Hormel (0.41), PVH-PVH Corp (1.26), TOL-Toll Brothers (0.03).
• U.S. stocks on Tuesday closed narrowly mixed after fading late in the session: S&P 500 +0.05%, Dow Jones -0.01%, Nasdaq 100 -0.24%. The stock market on Tuesday started out with some carry-over optimism from Monday's session where the theme was the improved prospects for growth measures in Europe and China. Stocks on Tuesday also received an early boost from the favorable U.S. new home sales report of +3.4% and the report of an IAEA-Iran agreement on nuclear inspections. However, the bearish factors stacked up during the day to push the market lower. Bearish factors included (1) Fitch's downgrade of Japan's credit rating to A+ and the reminder that Japan could yet face a debt crisis considering that its total debt is more than twice the size of its GDP, (2) the OECD's various warnings about the world economy in its semi-annual outlook report, and (3) some nervousness ahead of today's informal EU summit where France and Germany seem destined to butt heads on issues including joint euro bonds and so-called growth measures.

Today's Market Focus

• June 10-year T-notes this morning are up 12 ticks on the lower trade in global stocks and the increased concern about the European debt crisis. The Treasury today sells $35 billion in 5-year T-notes. T-note prices on Tuesday closed higher: TYM2 +4, FVM2 +0.75. T-notes on Tuesday received a boost late in the session when the stock market fell fairly sharply and lost the day's gains. Earlier, T-notes saw some downward pressure from the U.S. new home sales report of +3.4% and supply overhang in the midst of this week's $99 billion T-note auction package.
• The dollar index this morning is up 0.21 (+0.26) on increased safe-haven demand with the sharply lower trade in European and Asian stocks. EUR/USD is down 0.0028 (-0.22%). USD/JPY is down -0.60 (-0.75%) with the yen seeing support from the BOJ's unchanged policy today and its decision not to raise its asset purchase target. The dollar index on Tuesday closed moderately higher after edging to a new 4-month high: Dollar Index +0.41, EUR/USD -0.0134, USD/JPY +0.65. The dollar index was boosted by concern ahead of today's EU informal summit and by Tuesday's downgrade of Japan's credit rating, which put a dent in the yen. French and German officials have been trying to put a good face on their early meetings, but things may get a bit more tense today as French President Hollande puts more pressure than the markets had expected on Germany about joint euro bonds and the adoption of growth measures. French President Hollande has said France will not ratify Chancellor Merkel's prized fiscal pact until it gets the growth measures it wants.
• July WTI crude oil prices this morning are down -0.87 (-0.95%) and July gasoline is down 0.0209 (-0.73%). Bearish factors this morning include lower global stocks, expectations for an oil-bearish DOE report today, and indications that today's Iran negotiating session will at least produce another round of talks if not any breakthroughs. Crude oil and gasoline prices on Tuesday closed lower: CLN12 -1.01 (-1.09%), RBN2 -0.0054 (-0.19%). Crude oil prices were pressured by the lackluster Chinese leading economic indicator, the Japanese credit rating downgrade, the report of an IAEA-Iran agreement on nuclear inspections, and expectations for today's DOE report to show a fresh 21-3/4 year high in U.S. crude oil inventories. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Tuesday that Iran had verbally agreed to conclude and sign an agreement "quite soon" allowing broader IAEA inspections, including the inspection of the Parchin military complex where Iran is suspected to have tested a nuclear weapons trigger. Israel dismissed yesterday's agreement to sign an agreement as a stalling tactic ahead of today's second round of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany).
• The market consensus for today's weekly DOE report is for a further 1.5 million barrel rise in crude oil inventories to another new 21-3/4 year high. Today's report is for the week ended May 18, which is prior to the reversal of the Seaway pipeline on May 19. The reversal in the Seaway pipeline should result in a slow drawn-down in oil inventories at the Cushing hub, which reached another new record high of 45.1 million barrels last week. However, the Seaway reversal won't necessarily have an impact on overall U.S. inventories since the oil will simply be flowing from Cushing to the Gulf coast and be stored in facilities at the Gulf, thus have little net impact on overall U.S. crude oil inventories. The DOE report is expected to show a 500,000 increase in gasoline inventories and a 500,000 barrel decline in distillate inventories. The consensus is for the refinery utilization rate to rise 0.4 points to 88.7%, adding to last week's sharp 1.9 point rise to 88.3%. Inventories are running 2.0 points above the 5-year seasonal average of 86.3%.

Today's U.S. Earnings Reports Earnings reports (sorted by mkt cap): HPQ-Hewlett Packard (consensus $0.91), NTAP-Netapp (0.63), HRL-Hormel (0.41), PVH-PVH Corp (1.26), TOL-Toll Brothers (0.03).
Global Financial Calendar

Wednesday 5/23/12
United States
0700 ET	Weekly MBA mortgage applications, previous +9.2%, purchase sub-index -2.4%, refi sub-index +13.0%.
1000 ET	Mar FHFA U.S. house price index expected +0.3%, Feb +0.3% m/m. FHFA Q1 house price index expected +0.1%, Q4 -0.1% q/q.
1000 ET	Apr new home sales expected +2.1% to 335,000, Mar -7.1% to 328,000.
1030 ET	DOE Weekly Petroleum Status Report.
1300 ET	Treasury auction of $35 billion in 5-year T-notes.
1400 ET	Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota speaks in Rapid City, SD.
Japan
n/a	2-day BOJ meeting concludes with policy expected unchanged.
Euro-Zone
0400 ET	Eurozone Mar current account (sa), Feb -1.3 billion euros.
1300 ET	EU informal summit in Brussels.
United Kingdom
0430 ET	Bank of England minutes from May 9-10 meeting when MPC voted to hold its asset purchase program at 325 billion pounds.
0430 ET	UK Apr retail sales with auto fuel expected -0.8% m/m and +1.0% y/y, Mar +1.8% m/m and +3.3% y/y. Apr retail sales ex-auto fuel expected -0.7% m/m, +0.7% y/y, Mar +1.5% m/m and +2.8% y/y.
0600 ET	UK May CBI trends total orders expected -11, Apr -8. May CBI trends selling prices expected 5, Apr 7.
CHI
2230 ET	China May HSBC flash manufacturing PMI, Apr 49.3.

Barchart.com provides Financial Quotes, Charts and Technical Analysis for Stock and Commodity Traders.

Pilgrim's Pride - PPC - Barchart's Chart of the Day

Barchart.coms Chart of the Day - Pilgrims Pride (PPC)

Barchart Research Team - BC - Tue May 22, 5:50PM CDT

Related Stocks

PPC - Pilgrim's Pride Corp.

Sym	Last	Chg	Pct
PPC	7.70	-0.18	-2.28%

The "Chart of the Day" is Pilgrim's Pride (PPC), which showed up on Tuesday's Barchart "52-week High" list. Pilgrim's Pride on Tuesday posted a new 14-month high of $8.15 and closed up +5.91%. TrendSpotter has been long since May 16 at $7.70. In recent news on the stock, Pilgrim's Pride on April 27 reported Q1 EPS of 18 cents, which was much better than the consensus of 8 cents. Pilgrim's Pride, with a market cap of $1.5 billion, is one of the largest chicken companies in the US, Mexico and Puerto Rico.


How we found the Chart of the Day:
We found the "Chart of the Day" by scanning the Barchart "52-week Highs" page. That page shows all the stocks that have posted new 52-week highs, which is a popular sign of strong upside momentum.
The status of Barchart's Opinion trading systems are listed below. Please note that the Barchart Opinion indicators are updated live during the session every 10 minutes and can therefore change during the day as the market fluctuates. The indicator numbers shown below therefore may not match what you see live on the Barchart.com web site when you read this report.

• TrendSpotter: Buy
• Short-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Medium-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Long-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Overall Average 100% Buy

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Barchart links for further information:

Quotes and Charts
Quote
Detailed Quote
Chart

Technical Analysis
Technicals Summary
Trader's Cheat Sheet™

Barchart Opinions
Barchart Opinion
Barchart Snapshot
Trading Strategies

Company Info
Company Profile
Key Statistics
Ratios
Income Statement-Quarterly
Income Statement-Annual
Balance Sheet-Current
Balance Sheet-Annual

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Chart of the Day Archive
View Past Chart of the Day Reports

Facebook Fiasco

As Facebook's (FB) price tanks more and more is coming out about some unethical behavior on Wall Street:

The Occupy Wall Street movement has been replaced by the Subsidize Wall Street movement.  Facebook insiders and venture capitalist pushed to have a higher offering price and to increase the number of shares offered by 25% even while the Underwriting and Selling Groups own analysts were lowering their revenue and earnings projections.  Anyone who paid $38 or more were unknowing sheep being taken to slaughter.

This morning an article in The Financial Times reveals that although the public cannot short stocks till the first settlement date there were a bunch of hedge funds that were able to short shares on the offering date through special agreements made with prime brokers.  In my opinion, these short sellers may have had inside information that the Underwriting Group was not going to implement the price support that is normally afforded an IPO for the first 90 days.

Is there an important lesson for you all to learn?  There is a good reason that you should take note of the policy on Barchart that unless there is 6 months of publicaly released trading information, Barchart does not have an opinion on the stock.

I agree wholely with this policy.  Always wait until a stock has been public for at least 6 months.  If you invest before that date realize that your position is a gamble and not a rational investment.

As the Old Sarge said on Hill Street Blues:  "Be careful out there."

3 Mid Caps Moving Up

In choppy markets the best way to find stocks that still have consistent momentum is to use a reliable screener like Barchart.  This morning I screened the Mid Cap S&P 400 stocks to find 3 with charts that I still like and found Bob Evans Farms (BOBE), Collective Brands (PSS) and LKQ Corp (LKQX)

Bob Evans Farms (BOBE)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 8 new highs and up 7.57% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 60.29%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 39.29
• Recently traded at 39.86 with a 50 day moving average of 38.01

Collective Brands (PSS)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 64% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 9 new highs and up 9.31% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 64.25%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 20.97
• Recently traded at 21.26 with a 50 day moving average of 19.72

LKQ Corp (LKQX)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 64% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 11 new highs and up 15.69% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 60.25%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 33.57
• Recently traded at 35.17 with a 50 day moving average of 32.22

Barchart Morning Call 5/22

Barchart Morning Call

BC - 1 hr ago

Overnight Developments

• June E-mini S&Ps this morning are trading slightly lower by -1.50 points on a little long liquidation pressure after Monday's rally. The stock market remains hopeful about growth measures in Europe and China, but Fitch today downgraded Japan's credit rating and OECD's semi-annual forecast indicated lackluster global economic conditions through next year. Commodity prices are trading lower today with gold down 0.70% and crude oil down 0.46%. The dollar index is mildly higher by +0.25%. T-note prices are down 7 ticks this morning.
• The Euro Stoxx 50 is up +0.67% this morning as hopes emerge that EU leaders at this summit on Wednesday will seriously consider growth measures. Asian stocks today closed higher almost across the board with help from yesterday's U.S. stock market rally: Japan +1.10%, Hong Kong +0.62%, China +1.56%, Taiwan +1.15%, Australia +1.16%, Singapore +1.20%, South Korea +1.69%, India -0.97%, Turkey +0.33%.
• UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano said today that the IAEA and Iran have reached an agreement on nuclear inspections and will site an accord "quite soon." There were no details on exactly what was agreed to or when the accord would be signed. One of the demands on Iran is complete inspections of sensitive nuclear sites, along with a halt of uranium enrichment activity and eventually the shipping of enriched uranium out of Iran. Iran might not be serious about inspections and may just be trying to split negotiators ahead of tomorrow's second round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 (i.e., the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany). Still, some reports of progress are better than nothing when it comes to Iran's nuclear program. Even if Iran agreed to a full inspection program, however, that would be unlikely to be enough to get sanctions eased since Iran still needs to halt enrichment and meet other requirements.
• Fitch today cut Japan's long-term local currency credit rating by one notch to A+, the fifth highest ranking, with a negative outlook. Fitch cut Japan's foreign-currency rating by two notches to A+. Fitch took the action because of Japan's limited progress in addressing its massive debt burden. The OECD today that Japan's gross public debt will be 223% of GDP in 2013, up from a forecasted 214% in 2012. Japan's JGB yields remain low despite the massive debt mainly because Japan finances its debt mainly from domestic investor savings and is not dependent on foreign investor funding or trust.
• OECD today left its OECD country GDP forecast unchanged at +1.6% for 2012. However, OECD cut its GDP forecasts for the Eurozone to -0.1% for 2012 and +0.9% for 2013 from its estimate last November of +0.2% and +1.4%, respectively. OECD said that there is a risk that the spiraling Eurozone debt crisis may hurt the global economy. OECD said there is room for the ECB to further ease monetary policy and that the situation may require the ECB to engage in further government bond purchases. OECD forecasted U.S. GDP growth at +2.0% in 2012 and +2.5% in 2013. OECD said for the U.S. that, "The risk of excessive fiscal tightening in 2013 remains to be addressed, failing that, growth would be severely affected." OECD cut its estimate for Chinese GDP growth to +8.2% in 2012 and +9.3% in 2013 from its November forecast of +8.5% and +9.5%, respectively. OECD said that if China's growth continues to weaken in Q2, the Chinese government "should speed up implementation of key infrastructure projects."
• Chinese officials plan to speed up approval of infrastructure projects and allocate construction spending faster in order to boost economic growth, according to a report today in the China Securities Journal.
• China's April leading economic index of +0.8% y/y was unchanged from March's rise of +0.8% y/y and down slightly from +1.0% y/y in February.
• Spain today successfully sold short-term bills and its 2-year note yield fell 14 bp and the its credit default swap prices fell by 17 bp to 538 bp. Spain today sold 2.5 billion euros worth of bills, which was slightly more than its target of 2.5 billion euros. The Italian 2-year yield today fell by 18 bp.
• The BOJ began a 2-day meeting today but the market consensus is that the BOJ will not announce any fresh stimulus measures. The BOJ just increased its bond purchase program at its meeting a month ago.
• Greek Radical Left leader Tsipras is on a tour of Europe and is meeting today with left-leaning Germany opposition politicians. However, it is telling that Mr. Tsipras is not meeting any members of the German government who undoubtedly do not want to convey any legitimacy on Mr. Tsipras ahead of the June 17 Greek elections. Mr. Tsipras is campaigning on repudiating the austerity terms in the Greek bailout agreement while still somehow staying in the euro.

Overnight U.S. Stock News

• June E-mini S&Ps this morning are trading are slightly lower by -1.50 point (-0.11%), awaiting further developments on Europe and today's economic reports. Stocks were undercut this morning by long liquidation pressure after yesterday's rally, today's downgrade of Japan by Fitch, and the OECD's lackluster forecast for world GDP growth for 2012 and 2013. Medtronic this morning reported its Q1 EPS at 99 cents, slightly higher than the consensus of 98 cents. There are also earnings reports today from DELL-Dell (0.46), AZO-Autozone (6.25), RL-Ralph Lauren (0.85), ADI-Analog Devices (0.51), AVGO-Avango Technology (0.63), BBY-Best Buy (0.60), PETM-Petsmart (0.73), WSM-Williams-Sonoma.
• U.S. stocks on Monday closed sharply higher: S&P 500 +1.60%, Dow Jones +1.09%, Nasdaq 100 +2.70%. Stocks on Monday rallied sharply on short-covering after the recent plunge, sparked by growth-supportive comments from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Premier Wen over the weekend said, "We should continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy, while giving more priority to maintaining growth." The comment came after Wen Jiabao was told by officials in six provinces that "there are prominent problems seen in areas including insufficient demand and falling profits in some industries and companies. The economy is facing increasing downward pressures." Premier Wen's comment spurred expectations that China over the near-term will announce new growth measures. U.S. stocks were also boosted on Monday by takeover speculation after Cooper Industries (CBE) rallied by 25% on a buy-out offer from Eaton (ETN). The markets were also encouraged by German Finance Minister Schaeuble's comment yesterday, after meeting with his new counterpart French Finance Minister Moscovici, that ?We will engage all ideas constructively and find solutions in order to strengthen sustainable growth.? Mr. Moscovici said that French President Hollande wants ?everything on the table? at the informal EU summit on Wednesday including joint euro-area bonds.

Today's Market Focus

June 10-year T-notes this morning are down 7 ticks on the higher trade in European and Asian stocks combined with some supply overhang ahead of the $99 billion coupon package that begins today. T-note prices on Monday closed lower: TYM2 -7.5, FVM2 -0.5. T-note prices fell on Monday as the sharp rally in U.S. and global stocks reduced safe-haven demand for Treasury securities. Even European stocks closed slightly higher by +0.26%. There was also some supply overhang as the market goes into the $99 billion T-note auction package that starts today with the sale of $35 billion in 2-year T-notes. The 2-year note is trading at 0.29%, which may be an acceptable yield from the standpoint of parking money in a relatively safe place but is a sure way to lose money considering that the inflation-adjusted yield on the security is a negative -1.13% against the 2-year T-note breakeven inflation expectations rate of 1.42%. The dollar index this morning is trading +0.21 with EUR/USD down 0.58 (-0.45%) and USD/JPY +0.45 (+0.57%). The yen fell today on the Fitch downgrade and warning about Japan's alarming fiscal condition. The dollar index on Monday closed mildly higher: Dollar Index -0.35, EUR/USD +0.0038, USD/JPY +0.29. The dollar index saw some continued long liquidation pressure after sharp rally seen in the past 3 weeks. German Finance Minister Schaeuble made a euro-bullish comment yesterday by saying, ?We will engage all ideas constructively and find solutions in order to strengthen sustainable growth.? His meeting on Monday with new French Finance Minister Moscovici apparently went well, which was constructive from the standpoint of forming a strong German-French alliance with new French President Hollande to tackle on the ongoing European debt crisis. What the markets certainly do not need at this point is squabbling between Germany and French about "growth" measures. July WTI crude oil prices this morning are down -43 cents (-0.46%) and July gasoline is down -0.26 cents (-0.09%). Bearish factors center on the indications of some type of inspection agreement between the IAEA and Iran. Crude oil and gasoline prices on Monday rallied sharply: CLN12 +1.46 (+1.59%), RBN2 +0.0484 (+1.72%). Crude oil and gasoline rallied mainly on short-covering yesterday after the sharp losses seen in the past 3 weeks and on the pro-growth comments made by Chinese Premier Wen, which seemed to foreshadow some new Chinese stimulus measures to be announced over the near-term. In addition, Goldman Sachs released a report saying that the balance between global crude oil supply and demand is tightening due to supply constraints caused by the export restrictions on Iranian oil. The market consensus for Wednesday's weekly DOE report is for a further 1.5 million barrel rise in crude oil inventories to another new 21-3/4 year high. Today's report is for the week ended May 18, which is prior to the reversal of the Seaway pipeline on May 19. The reversal in the Seaway pipeline should result in a slow drawn-down in oil inventories at the Cushing hub, which reached another new record high of 45.1 million barrels last week. However, the Seaway reversal won't necessarily have an impact on overall U.S. inventories since the oil will simply be flowing from Cushing to the Gulf coast and be stored in facilities at the Gulf, thus have little net impact on overall U.S. crude oil inventories. The DOE report is expected to show a 500,000 increase in gasoline inventories and a 500,000 barrel decline in distillate inventories. The consensus is for the refinery utilization rate to rise 0.4 points to 88.7%, adding to last week's sharp 1.9 point rise to 88.3%. Inventories are running 2.0 points above the 5-year seasonal average of 86.3%.

Today's U.S. Earnings Reports Earnings reports (sorted by mkt cap): MDT-Medtronic (consensus $0.98), DELL-Dell (0.46), AZO-Autozone (6.25), RL-Ralph Lauren (0.85), ADI-Analog Devices (0.51), AVGO-Avango Technology (0.63), BBY-Best Buy (0.60), PETM-Petsmart (0.73), WSM-Williams-Sonoma.
Global Financial Calendar

Tuesday 5/22/12
United States
0400 ET	OECD publishes economic outlook with forecasts for OECD countries.
0615 ET	Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart speaks on monetary policy in Hong Kong.
0745 ET	ICSC (Int?l Council of Shopping Centers) weekly retailer sales.
0855 ET	Redbook weekly retailer sales.
1000 ET	May Richmond Fed manufacturing index expected -3 to 11, Apr +7 to 14.
1000 ET	Apr existing home sales expected +3.1% to 4.62 million, Mar -2.6% to 4.48 million.
1130 ET	Weekly 4-week T-bill auction.
1300 ET	Treasury auction of $35 billion in 2-year T-notes.
1500 ET	USDA Cold Storage report.
1630 ET	API weekly U.S. oil statistics.
Japan
0100 ET	Japan Apr supermarket sales, Mar -2.4% y/y.
1950 ET	Japan Apr adjusted merchandise trade balance expected -617 bln yen, Mar -621.3 billion yen. Apr exports expected +11.8%, Mar 5.9% y/y. Apr imports expected +10.1% y/y, Mar +10.6% y/y.
n/a	2-day BOJ meeting begins.
United Kingdom
0430 ET	UK Mar DCLG House Prices, Feb +0.3% y/y.
0430 ET	UK Apr public finances (PSNCR) expected -6.0 bln pounds, Mar 16.5 bln pounds. Apr public sector net borrowing expected -22.8 bln pounds, Mar 15.9 bln pounds.
0430 ET	UK Apr CPI expected +0.6% m/m and +3.1% y/y, Mar +0.3% m/m and +3.5% y/y. Apr core CPI expected +2.0% y/y, Mar +2.5% y/y. Apr RPI expected +0.6% m/m and +3.4% y/y, Mar +0.4% m/m and +3.6% y/y, Apr RPI ex mortgage interest payments expected +3.5% y/y, Mar +3.7% y/y.
Euro-Zone
1000 ET	Eurozone May consumer confidence expected -20.5, Apr -19.9.

Barchart.com provides Financial Quotes, Charts and Technical Analysis for Stock and Commodity Traders.

Isis Pharmaceuticals - ISIS - Barchart Chart of the Day

Barchart.coms Chart of the Day - Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS)

Barchart Research Team - BC - Mon May 21, 6:02PM CDT

Related Stocks

ISIS - Isis Pharmaceuticals

Sym	Last	Chg	Pct
ISIS	9.41	+0.46	+5.14%

The "Chart of the Day" is Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS), which showed up on Monday's Barchart "52-week High" list. Isis on Monday posted a new 1-year high of $9.42 and closed up 5.14%. TrendSpotter has been long since May 10 at $8.95. In recent news on the stock, Isis reported Q1 EPS of -24 cents, which was slightly better than expectations of -26 cents. Piper Jaffray on May 1 upgraded Isis to Overweight from Neutral and raised its price target to $15 from $10. Isis Pharmaceuticals, with a market cap of $900 million, is a leading genomics-based drug discovery and development company that is focused on RNA.



How we found the Chart of the Day:
We found the "Chart of the Day" by scanning the Barchart "52-week Highs" page. That page shows all the stocks that have posted new 52-week highs, which is a popular sign of strong upside momentum.
The status of Barchart's Opinion trading systems are listed below. Please note that the Barchart Opinion indicators are updated live during the session every 10 minutes and can therefore change during the day as the market fluctuates. The indicator numbers shown below therefore may not match what you see live on the Barchart.com web site when you read this report.

• TrendSpotter: Buy
• Short-Term Indicators: 80% Buy
• Medium-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Long-Term Indicators: 100% Buy
• Overall Average 96% Buy

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Barchart links for further information:

Quotes and Charts
Quote
Detailed Quote
Chart

Technical Analysis
Technicals Summary
Trader's Cheat Sheet™

Barchart Opinions
Barchart Opinion
Barchart Snapshot
Trading Strategies

Company Info
Company Profile
Key Statistics
Ratios
Income Statement-Quarterly
Income Statement-Annual
Balance Sheet-Current
Balance Sheet-Annual

---

Chart of the Day Archive
View Past Chart of the Day Reports

A Good Stock is Hard to Find

In this very choppy market were even FaceBook (FB) can't get a break the only way to find stocks that still have momentum left is to use a good screener like Barchart.com.  This morning I used Barchart to screen the Large Cap S and P 500 stocks to find 3 that were still moving upward.  My search found McCormick (MKC), Verizon Communications (VZ) and AT&T (T).  I've included their hourly trading charts over the last 28 days

McCormick (MKC)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 56% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 13 new highs and up 1.91% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 59.12%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 55.64
• Recently traded at 56.49 with a 50 day moving average of 54.55

Verizon Communications (VZ)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 9 new highs and up 7.46% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 70.66%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 40.88
• Recently traded at 41.57 with a 50 day moving average of 39.36

AT&T (T)

Barchart technical indicators:

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 9 new highs and up 9.43% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 69.84%
• Barchart computes a technical support level at 33.21
• Recently traded at 33.70 with a 50 day moving average of 31.92