The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company reported a first-quarter profit of $3.2 billion, or 56 cents a share, compared with a profit of $2.4 billion, or 43 cents a share, for the year-earlier period. Adjusted income was 59 cents a share.

Revenue jumped 25% to $12.85 billion from $10.3 billion for the same period last year.

Analysts had expected the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker to report earnings of 46 cents a share, on revenue of $11.6 billion, according to a consensus survey by Thomson Reuters. (Marketwatch)

S&Ps kontroversiella nedgradering av Usa igår, har debatterats flitigt. Varför, varför nu, hur kan Usa defaulta när de kan trycka obegränsad med Usd etc? Har S&P använts i politiskt syfte? Läs nedan,

“Either S&P has been pressured by powerful Republicans and/or Wall Street Bankers to issue this warning, in order to add to national hysteria about the national debt and win more drastic cuts in social programs, or S&P is simply blowing it again.

“Political shenanigans cannot be ruled out,” says Galbraith. “That’s what lawyers would call the ‘rebuttable presumption.’ After all, who benefits? The Republicans and perhaps the banks. But of course the other possibility is that S&P doesn’t know what it’s talking about, and after their disastrous missing of the mortgage bubble, that’s quite possibly what it is.”

http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/568

Hur har beteendet och investerar kollektivet ändrats de senaste åren vad gäller olje investerare och “speculators”? Trenden med fler icke kommersiella aktörer är klar. Alltfler handlar marknaden utan att ha “fysiska” intressen. Hur kan detta påverka priset, volatiliteten etc? Nedan rapport från Stratfor.

A confluence of events in the early 2000s brought an influx of new traders into the commodity markets. This would have distorted any market, but the inelastic nature of oil demand magnified the investor presence in the oil market. The adding of new demand to what is normally a somewhat static system resulted in periodic and disproportionate price shifts, induced by people who have no intention of ever taking delivery of a barrel of oil.

First, the advent of widespread Internet trading platforms radically increased the number of people with access to commodity markets, decreased the amount of time it took for an investment decision to impact the market and expanded the amount of money that could be applied to those markets. In particular, the creation of energy-indexed investment vehicles created additional demand for commodities by people who have no intention of ever taking delivery of the commodity.

Second, this technological evolution occurred just as America’s Baby Boomers — the largest generation in American history as a proportion of the population — approached retirement. For the most part, their children had moved away and their homes were paid for, while their earning power was the highest in their lives. Consequently, this demographic had large savings, and over the last 10 years those savings have become available for investment just as more options for investing it into commodities have opened up. Most of the developed world has a similar demographic bulge.

Read more: Oil Prices: Investors Are in the Driver’s Seat | STRATFOR

GAAP: $2.31. Operating $2.41, up 21. Consensus of $2.30

Revenue: $24.6 billion. Consensus of $24.0 billion

Full-year 2011 Operating EPS expectations raised to at least $13.15 from at least $13.00

Precious metals går vidare med silver trenden numera exponentiell. 44 Usd togs ut under kvällen. Inflationsscenariot verkar intakt.

Kejsaren är naken, debt ceiling har nåtts, men folk skall fortsatt diskutera om de ska höja taket. Som vi skrev i förra veckan, bör debt ceiling nås under denna vecka, efter att alla statspapper settlat under helgen. Nu har så skett, och “public debt outstanding ” är över debt ceiling. Det är nu några bokföringstekniska detaljer som säkert går att trixa med innan även “Debt Subject to Limit” överskrider debt ceiling. Enligt det vi skrev även igår är amerikanen över sitt debt ceiling. Ändå fortsätetr de diskutera om de skall tillåtas gå över taket. Se länken nedan för förklarande chart.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/charts/charts_debt.htm

“House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Republican leaders haven’t pledged to raise the nation’s debt limit yet, even as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said they know it’s necessary.

The Wisconsin Republican congressman, who won House approval last week of his plan to cut more than $6 trillion in spending over a decade, said Republicans will continue to demand that any debt-limit increase be accompanied by additional spending cuts.” (Bloomberg)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-17/ryan-geithner-offer-different-views-of-agreement-to-increase-debt-ceiling.html

“More money than ever is flowing to mutual funds that buy both stocks and bonds, a sign that individuals are starting to return to equities during the most volatile bull market since at least 1942.

About $18.6 billion was added to so-called hybrid funds last quarter, the most since the Investment Company Institute started tracking the data in 1984. The record flows show that while investors remain skittish after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, they want more equities after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index doubled since March 2009.” (Bloomberg)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-17/hybrid-funds-deluged-by-record-cash-as-s-p-500-swings-most-since-roosevelt.html

För de intresserade av detaljer har Usa passerat sitt debt ceiling. Thetrader skrev om detta i slutet av förra veckan, men som sagt, media lär inte rapportera om det förrän om några dagar. Följ länken till “källan”,

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/charts/charts_debt.htm

DALLAS, April 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:TXN - News) today announced first-quarter revenue of $3.39 billion, net income of $666 million and earnings per share of 55 cents.

“2011 started strong, with customer demand in January and February tracking our expectations for a first quarter of above-seasonal growth,” said Rich Templeton, TI chairman, president and chief executive officer.  “But the Japan earthquake that’s taken such a heartbreaking human toll in the country also disrupted local demand starting in mid-March and impaired operations at two of our factories there.  This impact and substantially weaker demand for Wireless baseband chips resulted in revenue that was below the middle of our expected range.  The lower revenue combined with expenses resulting from the earthquake affected earnings per share.  New orders, however, were strong through the quarter, indicative of the underlying strength in our markets. (Yahoo Finance)

Story goes on. Spx vol säljs hårt av den kära centralbanken, allt i syfte att lugna ner marknaden. SPX 2 punkter högre än vid öppningen, och Vix index ner 10% från öppningen….Någon vill inte ha ner detta, så taktiken att “flood” marknaden med vol är intakt. Detta kommer pågå, tills det en dag slutar abrupt.