The market is gyrating, being pulled down by earnings misses in big names like Exxon Mobile (XOM) and Intel (INTC) and great economic data, including the first quarter GDP Report (hard data) and Michigan Sentiment Reading (soft data).

Michigan Sentiment

The final read for April of 97.2 is higher than 96.9 consensus.

In addition, there is consistency in the reading, which has been in range of 95.0 to 99.0 in twenty-one of the past 28 months.

Highlights

• When asked, 44% said they believe their individual financial prospects will improve, while only 8% said it would worsen.
• When asked about their financial prospects five years from now, a whopping 60% see it higher- a record for this report which goes back to 1979 (the questions weren’t always asked until after 1985).

Michigan Consumer Sentiment

Amazon Effect

Lost in the hoopla over Amazon’s results is its continued assault on brick and mortar names.  In addition to its recent deal with Kohl’s (KSS) to accept all its returns, the company announced a massive investment to provide Amazon Prime customers with free one day shipping.

The news is slamming several big rivals including:

• WMT -2%
• TGT -5%
• DG -1%

Have a great weekend.