“The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything — you can wait for your pitch” — Buffett

1. Greece Makes Latest IMF Loan Repayment — Greece completed a 750-million-euro ($836.7 million) loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund last week. The Bank of Greece official said the money was paid from an emergency account held by the central bank after two meetings last week between Governor Yannis Stournaras, Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis and Deputy Foreign Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, who manages Greece’s talks with international creditors over its bailout. Euro group chief cited “important progress” but said that “more time” is needed.
2. China Surprised Market with Rate Cut — the China ‘s Central Bank trimmed interest rates for the 3rd time in 6-months amid signs of slower growth. Rate sensitive sectors like autos and housing rallied.
3. Retail Sales Flat in April — Sales at U.S. retailers were flat in April after spike in March. Sales minus autos, which accounts for one-fifth of all retail purchases, rose a scant 0.1%. That’s well below the 0.4% Wall Street forecast. And sales minus both autos and gasoline edged up 0.2%.
4. Eurozone GDP Picks Up, Boosted By (Germany, France, Italy and Spain) — the eurozone economy expanded by 0.4% in the first quarter, marking a pickup from the 0.3% growth recorded in the final quarter of last year. since the first half of 2010, all four of the eurozone’s largest economies (Germany, France, Italy and Spain) recorded growth and the currency area grew more rapidly than both the U.S. and U.K.
5. Federal Reserve Rate Hike Choice is September or December According Former Member — according to the former Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn says a June rate hike is off the table following weaker-than-expected April retail sales data. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen has said the central bank will start considering rate hikes at the June meeting. Interest rates have been near zero since the end of 2008.
6. Bullish Sentiment Drops To Lowest Level In More Than 2 Years — courtesy of BIG, bullish sentiment dropped from 27.1% down to 26.7%. While the size of the drop in bullish sentiment was small, this week marks the tenth straight week that bullish sentiment has been below the bull market average and also the tenth decline in bullish sentiment over the last twelve weeks.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: