Good Morning!

Merrill Lynch Reports Bigger-than-Expected Loss on $9B Write-down... Pfizer, Nokia Post Disappointing Results ... Sallie Mae Swings to a Loss... BoE Receives $99B of Bids in Loan Auction... Jobless Claims Below Consensus.

Asian stocks up... European stocks down... Dollar mixed... And the futures are pointing to a lower open.

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Larry will discuss the upcoming new TradingMarkets Swing Trading College (STC). STC is a 14-session, online course which will provide you with the latest trading research and strategies to professionally swing trade stocks, options, ETFs, and E-minis and futures. Click here to sign-up.

TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

Merrill Lynch Swings to a Loss, Plans to Cut Another 4,000 Jobs - Wall Street Journal

Merrill Lynch posted its third-straight quarterly loss as the brokerage recorded a further $9 billion in write-downs on mortgage-related assets, leveraged loans and hedges.

Pfizer Posts 18% Drop in First Quarter Profit - MarketWatch

Pfizer first-quarter profit dropped 18%, reflecting increased generic competition for such top-selling products as Norvasc, Zyrtec and Lipitor, the blue-chip drug maker said Thursday.

Nokia Profit Misses Estimates; Forecasts Market Slide - Bloomberg

Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, reported first-quarter profit that missed analysts' estimates and said the value of the global handset market will shrink in euro terms this year.

A Drought in Australia, a Global Shortage of Rice - New York Times

The collapse of Australia’s rice production is one of several factors contributing to a doubling of rice prices in the last three months.

Oil, Gas Rise to New Records - CNN Money

Crude prices top $115 a barrel on supply concerns; retail gasoline hits record $3.418 a gallon.

For more stories as they happen, go to our Breaking News section.

TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Today

Here are 7 stocks for traders for today from TradingMarkets.com:

• JP Morgan Chase ( JPM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported first quarter earnings of $0.68, beating estimates by $0.04.
  
  
  
  


• Intel ( INTC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) also beat estimates by $0.04 and issued Q2 guidance in-line.
  
  
  
  


• comScore reported the number of people clicking Google's paid search ads fell for the third straight month. Google ( GOOG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is scheduled to report earnings after the close on Thursday.
  
  
  
  


• After the market close, eBay ( EBAY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported earning of $0.42, beating estimates by $0.03.
  
  
  
  


• And, International Business Machines ( IBM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) beat estimates by $0.20 and issued an upbeat forecast.
  
  
  
  


• Before the market open, Merrill Lynch ( MER | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported a loss of -$2.20 per share, missing estimates by $0.21.
  
  
  
  


• Pfizer ( PFE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) missed estimates by $0.05 but issued guidance in-line.
  
  

For a list of today's highest PowerRating stocks, click here.

TradingMarkets 5 PowerRatings Stocks for Today

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

Everything You Need to Know About Options Selling - TradingMarkets

As most people reading this know, there are two parts to option pricing; there is the intrinsic value, or real value, and there is the premium, or what I like to call the "fluff".

Combining Price and Volume to Predict Price Movement - TradingMarkets

In this first of a 2-part series, Tim Ord describes the importance of using price and volume levels at support and resistance points to determine future stock price.

Free Report! The Only 3 Options Trading Strategies You'll Ever Need - TradingMarkets

There may be as many ways to trade the market as there are traders who want to do so. But the difference between the professionals and the amateurs when it comes to trading is that the majority of professional traders know that the edge lies in buying markets when they are weak and selling them when they are strong.

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