Stock Market - Pre Open Report for May 14th 2008

Posted: May 14, 2008 at 9:28 am by Chuck

Excuse me for a moment, I have to stop laughing at the CPI data released this morning. Europe keeps screaming about how inflation is getting worse and is threatening to raise their rates to combat it. But here in the US they just keep saying it is ‘contained’.

Official numbers this morning:

APR CONSUMER PRICE INDEX M/M: 0.2% V 0.3%E; CPI EX FOOD_ENERGY M/M: 0.1% V 0.2%E; CPI NSA 214.823 V 214.730E
- CPI y/y: 3.9% v 4.0%e
- Core CPI y/y: 2.3% v 2.4%e
- No revisions to prior month data

(April CPI data - Data source: US Gov’t BLS)

The headline growth was lower than expected. And they claim that energy costs did not grow at all in April! I would love to know how they arrived at that figure!

Freddie Mac (FRE) got downgraded to junk status:

MOODY’S DOWNGRADING FINANICAL STRENGTH RATING TO B+ FROM A- (BELOW INVESTMENT GRADE TO JUNK STATUS)

With the better than expected inflation data the futures shot up in the pre market. Amazing, we will just keep watching how this plays out. Options expiration weeks can be unique and bizarre, so far this one is no exception.