Thursday, May 2, 2013

Morning Journal--The coming changes in GDP accounting


News on Stocks in Our Portfolios
 
MasterCard (MA):
 Q1 EPS of $6.23 beats by $0.06. Revenue of $1.9B misses by $0.03B

AmeriGas Partners (APU): FQ2 EPS of $1.61 misses by $0.86 misses by $0.1. Revenue of $1.18B (+2% Y/Y) misses by $120M

ONEOK Partners (OKS): Q1 EPS of $0.42 may not be comparable to consensus $0.59. Reaffirms 2013 net income guidance range of $790M-$870M and distributable cash flow range of $910M-$1B.

Economics

   This Week’s Data

            Weekly mortgage applications rose 1.8% but purchase applications fell 1.4%.

            The April ADP private payrolls report was up but much less than anticipated.

            The April Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index came in at 50.7 versus expectations of 51.0.

            March construction spending dropped 1.7% versus estimates of an advance of 0.6%.

            April vehicle sales (14.9 million units) were below forecasts (15.3 million units).

            The FOMC meeting concluded and the accompanying statement didn’t vary much from the last edition.  Rates and the monthly purchase program are unchanged.  The two most notable differences were: (1) the Fed raised the decibel count on its complaint about fiscal policy and (2) it said that it could ‘increase or reduce’ its monthly purchase program---in other words, it just bought some new printing presses.

            Weekly jobless claims fell 28,000 versus expectations of a rise of 6,000.

            First quarter productivity increased 0.7% versus estimates of an advance of 1.3%; unit labor costs were up 0.5% versus forecasts of up 0.1%.

   Other

            The coming changes in GDP accounting (medium, very important and a must read):

Politics

  Domestic

The government as accomplice to murder (medium):

  International War Against Radical Islam

            Obama’s international war against criminal activity (medium):
            UK newspaper says the Saudis also warned US about Boston bomber (short):

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