STOCKS RALLY AND MAKE NEW ALL-TIME HIGHS: Here's What You Need To Know

The market continued to set new highs on very little news.

First the scoreboard:

Dow: 15,105, +48.9 pts, +0.3%
S&P 500: 1,632, +6.7 pts, +0.4%
NASDAQ: 3,413, +16.6 pts, +0.4%

And now the top stories:

• In what's becoming a less and less exciting trend, stocks continue to climb to new all-time highs.
• Economist Nouriel Roubini, aka Dr. Doom, told CNBC that he saw stocks heading higher for another year or two. "There are two forces," he said. "You have the gravitational forces of the slow economy leading eventually to correction. But then the levitational forces of QEs, zero policy rates, more money coming in the market – not just from the U.S., but from other economies – it's going to levitate asset prices."
• The stock market rally has gained the favor of Dow Theorists, who believe it's bullish when the Dow and the Dow Transports simultaneously hit new highs. In April, there were doubts as the transports lagged the rally.
• Over in Asia, China published its April trade stats, which showed stronger-than-expected gains in both imports and exports. This was a big surprise considering earlier economic data that suggested China and its trading partners were slowing. In fact, seconds after the report was released, economists quickly cried foul.
• There were two big problems that everyone pointed to. First was discrepancy in the data between China and Taiwan. "Compared with the data from Taiwan – the only economy besides China that has published the complete set of April data – growth of mainland exports to Taiwan was 57.7 ppt faster based on China’s data (+49.2% yoy vs. -2.7% yoy) and that of mainland’s imports from Taiwan was 58.6 ppt faster (+55.7% yoy vs. -2.9% yoy)!" exclaimed Societe Generale's Wei Yao. "The gaps narrowed only marginally from March."
• Second was the unusually large jump in exports to Hong Kong. "We believe exports to destinations like Hong Kong, a major financial hub, are likely being over-invoiced in an attempt to circumvent capital controls and bring foreign capital into China," said Nomura's Zhiwei Zhang who pointed out that exports to Hong Kong surged by 57.2%.
• Q1 earnings season is winding down, but there are a few notable companies announcing their financial results. Groupon and Tesla will announces their results after the closing bell today.
  
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