Rates as of 0500 GMT

Market Recap

Well, maybe I will be able to retire eventually after all Equity market sentiment improved substantially yesterday, with the World Equity Indices page on Bloomberg a sea of green except for Sweden, for some reason. The SP 500 was up 2.0 and the NASDAQ up an even larger 2.7, with two things driving sentiment. With the SP 500 up 4 so far this week it looks like the run of down weeks for the index seven consecutive weeks so far may come to an end. Thats good because the index has fallen for eight weeks in a row only twice since the Great Depression.

Stocks gained on betterthanexpected earnings outlooks from retailers. Remember the shock a few days ago when Target Corp. missed earnings and the stock was down as much as 5.5 at one point? And the worries when companies like Target and Walmart reported rising inventories vs falling sales? Well, those days are gone, apparently. Macys 19.3 raised its earnings guidance before the US open, while the discount retailers Dollar Tree 21.9 and Dollar General 13.7 both surged on good earnings reports the former reported a 4.4 increase in samestore sales, while the latter reported higherthanexpected earnings and raised its sales forecast for the year.

As a result consumer discretionary 4.8 was the topperforming sector in the SP with Dollar Tree the bestperforming stock in the market. And beleaguered Target is now up 12 from the low point after its earnings came out and even up 6 from the day…