Calendar of events to watch 04/09/10 $BAC $JJ $SPY

• Obama will speak at 1:20pmET today; will address the W VA mine explosion and Justice Stevens’ retirement, among other items.

• China –There could be some news out of China this weekend (per the NYT, China may announce a yuan revaluation as soon as Fri night; we will be getting China trade balance and import/export #s Fri night/Sat morning; China is expected to post a trade deficit this weekend for the first time in a while).

• Greece – activation of IMF-EU rescue this weekend? Reuters reported that a deal has been reached on the specific terms of a rescue but its not clear if Athens has requested the plan to be activated. In terms of the parameters of IMF debt, for loans up to three years, Greece will be charged the SDR rate plus 300 bps plus 50 bps service charge (per Reuters).

Corporate Calendar for the week of Mon Apr 12 – earnings season for Q1 will kick off w/AA coming Mon after the close. PKX (S Korean steel company) will hit overnight on Mon w/a call on Tues morning. There will be a bunch of tech results. For the semis, watch for INTC and LLTC on Tues, ASML on Wed, and AMD, FCS on Thurs. In the internets, GOOG kicks things off Thurs night. JPM is the first financial earnings of the season (Wed morning) and will be followed by PBCT (Thurs night) and BAC, FHN (Fri morning). GE reports Fri morning also. 

Today’s Top Stories; #GREECE #IMF $EWG $SPY $AA

Today's Top Stories

·         Greece continues to receive a lot of attention in the press with the country planning to push ahead w/a planned US$-denominated debt sale later this month despite a recent spike in yields according to officials and Reuters is reporting that Greek's central bank is taking actions to limit short sales of its gov't debt.  Greece's Finance Minister says the country isn't asking for an activation of the aid mechanism (although there is rampant speculation that activation could come soon) but EU president Herman Van Rompuy said aid to Greece must be made operational and talks are currently under way on the technicalities of implementing the plan (Bloomberg)

·         Greece – update from JPMorgan's D Mackie - With government bond yields having risen sharply over the past week, and concerns about market liquidity and deposit outflows from the banks mounting, we are likely getting close to the point when the Greek government will ask for the EU/IMF support mechanism outlined two weeks ago to be activated. 

·         A few stories out on the China front – 1) the chief economist at China's State Information Centre think-tank said China might increase interest rates as early as this month, but Beijing will probably not resume yuan appreciation as soon as that (China reports its March Trade Accounts tomorrow and St. is looking for a $0.4B deficit which could weaken arguments that the nation is keeping its currency undervalued to gain an advantage), 2) China's finance ministry failed to draw enough demand at sales of 273-day and 91-day treasury bills today