EUROPE

• Eurozone: Eurozone unemployment has risen to a record level of 10.9% in Mar 2012, up from 10.8% in Feb 2012, and a full point higherr than 9.9% in Mar 2011. [More] This is likely to have a major bearing on politics throughout the EU (including UK) – especially France – about threats to growth from austerity programs.
• Greece: Standard & Poor’s has upgraded Greece from default to CCC.

USA MARKET

Economy

• ADP Employer Services payroll data suggests that only 119,000 jobs were added in Apr 2012 (down from 201,000 in Mar 2012) with 5,000 jobs lost in manufacturing.

Commodities

• Gold Futures (Jun): down $8.40 to $1,654/oz
• Oil Futures (WTI LSC Jun): down $0.94 to $105.22/barrel.

Treasury yields

• 30-year: 3.12%
• 10-year: 1.93%
• 5-year: 0.82%

Share market indices

• S+P 500: 1,402 -0.28%
• DJIA: 13,269 -0.08%
• NASDAQ: 3,060 +0.31%

Tech stock news

• RIM [NASDAQ:RIMM] fell 5% today.
• Facebook [NASDAQ:FB] is expected to IPO on 18 May 2012.

PORTFOLIO

NASDAQ

• Apple [AAPL] $586.00 +0.66%
• Amazon [AMZN] $230.25 +0.09%
• Google [GOOG] $607.26 +0.47%

NYSE

• Linkedin [LNKD] $106.45 -0.37%
• VMware [VMW] $114.61 +1.75%

AUSTRALIAN CURRENCY

Portfolio valuation rate (USD/AUD): 1.03730