Good Morning!

Ford Reports Surprising Profit... Credit Suisse Posts Large Loss... Apple, Amazon, Starbucks Issue Gloomy Outlooks... Loss Widens at Motorola... Wendy's to Merge with Arby's... Durable Goods Orders Decline.

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

Would you like to improve your trading? TradingMarkets would like to invite you to a private 30-minute conference call with TradingMarkets CEO and Founder Larry Connors on April 18, 2008 at 12:00 pm ET.

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

Ford Swings to a Profit - Wall Street Journal

Ford said it swung to a first-quarter profit as it benefited from cost reductions in North America and strong performances in its international regions led by Europe.

Credit Suisse Posts $5.2 Billion Loss on Writedowns - Bloomberg

Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, reported its first loss in almost five years on 5.3 billion Swiss francs ($5.2 billion) of writedowns linked to deteriorating credit markets.

Starbucks Issues Profit Forecast Below Expectations - MarketWatch

Starbucks warned late Wednesday that fiscal second-quarter and full-year profit will be hurt by decreased traffic at its U.S. stores as well as a "sharp weakening in the U.S. consumer environment."

MacBook has Apple walking on Air - CNN Money

iPod growth has stalled. The iPhone is basically doing as expected. So in Apple’s financial results, the real surprise was the MacBook Air.

IBM vs. Tata: Who's More American? - BusinessWeek

The Indian giant's TCS makes most of its money in the U.S., while Big Blue does the bulk of its business abroad.

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:

• Ambac Financial ( ABK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced a first quarter loss of -$6.93 per share, missing estimates by a whopping $5.42.
  
  
  
  


• Delta Air Lines ( DAL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and Northwest Airlines ( NWA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced plans to merge last week, but first, both companies reported massive losses of $6.4 billion and $4.1 billion respectively.
  
  
  
  


• After the market close, Amazon.com ( AMZN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported earnings of $0.34, beating estimates by $0.02.
  
  
  
  


• Apple ( AAPL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced better-than-expected results, beating consensus estimates by $0.09.
  
  
  
  


• Before the market open, 3M ( MMM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) beat by $0.03 and issued guidance in-line.
  
  
  
  


• Ford Motor ( F | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) beats estimates by $0.21.
  
  

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

TradingMarkets 5 PowerRatings Stocks for Today

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

Concerned About Trading Inconsistency? Then Read This! - TradingMarkets

When it comes to trading, if you want to succeed, you need to consistently trade stocks that have large historical edges. And you need to exit them at optimal levels.

How to Avoid Trade Taxes Using an IRA - TradingMarkets

Taxes are the Achilles heel of active stock traders. Ever have a great year in the market, but end up paying Uncle Sam an exorbitant amount of your profits? A very sad state of affairs, but all too true for the successful trader.

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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