As Good as It Gets (Part Cinq) - 04/21/10

Though, arguably, Crystal Bowersox's performance on "American Idol" was the post-market highlight, the principal market narrative last night was that a "stunning" Apple (AAPL) earnings release (as well as other upbeat technology reports, a few of which were mentioned in Jim "El Capitan" Cramer's blog) would buoy the S&P 500 to new highs.

It appeared as though the last place one would have wanted to have been caught was on the short side!

The tech-heavy Nasdaq futures indeed launched a spirited rally, rising to over 16 points at one moment. The S&P futures advance was muted, however, at its height rising by only about 4 points.

At the time of this writing, S&P futures have surprisingly turned negative, while the Nasdaq futures are barely up from last night's close.

Perhaps, as I have been arguing (though Jimmy is on the other side of the pew), it's as good as it gets and the markets have finally begun to discount the economic and profit recovery. Or perhaps other factors are contributing to the disappointing futures reaction. Some of these might include:

• evidence of actual, or the intention toward, tightening by several central banks around the world (India, Canada);

   

• a record level of notice of defaults that will likely lead to a rush of home foreclosures;

   

• a spate of weaker-than-expected earnings/sales reports mentioned in yesterday's opener, including Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Coca-Cola (KO), State Street (STT), Regions Financial (RF) and U.S. Bancorp (USB), as well as some disappointing after-market results such as those from Yahoo! (YHOO);

   

• a surprise drop in the ABC Consumer Confidence Survey, a statistic that stands only slightly above the lows of 16 months ago;

   

• more credit concerns regarding Greece and Portugal; and

   

• the continued specter of legal event risk on Goldman Sachs (GS).