Europe was battered as fears spiraled out of Spain whose bank Bankia shed over 20% today. Spain’s IBEX fell over 1.8% to its lowest level since 2003 and the FTSE 300 was down nearly 1%. Moody’s is set to report a cut to the credit ratings of 21 Spanish Banks tonight say “Expansion.”
Despite the bleak reports from abroad commodities are starting strong this morning with crude, natural gas, silver and gold all starting in the green, a welcome change.
Rosetta Genomics’, a top performer yesterday, has plunged in pre-trade this morning after announcing a direct offering of common shares at $3.50/share.

In other pre-trade news Target is trading up as Baird announced their shares look undervalued and that should gain market share from struggling rivals, they target $65/share.
The weekly jobless claims are at 370k, which is within the consensus range not a big change since the prior. Continuing claims continue their descent down 61,000 in data for the week of April 28th.

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

First solar shares took a hit today after David Einhorn announced yesterday his liquidation in Q1. Shares moved into new all-time lows currently at 14.30 down over 6%.
Analysts took note as the recent round of earnings came in strong for meat sellers enticing shares upward. Also helping was higher retail price of chicken and beans. Companies include Smithfield foods up 2.2%, Pilgrim’s Pride up 3.9%, Sanderson Farms up 2.4% and Tyson foods up 1.4%.
Rosetta remained the hot stock of the day up over 320% to $7.00.
Geomet was among the hardest hit last trading at 6.50 down over 30%.
The dollar finished with gains as the Euro lost.
Commodities held their streak with crude, gold and silver negative while natural gas gained over 5% to 2.63.

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

The internet software and services industry is the leading industry at the moment up 2.18% with SINA corp leading the charge up over 15%.
Among leading stocks is Rosetta Genomics(ROSG) up over 300% after the announcement of obtaining medicare coverage. Telik Inc. is another leader after publishing two reports describing results of a clinic study of Telintra, up over 42% to 4.19.
Down shares this morning are Ambow Education of China due to a further delay of filing its 2011 financial. JCPenny is also amongst the losers due to poor results down 15% to 28.33
The commodities are inline where they were pre-trade with crude, gold and silver down and Natural gas up. At least they are consistent.

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

The Mortgage bankers association report was out this morning with a big surge in refinance applications up 13% for the week of May 11. The average mortgage rate fell 5 basis points to 3.96% its lowest in the reports history.
The housing starts are up for April .747 million units an increase of 30.1% from a year ago, strengthen mostly by multifamily units.
JCPenny earnings were reported short and shares are down pre-trade while Target and Abercrombie both posted up. John Deere also beat expectations with net profit up 17%. Dunkin Doughnuts were upgraded by Argus to buy from hold and shares are above before open.
Commodities futures are currently presenting a loss with crude of over 1%, gold and silver of about 1% while natural gas stays afloat up about .5%.

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