Good morning. Despite some really bad economic data equities rebounded somewhat from Tuesday’s Dow 119 point loss with the Dow rising 28 points to 16,845, the S&P 500 gaining 5 to 1,955 and the Nasdaq adding 14 to 4,365. The economic data was what I mentioned in yesterday’s report which was the Commerce Department’s revision of Q1 2014 GGP from -1.0% to -2.9%. Note that’s a contraction. It would be an understatement to say that shocked the market. Tens of billions of dollars simply vanished from the economy. The decline marks the biggest downward revision in “second GDP estimates” since records began in 1976. So what you should be doing is breathing a big sigh of relief the market didn’t get hammered on such bad data. Yesterday that same department released Durable Goods Orders for May which fell 1% but that was nearly all predicated on weak demand for military goods. Taking out defense orders the number was actually up 0.6% so that is positive. So we have weird stuff going on. On Tuesday equities fell even though consumer confidence was reported to be really strong and yesterday Q1 GDP revised materially weaker and equities rose. Go figure.

This morning Dow futures are up a meaningless 6 points and unfortunately not following the Asian markets where the major bourses all closed materially higher and the European markets which are all trading “green” albeit marginally.

Yesterday oil prices moved completely opposite from Tuesday with WTI climbing 47¢ closing at $106.50 and Brent falling almost the exact amount, 46¢, at $114.00. WTI’s rise was the first gain in three sessions. Although hard to comprehend, WTI got a little boost from the Q1 GDP revision for when that data was released the U.S. dollar got whacked to a one month low and as we all know, all things being equal, a weaker dollar means higher commodity prices. The DOE released its weekly crude and products inventory report yesterday and it came in as expected with a small aggregate build.

Folks are still trying to digest the impact of the Administration granting permits to Pioneer Resources and Enterprise Products to export “condensate,” a very light oil. One effect was clear, the stock price of refiners got whacked with Valero Energy’s stock price falling a very material 10% which I think is way overdone.

Syrian jets bombed ISIS positions in Iraq while you slept but it’s not supporting WTI this morning with it down 47¢. Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister al-Maliki said Iraq did not request the action but that he welcomed it.

The July natural gas options expired yesterday but it had little impact on prices with the July contract closing up 1.8¢ at $4.553. Today will be an exciting day in natural gas (can’t you just feel it!) with the EIA weekly natural gas report being released at 9:30 CDT and the July Nymex contract expiring. Regarding the former, the market is expecting an injection of 105 Bcf which compares to last year’s injection of 94 Bcf and the five year average of 81 Bcf. The market is making a concerted effort to get gas into the ground. And it needs to for even with continued above average injections we’ll go into this winter with inventories lower than the five year average.

The weather forecast remains benign with the upper Midwest and east experiencing some above normal temperatures over the next few days but this is being completely offset by lower than normal A/C demand in the deep south due to persistent waves of rain. Natty is starting the day sedate being up 0.5¢.

And finally, here’s a few facts to help you keep things in perspective:

According to the Census Bureau, the average new home has more bathrooms than occupants.

According to Airlines for America, adjusted for overall inflation the cost of an average round-trip airline ticket fell 50% from 1978 to 2011.

The death rate from strokes has declined 75% since the 1960’s according to the National Institute of Health.

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