Sugar glimpsed the light today up .25% after hitting a 20 month low of 20.13 midday. Coffee also finished with a slight increase to 1.7505, Brazilian coffee faces a small risk of frost this year, last year freezes led to a 34 year high in prices. Among big gainers today were CFBK up 42% to 3.39 and SODA kept strong finishing up over 27% at 37.21.
Heading the losing side were MEMS and CQB down close to 40% and 30% respectively. Agrium inc, North America’s biggest farm-products retailer, reported a higher than expected quarterly result today with retail sales up 35%, however shares dropped more than 2%. Shares are up over 20% this year despite a poor showing in this sector this week.

Crude inventories jumped up to 3.7m barrels, currently operating at their highest rate of the year while gasoline inventories fell to a -2.6m barrels. While crude is still down, this report helped prop the number up slightly.

SODA is one of today’s hot stocks, which makes home carbonation kits, up as much as 23% currently at 34.21. It beat first quarter earnings and announced it expects revenue to rise 33% and earnings 50% for the year. NKBP, a Chinese pharmaceutical, is among the hottest of the day up about 22% to 4.51. Among the lows are MEMS down 35% to 2.45 after yesterday’s financial results.  Chiquita brand(CQB) is another slacker today down 29% to 5.65 after its downgrade to hold from buy.

Contributer Chris Rygh is currently pursuing his MBA in Wisconsin and has a passion for the Market. Comments can be directed to ryghcw19@uww.edu

In Asian Markets both the Nikkei and the Hang Seng Index fell closing at 9045.06 and 20,330.64 respectively. For the Nikkei this is a brand new 3 month low and for the Hang Seng this is the 5th downer in a row and its worst loss in 6 weeks.

Futures remain bleak with gold, silver and crude all lower this morning while natural gas is up over 1.5%, this has been the trending pattern for future so far this week. In the currencies realm the Euro and the pound both fell against the USD about .50% and the Brazilian Real again took a hit down 1.02% for a year-to-date slide of 4.76% against the dollar. Disney started this morning with a strong bid in premarket trade after posting a strong quarterly report yesterday evening. Disney ended up yesterday .40 to 44.70. Goldman Sachs raised AIG to Buy from neutral this morning and raised its price target to $40 from $31, according to Reuters, pointing to a positive look on its global property insurance unit.

Contributer Chris Rygh is currently pursuing his MBA in Wisconsin and has a passion for the Market. Comments can be directed to ryghcw19@uww.edu<;mailto:ryghcw19@uww.edu>; 

Office Max proved its strategy to be working when today’s first quarter results shot its shares up 11% to 4.88, this is stronger than expected; industry leader staples reports next week.

Another hot stock is FreightCar America with railcar deliveries jumping to a the highest they’ve been since 2008, with a spike to 16% they finished unexpectedly up only 3% at 21.25. Fossil(FOSL), who continues to disappoint again this quarter missing target sales, were pummeled down to 47.83 a 40% crash, their day’s high was 93.60. Canadian Stocks also took a hit and the Toronto stock exchange finished it lowest of the year down 155.81 points to 11,704.85, the European elections really prove to be having a global ripple effect.

Break-even:  I break-even on this trade if AAPL closes at $550.20 by January 28, 2013.

Unprofitable:  I lose money on this trade if AAPL closes under $550.20 by January 28, 2013.  The most I can lose on this trade is the amount I paid for the Spread, $50.20

Reason I Like This Trade:  I always want to get LONG AAPL in one way and I think this sell-off is a great way to get LONG.  I want to make a bet that AAPL will close by the end of the higher than where it is trading now.  I have the odds in my favor, because even if AAPL sells off, I can make money on this trade.  I think this is a great even money bet/position.  

UPDATE 5.9.2012  With AAPL rallying to $569, this Spread is currently worth $52.20, but since I put this trade on until 2013, I will leave it on for more potential profits.

UPDATE 5.9.2012  With AAPL rallying to $573, this Spread is now worth over $54, but since it is a position not a trade, I will leave it on for more upside potential.  

UPDATE 5.11.2012  With AAPL rallying to $573, this Spread is now worth over $54, but since it is a position not a trade, I will leave it on for more upside potential.

UPDATE 5.21.2012  With AAPL selling off and now rallying, this Spread is worth right around $47, but since it is a position not a trade I will leave it on.

UPDATE 5.22.2012  With AAPL rallying another $10 and I remain short term bearish, I took the trade off at $52 and hoping for another sell-off in AAPL to put on a similar position.

Read more about reason by www.keeneonthemarket.com

Big movers in the positive this morning were that of Generac(GNRC) up over 25% to 28.99 and Vitamin Shoppe(VSI) up close to 12% to 49.84 compared to the opposite of Furmanite Corp(FRM) down 18% to 4.90 and Callon Petroleum down over 15% to 4.94. US Treasuries extended their gain today with 30 year bonds up a point forcing 10 year yields down to a three month low of under 1.82%. Discovery reported lower than expected quarterly profit and its shares took a tumble of 6.5% hit by competition from the Oprah Winfrey Network, its first quarter earnings were down nearly 30%.