News Summary for April 28, 2011

U.S. stock index futures started the day slightly lower today prior to the 8:30am economic data releases and corporate earnings reports. In the early morning, investors awaited the first estimate of the U.S. first-quarter GDP growth today, which came in at a deflator of 1.9% versus the 2.0% Street estimate. Other economic data today includes March pending home sales and weekly jobless claims. More information about the GDP report can be found here. Bellwether Exxon Mobil XOM reported a strong EPS today of $2.14 versus the $2.06 estimate. Revenues, however, came in below analyst expectations: $10.76B versus the $11.48B estimate. Exxon's earnings release can be found here. Another bellwether stock, Procter & Gamble PG, also reported in-line earnings from its third quarter today. Proctor & Gamble reported an EPS of $0.96 versus a $0.97 estimate. Revenues came in at $20.23B versus a $20.29B estimate. More information can be found here and here. Also, the American Association of Individual Investors sentiment survey was released today, showing bullish sentiment rising to 37.9%, up 5.7%. More information can be found here. In brief summary of yesterday's market trading day, the NASDAQ stock market hit a 10-year high during Ben Bernanke's inaugural press conference. Gold also hit an all-time nominal high, followed closely by rallies in U.S. silver, aluminum, and crude oil markets. The major merger & acquisition story of yesterday was power company Exelon buyout of Constellation Energy for $7.9 billion. This is the latest in a series of recent deals in the U.S. utility industry. Other deals include Duke Energy's $13.7 billion bid for Progress Energy, Northeast Utilities' $4.2 billion buyout of NSTAR, and AES Corp's $3.5 billion offer for DPL. In overseas trading, Asian stocks closed mixed with China's Hong Kong index falling for a third day, while Japan's Nikkei index adding over 1.5% by its close. As a reminder, earnings season is in full swing with Microsoft reporting third quarter earnings today after the closing bell.