Spectacular 1Q results from Google (GOOG +20.0%) [net income of $1.31 billion vs $1 billion a year-ago] and a positive surprise from Citi (C) [a 1Q net loss of $5.11 billion, but beating revenue expectations and with much smaller-than-expected write-downs] pushed Industrials (XLI +3.0%) and Financials (XLF +2.2%) much higher.

For the week, the DJIA/S&P500 gained +4%, while NASDAQ jumped +5%.

A significant USD rally pulled down the Yen (-1.09%), Swiss Franc (-1.11%), and Euro (-0.54%), which, in addition to profit-taking, hammered down the precious metal prices. The Pound Sterling and Cdn Loonie gained +0.31% and +0.55% respectively, on the day.

$GOLD plunged -$27.70/oz to 915.20, although the Euro was actually stronger than it was on Tuesday when $GOLD closed at 932. So, there is definite profit-taking as well as currency pressure.

Crude Oil ($WTIC) rebounded to close at a new all-time record $116.16/bbl. There were refinery concerns in Illinois following an earthquake.

Trading in the US Treasury debt markets were affected by another rise in the 3-month LIBOR rate. The 30-year long-bond ($USB -0.21%) was down even though the yield ($TYX -0.15%) was also down. The big move in Treasuries happened in T-Bills as cash rushed back into equities to chase prices higher. The T-Bill yield ($IRX) gained +9.1% to 1.32%, signally trader satisfaction with the Citi write-down report.

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Comments & Outlook

I opined early Friday, “Rather than continue to lower rates, I believe the Fed will now work toward a stronger $USD policy to achieve a similar impact.”

You knew if that happened, and it started a couple hours later, that Gold and Silver prices were headed lower, which happened. But what I didn’t say was that the Fed has no choice. Inflation is out of control in the US and elsewhere and the US authorities must keep it under control. The higher $USD, however, will depress any significant movement to the upside for equity prices except for carefully coordinated market operations from the Treasury, Fed and Humungous Bank & Broker. These rallies, then, are merely bull traps for the rest of us to sell into strength.

At the end of the day, there will be a second shoe to drop in the bankers’ de-leveraging and re-capitalization process. There will also be a continuous pull-back in housing prices, not only in America but elsewhere, which will put not only home-owners deeper underwater, but will sink some large size banks in the process, again not only in the US, but in the UK, Europe, and Japan.

So far, the Friendly Fed has not strangled the US banks like the Peoples Bank of China has to its nation’s counterpart commercial and investment banks. The credit squeeze underway there, has taken the Shanghai Composite down from 6124.04 in October and 5522.77 in January to just 3094.66 at the close this week. That loss in China of -49.5% and -44.0% from the equity market highs just 3 and 6 months ago, will be the sort of thing that ultimately could happen in other countries that are interested in prudent treasury management.

I think the leadership by the monetary authorities in many countries is pathetic. They are listening to bankers who are telling them that a multi-trillion dollar problem caused by bankers is no longer the bankers’ problem.

What this situation has done is to push me into day-trading forex, and potentially metals futures, both of which represent money and will sustain a value even in a depression. But to say there is a “future” (a sad pun) in equities [or even in debt instruments at such currently low interest rates], under the present circumstances is to accept the pretense that all is well.

Even in China, where European and North American scribes write daily of the exciting +11-12% GNP growth, there isn’t a single trader who could have survived a 100% long position in the past 3 and 6 months.

This global capital market is about bankers and credit and it’s a mess. How people can look upon it positively is beyond me. But, hey, I’m just one of you. Our contra opinion is what makes markets.

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Links & Charts

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International Economics Review

US Economic Calendar.

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Knobias Cara100 Tables

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Cara 100 Daily RSI-7 Charts

At least one RSI value >70:

Ticker	Last	RSI-7M	RSI-7W	RSI-7D	Zone
SYT	64.08	90.46	73.29	76.07	Distribution Zone (for 3 days)
WMT	56.31	82.49	78.17	67.92	Sell alert (trig. 1 days ago [on 2008-04-18 at $56.31, +0.00% chg], after a 4 day DZ)
ECA	86.23	81.11	76.50	80.38	Distribution Zone (for 4 days)
GG	41.56	78.97	57.83	54.52
GGB	37.26	78.34	70.99	63.35	Sell alert (trig. 6 days ago [on 2008-04-11 at $35.94, +3.67% chg], after a 1 day DZ)
ATVI	27.49	77.77	60.02	67.42
RIMM	123.22	77.20	66.80	64.50
EXC	87.08	72.55	72.86	82.45	Distribution Zone (for 2 days)
NKE	67.89	72.47	64.21	61.98
TT	46.65	72.10	70.87	66.10
PBR	125.49	72.05	66.28	81.94
PDA	50.67	71.80	57.72	59.93
RIO	37.93	71.20	65.07	73.52	Sell alert (trig. 2 days ago [on 2008-04-17 at $37.98, -0.13% chg], after a 1 day DZ)
SU	116.21	71.00	67.98	83.63
IMO	58.95	70.62	67.04	74.64	Sell alert (trig. 2 days ago [on 2008-04-17 at $58.44, +0.87% chg], after a 1 day DZ)
NUE	73.92	69.56	72.09	66.83
COST	69.43	68.51	66.36	76.35
CHRW	60.21	68.37	71.91	65.41
TS	54.30	66.12	72.30	75.64
CHL	86.74	65.99	69.31	72.34
CEO	178.32	64.41	62.94	77.48
CVX	93.18	64.40	67.70	84.12
BHP	80.96	64.36	68.72	72.13
ORCL	21.80	63.98	66.82	76.13
XOM	94.00	63.55	68.58	82.89
TCK	47.63	62.55	71.00	64.52
TOT	81.16	62.13	64.54	72.28
JNJ	66.51	60.91	66.77	70.86
NTES	20.34	58.75	58.74	70.62
LLTC	33.43	57.08	67.38	70.45
HBC	84.85	55.33	70.11	63.57
GOOG	539.41	51.52	59.77	80.73
DOW	39.98	51.06	64.35	75.78
PAYX	36.75	49.51	64.33	74.11
INFY	43.08	49.00	64.45	85.46
CCJ	37.89	48.30	54.72	70.83
DB	121.57	48.14	61.29	72.04
BBBY	32.39	47.74	59.59	70.83
UBS	35.32	34.25	51.00	71.74

At least one RSI value <30:

Ticker	Last	RSI-7M	RSI-7W	RSI-7D	Zone
SBUX	18.28	19.97	47.37	63.71
BBD	21.68	22.37	16.38	7.77	Accumulation Zone (for 3 days)
BC	16.05	24.12	42.81	48.17
GOL	15.20	26.00	27.10	39.58
DELL	19.47	28.56	42.10	60.75	Buy alert (trig. 3 days ago [on 2008-04-16 at $18.72, +4.01% chg], after a 2 day AZ)
JCP	40.29	28.66	44.97	56.30
AET	41.79	29.87	21.22	47.59	Buy alert (trig. 4 days ago [on 2008-04-15 at $42.07, -0.67% chg], after a 1 day AZ)
GRMN	45.46	34.79	21.48	40.08	Buy alert (trig. 7 days ago [on 2008-04-10 at $46.56, -2.36% chg], after a 1 day AZ)
OXPS	20.61	35.38	29.03	50.90
NOK	29.00	44.29	34.54	26.46
DNA	72.72	44.79	38.50	16.49
PG	67.17	55.14	42.56	18.55

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International Equity Markets Review

Europe

Here is the latest session data for the bourses of Europe.

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Here is the latest session data for the London stock exchange FTSE.

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Here is the latest session data for the German DAX.

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Here is the latest session data for the French CAC 40.

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Here is the latest session data for the Milan Italy stock exchange MIBTEL.

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Here is the latest session data for the Swiss market index.

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Asia-Pacific

Here is the latest session data for the Asia-Pacific stock exchanges.

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Here is the latest chart for the Japanese Nikkei 225 index.

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Here is the latest chart for the Singapore index .

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Here is the latest chart for the Shanghai Composite index .

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Here is the latest chart for the Hong Kong Hang Seng index .

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Here is the latest chart for the India BSE 30 index .

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Here is the latest chart for the Australian All Ordinaries index .

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US Equity Markets Review

DJIA (interactive) chart

NASDAQ Composite (interactive) chart

Table 14: Dow 30 List

Sorted by 1-Week Price Performance

Symbol	Close	1Day Change	1Day %Change	1W %Change	2W %Change	4W %Change	YTD %Change	3M %Change	6M %Change	12M %Change
CAT	85.28	6.69	8.51%	14.01%	9.57%	15.46%	20.74%	35.77%	9.81%	22.93%
AIG	48.23	2.06	4.46%	9.49%	1.97%	7.13%	-14.33%	-7.34%	-25.66%	-29.54%
JPM	45.76	0.64	1.42%	7.59%	0.42%	-0.52%	8.51%	16.14%	-0.31%	-12.12%
C	25.11	1.08	4.49%	7.49%	4.28%	11.60%	-13.17%	2.70%	-42.71%	-52.61%
IBM	124.40	1.32	1.07%	7.24%	7.46%	5.13%	18.83%	20.31%	8.36%	31.22%
INTC	22.55	0.44	1.99%	6.17%	3.11%	3.68%	-11.05%	18.68%	-16.39%	5.62%
MSFT	30.00	0.78	2.67%	6.08%	2.88%	2.81%	-14.82%	-9.12%	-3.72%	4.90%
XOM	94.00	0.62	0.66%	6.07%	5.93%	10.59%	0.52%	10.48%	-1.10%	20.20%
HPQ	48.18	0.87	1.84%	5.96%	3.84%	3.61%	-3.27%	10.13%	-8.87%	17.57%
MMM	82.90	2.25	2.79%	5.65%	2.96%	6.31%	0.23%	10.67%	-12.49%	7.55%
DD	52.02	0.81	1.58%	5.45%	5.09%	14.46%	18.93%	21.83%	8.04%	5.54%
MCD	58.30	0.97	1.69%	5.23%	4.63%	7.13%	0.34%	11.26%	2.66%	19.27%
CVX	93.18	1.19	1.29%	4.93%	5.83%	11.98%	-0.30%	11.65%	0.82%	19.81%
AXP	45.53	0.83	1.86%	4.93%	-1.26%	-0.98%	-10.80%	4.40%	-22.38%	-22.09%
BAC	38.56	1.09	2.91%	4.39%	-2.16%	-5.54%	-4.93%	7.20%	-21.06%	-25.59%
UTX	72.51	1.72	2.43%	4.29%	1.09%	5.07%	-3.59%	6.55%	-6.35%	8.35%
DIS	31.33	0.55	1.79%	3.81%	0.29%	-1.79%	-1.60%	9.89%	-9.92%	-10.28%
AA	36.26	0.69	1.94%	3.16%	-7.03%	4.56%	0.36%	24.60%	-5.52%	5.19%
WMT	56.31	-0.36	-0.64%	2.76%	3.51%	5.79%	20.06%	18.35%	22.71%	17.39%
GM	20.13	0.34	1.72%	2.60%	-2.19%	3.23%	-17.53%	-14.41%	-49.54%	-36.50%
BA	78.66	1.75	2.28%	2.34%	3.98%	5.16%	-9.19%	0.33%	-18.86%	-16.21%
GE	32.69	0.67	2.09%	2.00%	-12.97%	-12.80%	-11.07%	-4.72%	-19.86%	-6.95%
HD	28.68	0.56	1.99%	1.81%	-0.38%	2.21%	9.84%	9.13%	-9.47%	-26.54%
VZ