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Sprint Reports Quarterly (and Customer) Losses ... FedEx Lower Guidance ... Research in Motion Unveils Latest Blackberry ... More Write Downs, Fewer Bad Loans Says HSBC ... Cablevision Closing in on Newsday Purchase ... Crude Oil Slows its Ascent as Dollar Strengthens ... Deadly Quake Strikes China ...

Asian stocks up ... European stocks up ... The dollar moving lower against the Euro, British pound ... And the futures are trending higher in the hour before the bell.

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TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

Spring Nextel Quarterly Losses Grow - Bloomberg
Amid rumors of split-offs and acquisitions, Sprint Nextel reported wider than expected losses for the first quarter, though the company beat expectations by two cents, excluding special items. With its Short Term PowerRating of 3, is Sprint a stock that traders should consider buying or consider avoiding? Find out right now at TradingMarkes.com's Short Term PowerRatings today!

HSBC Reports Quarterly Profit Gains - Bloomberg
Europe's largest bank, HSBC, cites "lull" in customer delinquencies and announces that it will set aside less than expected to cover loan defaults. .

A Greenback Bounce? - Bloomberg
Are currency futures betting that there's more upside in the U.S. dollar versus the euro? Commitment of Traders suggests "yes." You can find out what our TradingMarkets currency specialist thinks about the EUR/USD, and many of the other widely traded currency pairs. Click here to try a free, two-week trial to Mark Whistler's Forex Focus today!

Retail Moves Toward Earnings Spotlight - Barrons
Releasing earnings on Tuesday, Wal-Mart leads the retailers into the last days of earnings season. We spotted Wal-Mart as the "best of an average bunch" last week after studying the industry for the stocks with the highest, Long Term PowerRatings. Click here to read our PowerRatings analysis of Wal-Mart and other discount retailers.

Are Democrats Bad for Stocks? - Forbes
Billionaire Ken Fisher takes a look at the likely Democratic nominee and reviews the odds that an Obama White House means a bear market for stocks. By the way, we spoke with Fisher this spring about his outlook for stocks in 2008. If you missed the Big Saturday Interview with Ken Fisher, click here and read it today!

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:

• Blockbuster (BBI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) will go ahead with its planned billion-dollar bid for Circuit City, which agreed to open its books to the potential acquirer on Friday.
  
  
• Activist shareholder Kirk Kerkorian announced his plans to increase his investment in Ford Motors (F | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) to the tune of an overall 5.7% stake in the company.
  
  
• Shares of Sony Entertainment (SNE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) sold off today in spite of the popular reception of the wildly popular video game, Grand Theft Auto 4, which arrived in stores last week. Sony's Playstation platform is among the more popular platforms for the graphics intensive game.
  
  
• Blaming the rising cost of fuel, FedEx (FDX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) lowered its profit forecast for the fourth quarter. FedEx closed down more than 3% on Friday.
  
  
• American International Group (AIG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), the world's largest insurer, announced its second consecutive quarterly loss and added that the company would seek to raise more than $12 billion in capital in the coming months.
  
  
• Announcing earnings before the bell on Monday, Sprint Nextel (S | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported EPS of $0.04, excluding special items and acquisition-related costs.
  
  
• In a shareholder meeting held on Friday, Citigroup (C | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) CEO Vikram Pandit announced a turnaround plan involving the sale of $400 billion in assets.

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

TradingMarkets 5 PowerRatings Stocks for Today

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

The King of Quants: A Conversation with Emanuel Derman - TradingMarkets
Author of My Life as a Quant and former head of Goldman Saches Quantitative Strategies divsion, Emanuel Derman talks with TradingMarkets CEO and co-founder Larry Connors about options, volatility and building a better model for market behavior. Part One of Three.

Up or Down Stock Contest Winner Trusts Her Instincts - TradingMarkets
Dee Ferris takes home $1,000 in cash for being our TradingMarkets Up or Down Stock Contest winner for the month of April. Find out how she did it at TradingMarkets.com.

How Traders Can Profit from the Commodity Bull Run? - TradingMarkets
From metals to energies, commodities are rallying like its 1979. Dave Goodboy gives you a few tips on how you can get a piece of the commodity action.

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