General Market News

Here are more of Jim Cramer's longs in his Charitable Trust : WY,,,WFT,,V,,,UPS,,TEVA,,,COST,,,CBE and CHU.

U.S. equity markets finished down on Friday and barely avoided a closing price reversal top which would have signaled the start of a possible retracement to the downside. The March E-mini S&P 500 and NASDAQ made new highs for the year while all three indices closed higher for the week. Friday saw the indices spike higher then break lower following a better than expected U.S. Retail Sales Report.

National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: NSM) reported 22 cents per diluted share compared with 9 cents per share last year. analysts average $0.18. NSM beats by $0.04

The company reported $345 million in sales, and 24 percent higher than the $292 million reported in last year's third fiscal quarter.

Retail Sales just came out bullish. Equity markets are soaring. Bonds are breaking. The Dollar is plunging. The market reads this report as good. The key will be to be able to separate the report from the trade. The question is will U.S. investors chase equity market higher or wait for a pullback? Overall, however, it looks like a strong report.

The U.S. Dollar is trading lower overnight against all major currencies. Investor demand for higher risk assets has been the driving force along with short-covering. Economic releases have played a limited role in this week’s Dollar movement. However, this may change today following the release of the U.S. Retail Sales Report and Consumer Sentiment.

These are the top five pre-market volume leaders on the NASDAQ so far this morning. ,,,VOD,,,RFMD,,MITI,,AAPL,,BPOP

A Treasury minister caused astonishment last night by apparently ruling out tax rises for the next four years if Labour stays in office.

Liam Byrne insisted the Government could halve the massive budget deficit without any hikes beyond the new 50p top rate of tax and a 1p increase in National Insurance.

Here are the top five NASDAQ stocks that were down today on unusual volume. SKIL,,,KTOS,,WMGI,,ITMN,,HRBN

U.S. equity markets finished higher after treading water most of the day in sideways-to-lower trading action. Traders seemed to be waiting for a catalyst all day. Near the close equity markets mounted a strong surge to finish on their highs.

The U.S. Dollar declined into the close after trading in a tight range most of the day. A strong surge in the equity markets late in the session confirmed investor demand for risky assets, thereby pressuring the lower yielding Dollar.

Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE: DVN) announced that it has entered into agreements to sell all of its assets in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and Azerbaijan to BP for $7.0 billion.

Thanks to an unprecedented concentration of wealth, the World’s supply of Billionaires jumped 27% in 2009 and the 1,011 people in the club accumulated an AVERAGE of $500M more Dollars EACH! Isn’t that great? That’s $505Bn or 65% of America’s TARP spending handed over to 1,011 people who are, according to Forbes (The Capitalist’s Tool), clearly better than us.

U.S. equity markets are expected to open weaker this morning but off their lows. Last night’s news that China’s inflation was higher than expected, fueled speculation of a rate hike which helped drive down demand for higher yielding assets. The lack of follow-though to the downside has triggered a short-covering rally which is helping to boost equity prices from their overnight lows.

China’s consumer-price index spiked higher in February, leading to speculation that its central bank will raise interest rates to curb economic growth. The inflation report showed an acceleration from the year-earlier month, to a greater-than-expected pace of 2.7%. The higher growth was tied to greater-than-expected gains in fixed-asset investment, bank lending, and industrial production.

Here are the 5 most active stocks on the NASDAQ @ 10:53 AM. ETF's are not included. HBAN,,INTC,,SKIL,,CSCO,,MSFT.