Tuesday's markets opened on weakness and never made a serious attempt at a rally despite what was a very strong auction of U.S. 10-Year Notes midday. The yield for the 10-Year Note went out at 4.30% for the day, as the S&P 500 gave up 0.77% and the Nasdaq Composite surrendered 0.87%.

Three of eleven sector SPDR ETFs closed on the plus side today led by the Utilities XLU at +1.29%. Health Care XLV led the losers at -2.67%. Moderna MRNA and my beloved Palantir Technologies PLTR were taken to the woodshed, leading the S&P 500 to the downside. I did add to my long position in Palantir in what was supposed to be an intraday trade that I never got out of, largely because the stock never really moved after that purchase.

Once again, it has been my pleasure to hang with you all on this Tuesday. The Fed is on tap for tomorrow and your regular guide through the day's activities will have returned to his duties by then. Until next time my friends, may the force be with you.

By request, I took a look at Nvidia NVDA. 

I see the stock as attempting to break out from the upper tendline of an Andrews' Pitchfork over the past three days. The real test is whether the stock can take and hold its 50-day SMA, which is running concurrently with that trendline. That would force portfolio managers to increase long-side equity exposure. 

Tuesday Evening Earnings Highlights

AMD (.93), DVN (1.22),WYNN (1.24)

Wednesday Morning Earnings Highlights

GOLD (.30), SHOP (.26), UBER (.70), DIS (1.21)

Victoria's Secret $VSCO put volume heavy and directionally bearish 14:15 VSCO

Bearish flow noted in Victoria's Secret with 11,136 puts trading, or 6x expected. Most active are May-25 15 puts and May-25 17 puts, with total volume in those strikes near 11,000 contracts. The Put/Call Ratio is 43.67, while ATM IV is up over 1 point on the day. Earnings are expected on June 4th.

Q) Since integration, eight MLB hitters have managed to post multiple 50+ home run seasons. Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire each had four. Alex Rodriguez had three. They are all steroid cheats in my opinion and don't count. The other five, as far as I know, are/were legit. One batter has three and is active. The other four batters all had two such seasons and are no longer active. Name these five ballplayers.

Dougie hit this one out of the park, and got the answer almost right away. Randy did well too and got four of five.

A) The answers are...

- Aaron Judge hit 50+ HR in 2017, 2022, and 2024.

- Ken Griffey Jr hit 50+ HR in 1997 and 1998.

- Mickey Mantle hit 50+ HR in 1956 and 1961.

- Willie Mays hit 50+ HR in 1955 and 1965.

- Ralph Kiner hit 50+ HR in 1947 and 1949. 

This afternoon, the U.S. Treasury Department auctioned off $42 billion worth of new 10-Year paper at a high yield of 4.342%, stopping through the 4.354% where the "when issued" was trading going into the auction. This was the third straight "stop-through" for the series. Apparently, rumors concerning the demise of U.S. Treasuries as an attractive investment or as some kind of haven were indeed premature.

Demand from abroad was strong, with Indirect Bidders taking down 71.2% of the issuance, while Direct Bidders (domestic accounts) took home 19.9% of the auction. For domestic buyers, this was an impressive rebound in demand from an anemic April auction. Dealers were stuck with a mere 8.9% slice of the pie, which may or may not be enough to cover their needs. 

Since integration (1947 to the present), eight MLB hitters have managed to post multiple (more than one) 50+ home run seasons. Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire each had four. Alex Rodriguez had three. They are all steroid cheats, in my opinion, and don't count. The other five, as far as I know, are/were legit. One batter has three and is active. The other four batters all had two such seasons and are no longer active. Name these five ballplayers. 

ServiceNow NOW, Nvidia NVDA announce expansion of partnership on intelligent AI agents 13:11 NOW, NVDA 

At ServiceNow's (NOW) annual customer and partner event, Knowledge 2025, ServiceNow and Nvidia (NVDA) announced an expansion of their partnership to "fuel a new class of intelligent AI agents across the enterprise." ServiceNow stated: "This includes the debut of a new high-performance ServiceNow reasoning model, Apriel Nemotron 15B-developed in partnership with NVIDIA-that evaluates relationships, applies rules, and weighs goals to reach conclusions or make decisions. The open-source LLM is post-trained with NVIDIA and ServiceNow-provided data, helping deliver lower latency, lower inference costs, and faster agentic AI. The companies also unveiled plans to bring accelerated data processing to ServiceNow Workflow Data Fabric with the integration of select NVIDIA NeMo microservices, driving a closed-loop data flywheel process that enhances model accuracy and personalized user experiences. The Apriel Nemotron 15B reasoning model represents a significant step forward in developing compact, enterprise-grade LLMs purpose-built for real-time workflow execution."

Tesla TSLA needs to find help at either the 21-day EMA or 50-day EMA in order to keep the rally off of the double-bottom pattern alive and make another run at the 200-day line. 

Despite a weak overnight showing, Ford Motor F has been strong on Tuesday. The stock has taken back its 200-day SMA. If that level is held through the close, it could force portfolio managers to increase long-side exposure. 

The question now is, does that cup pattern add a handle? Typically a bullish technical pattern, developing a cup with handle, could result in the loss of the 200-day SMA, which would be bearish. 

Ford stands at a crossroads.

General Mills GIS call volume above normal and directionally bullish.

Bullish option flow detected in General Mills with 1,318 calls trading, 1.4x expected, and implied vol increasing over 1 point to 25.32%. Sep-25 67.5 calls and Jan-26 60 calls are the most active options, with total volume in those strikes near 860 contracts. The Put/Call Ratio is 0.18. Earnings are expected on June 25th.

Zoom Video Communications ZM call volume above normal and directionally bullish.

Bullish option flow detected in Zoom Video Communications (ZM) with 4,139 calls trading, 3x expected, and implied vol increasing almost 2 points to 42.92%. Jan-26 110 calls and Jan-26 120 calls are the most active options, with total volume in those strikes near 2,800 contracts. The Put/Call Ratio is 0.15. Earnings are expected on May 21st.

Readers are likely familiar with my Double Bottom pattern that has produced a nice rally in CrowdStrike Holdings CRWD. 

Readers are likely familiar with my $475 target price. That said, the stock is in a dangerous spot and like Palantir Technologies PLTR, a pattern that was a double bottom could easily morph into a double top pattern of bearish reversal.

S&P Futures: -45 vs FV.

Nasdaq Futures: -228 vs FV.

US Ten Year Note: 4.33%

US Two Year Note: 3.80%

US Three Month T-Bill: 4.31%

US Dollar Index: -0.38%

WTI Crude: +2.32%

Gold: +2.15%

Silver: +2.48%

Bitcoin: -0.39%

Palantir PLTR price target raised to $140 from $120 at Wedbush

Palantir price target raised to $130 from $125 at Loop Capital

Palantir price target raised to $94 from $80 at Mizuho

Palantir price target raised to $80 from $50 at Deutsche Bank

Palantir, xAI, TWG Global announce collaboration

My price target is currently $153. In depth piece coming up, later.

On Semi ON price target lowered to $55 from $65 at Loop Capital.

Lattice Semiconductor LSCC price target raised to $50 from $42 at Baird

Coinbase COIN downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Monness Crespi

Fortinet FTNT price target raised to $113 from $110 at Baird

Western Digital WDC price target set at $60 Loop Capital

Roku ROKU price target lowered to $68 from $81 at Citi

Plug Power PLUG closes $525M secured credit facility

PayPal PYPL price target lowered to $95 from $98 at Citi

Tyson Foods TSN price target lowered to $61 from $65 at BofA

Clorox CLX price target lowered to $145 from $150 at BofA

S&P Futures: -43 vs FV.

Nasdaq Futures: -217 vs FV.

US Ten Year Note: 4.35%

US Two Year Note: 3.82%

US Three Month T-Bill: 4.31%

US Dollar Index: -0.27%

WTI Crude: +2.14%

Gold: +2.01%

Silver: +2.51%

Bitcoin: -0.42%

It's been a long time since I rocked and rolled. Really. I think it's been more than two months since I had the honor of sitting in for your friend and mine, the one and only Dougie Kass (the crowd goes wild). Perhaps U.S. equity markets prepped for my appearance here at this part of the site by putting an end to the S&P 500's nine-day winning streak. Hopefully I'm not the "mush."

That said, enough gibberish. Let's get fired up. Push-ups, sit-ups, or whatever the heck it is that you can do. You know the drill. Fear is but for the wicked, so let the wicked tremble before us. Oh, yeah. I love saying that as I slam my mighty boots down on the deck and let loose a blood curdling war cry. Tomorrow is "Fed Day" and Doug will be back, but we are set to have some fun today.

There is an auction of $42 billion worth of 10-Year Notes this afternoon. My beloved Palantir Technologies PLTR had its tail handed to it overnight. If you read me, then you know that this reaction was not a surprise and that we did take some profits on Friday. This evening, we'll hear from Advanced Micro Devices AMD and that firm's cooler-than-cool CEO Lisa Su who hails from Queens, NY as do I.

All that said, do your exercises, get that blood going, down that cup of Joe and get back to this desk bright eyed and bushy tailed, for we are the ones the others count on. Why? Because they know that we can bear the burden. 

On to Tuesday, my loyal band. For your very favorite back-up quarterback, Sarge is here for the day.