The DJIA (+189.87 +1.48% to 13010), S&P 500 (+23.75 +1.71% to 1409), and NASDAQ Composite (+67.91 +2.81% to 2480) enjoyed a Bear market rally.

Ignored was the jobless claims data where workers filing unemployment claims grew by +35000 last week.

On the earnings front, Exxon (XOM -3.6%) reported $10.89 billion in earnings last quarter, but missed analyst estimates.

Other key commodity stocks to get hurt were EnCana (ECA -3.8%) and Suncor (SU -3.5%) of the Canadian oil patch, and goldminer Barrick (ABX -3.3%). Goldcorp (GG/G) was off -1.7% to 35.11.

Crude Oil ($WTIC) dropped -$0.94/bbl to 112.51, down from 120 in a week.

$GOLD plunged a further -14.20 to 850.90.

The Semi-conductor industry ($SOX) gained +3.9%, with Intel (INTC), AMD (AMD) and Applied Materials (AMAT) up about +4.5% each on a Semiconductor Industry Association report that said sales rose +3.4% M/M for March.

All was clear blue skies yesterday in Tech, but “red skies in the morning; sailors take warning”.

The Sun (JAVA) dropped -15% in after-hours trading after reporting a breakeven quarter and a slight Y/Y sales decline to $3.266 billion. Analysts had been expecting a strong profit and a +3% revenue growth.

Sun's results should worry traders who have lifted share prices in recent weeks hoping for an economic recovery, but reports like the one from SUN suggest the downturn hasn’t happened. SUN slashed a further 2500 jobs.

Today, the US Dept of Labor issues its April employment report. Analysts believe there has been the loss of another 75,000 jobs.

Microsoft (MSFT) rose +3% and Yahoo (YHOO) dropped -2% after a Microsoft board meeting failed to bring a higher offer for Yahoo. This fight is likely to turn nasty today.

The 30-year US bond ($USB) gained +0.21% to 117.14 as yields came off a bit, recognizing the lower commodity prices and the affect that will have on inflation.

Yesterday the $USD jumped +0.93% to 73.27 and the Euro plunged -1.03% to 1.5466. Early this morning there was a multi-year low in the Yen to the US Dollar.

With the USD strength, precious metals remained under pressure: spot gold, palladium, platinum and silver at 7:45am ET: 852.20, 406, 1853, and 16.18.

The early futures are showing 1.5426 for the Euro, and 113.17 for Crude Oil, both a little softer in past minutes, and 13021 for the DJIA, a tad stronger.

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Comments & Outlook

In my view, the Web has two terrific services for traders: Yahoo Finance and Google Finance. I must admit that I have always until quite recently enjoyed the Yahoo version better. But, no longer. Today, I am a believer in the excellent product put out by Google in this area.

Unfortunately, it’s Friday, the end of the trading week. Have a good day. Enjoy your jobs if you still have one. I suspect unemployment will get worse for the next two years, with growth in the part-time and less skilled jobs taking over in the US, and the higher paid jobs going abroad where employers can reduce their payrolls.

Don't get run over from all the US Jobs Report hype being laid down today.

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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	58.76	91.03	56.24	35.45	Sell alert (trig. 7 days ago [on 2008-04-23 at $61.87, -5.03% chg], after a 5 day DZ)
WMT	58.07	81.74	84.70	68.54	Sell alert (trig. 2 days ago [on 2008-04-30 at $57.98, +0.16% chg], after a 6 day DZ)
ECA	77.74	81.22	55.86	36.25	Sell alert (trig. 8 days ago [on 2008-04-22 at $84.94, -8.48% chg], after a 5 day DZ)
PBR	121.95	78.45	60.98	52.18	Sell alert (trig. 7 days ago [on 2008-04-23 at $126.18, -3.35% chg], after a 2 day DZ)
GGB	39.68	78.40	79.38	67.32	Sell alert (trig. 6 days ago [on 2008-04-24 at $37.71, +5.22% chg], after a 2 day DZ)
RIO	38.27	77.53	66.24	54.25	Sell alert (trig. 6 days ago [on 2008-04-24 at $37.33, +2.52% chg], after a 2 day DZ)
NKE	67.81	76.03	67.81	52.48
RIMM	128.00	75.91	72.51	62.82
ABB	31.04	75.71	74.51	81.05	Distribution Zone (for 6 days)
EXC	86.91	75.67	70.86	63.71
NUE	73.82	74.10	78.21	48.86	Sell alert (trig. 3 days ago [on 2008-04-29 at $75.08, -1.68% chg], after a 1 day DZ)
TT	46.54	73.98	67.19	61.42
PDA	55.80	73.17	71.49	67.75
COST	72.00	72.72	74.49	75.48	Distribution Zone (for 2 days)
CHRW	65.61	72.56	89.62	81.48	Distribution Zone (for 1 days)
VCP	32.04	71.47	57.64	61.74
BBD	24.41	69.42	75.35	78.77
CVX	94.94	68.14	71.10	64.37
STO	35.61	67.04	75.58	60.25
NTES	23.10	66.43	69.99	90.87
TS	53.70	64.51	72.38	57.92
TOT	83.13	64.41	70.38	62.46
MICC	116.15	64.07	67.84	78.64
QCOM	44.36	63.87	66.31	70.75
JNJ	67.81	63.77	73.61	78.21
LLTC	35.90	63.49	83.23	84.37
HDB	117.91	62.57	62.55	76.97
IBKR	32.15	60.05	61.07	80.49
UTX	74.50	58.50	64.64	70.36
HBC	87.55	57.25	75.20	81.12
GOOG	593.08	56.82	70.69	86.44
DIS	33.30	55.46	67.62	77.06
PAYX	37.21	52.57	71.53	78.98
ERTS	53.19	52.31	67.79	72.76
GS	199.05	51.32	67.72	80.71
PTR	152.85	50.74	58.27	76.75
INFY	44.24	50.06	65.91	72.40
ADBE	39.01	49.73	64.27	72.55
CSCO	26.67	49.52	66.60	77.54
BA	85.41	47.36	64.82	78.65
KB	71.26	45.81	63.29	71.90
OXPS	22.34	40.39	47.30	77.10
BMY	22.94	37.68	54.59	71.39
SNDK	29.03	36.34	60.75	70.29
GOL	17.83	34.39	53.62	82.19	Buy alert (trig. 6 days ago [on 2008-04-24 at $14.78, +20.64% chg], after a 1 day AZ)
WFMI	34.78	32.99	50.68	71.60

At least one RSI value <30:

Ticker	Last	RSI-7M	RSI-7W	RSI-7D	Zone
SBUX	16.65	17.39	34.60	46.63	Buy alert (trig. 5 days ago [on 2008-04-25 at $15.86, +4.98% chg], after a 1 day AZ)
DELL	19.08	24.19	36.06	52.18
UBS	34.69	24.79	48.80	51.91
BC	16.95	26.88	52.06	67.71
GRMN	43.12	27.91	24.42	40.46	Buy alert (trig. 1 days ago [on 2008-05-01 at $43.12, +0.00% chg], after a 1 day AZ)
JCP	43.94	29.84	55.78	67.48
GFI	13.10	31.54	35.73	27.35
DNA	68.35	38.11	29.15	25.02
ABX	37.36	44.81	26.19	27.01
SLW	12.98	44.93	28.41	23.07

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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
AXP	51.33	3.31	6.89%	13.61%	14.83%	9.96%	0.57%	3.49%	-12.09%	-16.29%
VZ	39.32	0.84	2.18%	8.14%	9.68%	3.28%	-9.00%	1.47%	-12.11%	2.10%
GM	23.19	-0.01	-0.04%	4.88%	17.18%	7.41%	-5.00%	-19.98%	-37.74%	-25.91%
JPM	49.25	1.60	3.36%	4.85%	9.15%	6.42%	16.79%	2.07%	11.12%	-5.76%
DIS	33.30	0.87	2.68%	4.26%	8.19%	5.61%	4.59%	8.61%	-1.48%	-6.12%
BAC	39.39	1.85	4.93%	4.01%	5.12%	-2.43%	-2.88%	-12.52%	-13.83%	-22.66%
T	39.94	1.23	3.18%	3.34%	6.31%	2.38%	-2.59%	4.34%	-1.29%	2.83%
HD	29.87	1.07	3.72%	3.28%	6.22%	2.22%	14.40%	-1.90%	-2.67%	-22.27%
BA	85.41	0.55	0.65%	2.90%	11.05%	12.17%	-1.40%	3.20%	-11.58%	-8.39%
CVX	94.94	-1.21	-1.26%	2.75%	3.21%	8.23%	1.58%	15.09%	6.63%	21.17%
INTC	23.29	1.03	4.63%	2.64%	5.34%	6.20%	-8.13%	6.98%	-12.11%	6.83%
AIG	48.15	1.95	4.22%	2.51%	4.29%	2.47%	-14.48%	-13.60%	-18.79%	-31.24%
UTX	74.50	2.03	2.80%	2.48%	5.24%	5.29%	-0.94%	0.51%	-0.29%	10.00%
MCD	60.92	1.34	2.25%	2.25%	6.26%	8.32%	4.85%	12.36%	3.25%	23.97%
PFE	20.44	0.33	1.64%	2.00%	0.20%	-4.22%	-10.78%	-13.35%	-14.66%	-23.13%
WMT	58.07	0.09	0.16%	1.08%	2.47%	5.72%	23.82%	13.46%	31.89%	20.15%
GE	33.12	0.42	1.28%	0.94%	3.44%	-12.47%	-9.90%	-8.41%	-17.90%	-10.73%
C	25.99	0.72	2.85%	0.89%	8.16%	6.69%	-10.13%	-12.46%	-32.51%	-52.05%
JNJ	67.81	0.72	1.07%	0.65%	3.12%	3.89%	2.88%	7.02%	4.87%	5.03%
CAT	82.35	0.47	0.57%	0.65%	4.78%	6.85%	16.59%	14.76%	12.33%	12.44%
PG	67.03	-0.02	-0.03%	0.30%	-0.78%	-4.88%	-7.30%	1.48%	-2.27%	6.46%
AA	34.72	-0.06	-0.17%	-0.37%	-2.39%	-9.91%	-3.90%	1.28%	-8.39%	-0.12%
IBM	123.61	2.91	2.41%	-0.47%	0.43%	6.54%	18.07%	13.32%	8.76%	19.81%
HPQ	48.03	1.68	3.62%	-0.66%	1.52%	2.28%	-3.57%	8.13%	-6.74%	11.91%
DD	48.94	0.03	0.06%	-1.51%	-4.43%	-0.29%	11.89%	6.51%	2.09%	-0.85%
MMM	77.84	0.94	1.22%	-1.63%	-3.48%	-2.91%	-5.89%	-4.15%	-7.22%	-6.90%
KO	59.09	0.22	0.37%	-1.93%	-2.62%	-2.43%	-3.27%	-0.29%	-2.97%	12.27%
MRK	38.95	0.91	2.39%	-2.55%	-0.69%	1.54%	-32.11%	-15.29%	-32.10%