Morning Market Report 5/16/2014

May 16, 2014
The KUIK Morning Market Report for Friday, May 16:
Markets are down slightly.
Index Direction Change Units Time Change
Dow Up                       0 points           16,447 7:04 AM
S&P500 Down -0.1% percent             1,869            (1.44)
Nasdaq Composite Down -0.2% percent             4,060            (9.73)
30 Year Treasury Up                       1 Basis Points               3.35 Annual Yield
The Commerce Department reports that Housing starts in April rose 13.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of almost 1.1 million, the fastest pace since November. April’s result beat expectations.  Economists were looking for a construction-start rate of 980,000. Apartment starts rose 43% in  to an annual pace of 413,000. Single-family homes rose 1% to an annual rate of 649,000.
 “We have further to go to achieve a healthy economy,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen yesterday. In remarks at a National Small Business Week event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Yellen paid tribute to the important role small firms have played in the recovery. She said that sightly more than half of the net number of jobs created since employment began growing in 2010 have been generated by firms with fewer than 250 employees.
Applied Materials and Rackspace Hosting are two of the few gainers among tech stocks. Applied Materials rose 5%, to $19.63 a share, after the chip-equipment maker yesterday said it swung to a fiscal second-quarter profit. Rackspace shares climbed more than 16%, to $35.76, after announcing it hired Morgan Stanley to explore strategic options for the cloud-services company.
Serving the West Side first, I am Bill Roller of BR Capital for AM 1360 KUIK.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apartments-lead-home-construction-surge-in-april-2014-05-16
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/yellen-more-steps-needed-to-get-healthy-economy-2014-05-15
http://www.marketwatch.com/markets?link=MW_Nav_MA
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