Waiting. It is always something. Earnings, senate hearings, central banks, OPEC, the calendar, Friday, Monday, May, option expiry, futures roll, the election, or an election, Brexit, economic data (US and Canadian GDP this week), FDA decisions, government changes, breaking resistance. And this week is no different, including waiting for the non-event FOMC today and the BoJ (since it is already the top 10 holder in 90 per cent of all Japanese stocks according to Zero Hedge – hard to believe what more they can do, but deeper into negative is expected).

But remember, I’ve always been told that the market is a discounting mechanism and isn’t looking at today or tomorrow, but six months to a year down the road. Everything on a day-to-day basis is, quite frankly, just noise.

Bombardier

Bombardier moves forward its earnings to Thursday (from Friday when the AGM will be held) and the Street is riddled with rumours, including speculation around a Delta CSeries order (the airliner is having an analyst day tomorrow). The company says the change was the result of a scheduling conflict.For perspective, the stock has risen 158 per cent from its low, is down 77 per cent from its one year high, and a financial difficult quarter is likely to be reported with continued negative cash burn. Investors are buying for tomorrow!

Oil

Trading through $45 this morning on a 1.1 million barrel drawdown in API inventory data (according to reports). The Department of Energy numbers will release its numbers today with a build of 1.75 million barrels expected (inventories continue to run at record highs) but gasoline is expected to see a one million draw down (gasoline inventories are off 7.4% from all-time highs and moving closer to 10-year averages although still about 10% away) and a further distillate draw (inventories are down 3 per cent from cycle highs). Technicians are watching resistance at these levels but others are bullishly pointing to the “golden cross” in the price patterns. Pick your technical or fundamental view. Wood Mackenzie says there will be a major supply shortfall by 2035!

Apple

Is this 2013 (two years after Steve Jobs died) when net income declined/flat-lined, depending upon the quarter, and revenues plateaued? The company’s performance then accelerated with revenue rising some 35 per cent and net income 43 per cent in to the last quarter. The stock peaked in September of 2012 at about $100 (split adjusted) and then bottomed in the middle of this soft period at about $56 – and then, of course, never looked back. Is this September 2012 for Apple? Discuss. The company did raise its dividend by 10% and increased its buyback to $175 billion from $140 billion share buyback (after generating $11.6 billion in operating cash flow in the quarter). Those with sharp pencils and a HP 12C say that the company has enough cash ($233 billion) to buy Uber, Tesla Twitter, Airbnb, Netflix AND Yahoo. Would that be a better use of their capital than the 90 per cent increase in R&D spending the company has pursued in the past two years (to about $2.4 billion? Also, discuss.

Twitter

As one analyst (Ophir Gottlieb from CML Labs) noted, the quarterly statement from the company “read like a stock solicitation. It was so bullish…” All analysts highlighted the great metrics in the quarter including the mobile average user numbers but what’s wrong with the future given a Q2 outlook that was 10 per cent below EBITDA and revenue forecasts. Ouch! The stock is down 14 per cent.

Canadian earnings

While U.S. earnings will continue to dominate, Canadian companies are taking front and centre. Big oil (Cenovus today), retailers (Jean Coutu with a two-penny miss), DH Corp. (A miss on both revenue and earnings).

Markets

With Apple’s $7.50 pre-market declining accounting for about 50 Dow points, it might not be surprising to see the futures lower but only by 31 points suggesting the rest of the market is in pretty decent shape. We have the earnings digestion (Boeing for example is also just out with a dime miss), the waiting, the stretched nature of the rally, the most-loved big tech index rolling over (MSFT, GOOGL, and now AAPL) and the Fed’s statement, which will dictate market action.

Golden Crosses

There seem to be a lot of them forming. As a reminder, the best golden cross is when the 50 moves up through a rising 200-day moving average. According to WSJ Market Data Group (and reported by Market Watch), there have been 23 golden cross patterns since 1970. Twelve months after the cross, the market has been on average higher by 11 per cent in 19 of those 23 times. But note that there was also a cross in December – it didn’t work out so well. I’m trying to figure out how to screen for the cross and will provide a list of names that are “in the zone” for tomorrow. IBM and Royal Bank are two examples that come quickly to mind.

BNN

Today on BNN we’ll help you work through the waiting and as well, give you some pretty good tax advice (tax tips in the morning and the afternoon), plus a look at silver and gold (with a guy that wrote a report in 2013 saying stay away from the metal when it was $1665). We’ll also bring you updates on Michael Pearson as he testifies before the Senate (note that Legg Mason’s Bill Miller, previously known as one of the best value managers in the world with an impeccable record has recently put 3.6 per cent of his fund into VRX).

Lots to do – go to run.

Every morning Business Day Host Frances Horodelski writes a "chase note" to BNN's editorial staff listing the stories and events that will be in the spotlight that day. Have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins (Mobile users click here: http://bit.ly/1L8f2L6).