“Ladies and gentlemen, the £10,000 prize has been won by Louis Paulhan, the finest aviator that the world has ever seen. Compared with him I am only a novice. Three cheers for Paulhan!”
— Claude Grahame-White

On Thursday, April 28, 1910, British aviator Claude Grahame-White, became the first person to make a flight at night, just six years after the Wright Brothers made their historic flight.

Grahame-White and Frenchman Louis Paulhan were engaged in a flying competition sponsored by The Daily Mail, which offered £10,000 to the first person to complete the 298km (185 miles) flight from London to Manchester in less than 24 hours.

The Brit was the first to depart, leaving London on April 23, before suffering engine problems and being forced to land in Lichfield, just beyond the halfway point.

Paulhan left London four days later on April 27, and Graham-White decided to chance a night flight on April 28 to try to beat Paulhan.

Grahame-White was again forced to land short of Manchester, conceding the victory and graciously declaring Paulhan to be the “finest aviator the world has ever seen.”

Markets are rallying strongly Thursday afternoon, after a sharp selloff Tuesday and a faltering rally Wednesday. The S&P 500 is up 2.3%, the Nasdaq Composite is 2.8% higher and Dow Industrials are 1.7% firmer as of 1:45pm ET.

Strong corporate earnings continue to lend a measure of support to a market that has been under pressure all month from the weight of the Federal Reserve’s impending moves on interest rates, inflation concerns and slowing global growth.

Even with today’s rally, April is still on pace to be the market’s worst month in two years, despite 80% of S&P 500 companies beating earnings estimates so far.


PTC ( PTC ) is pacing all S&P 500 names, up 16%. The software and services company handily beat fiscal Q2 estimates for revenue and earnings, and raised full year guidance for revenue and cash flow.

Shares of Meta Platforms ( FB ) are 15% higher, leading all Nasdaq names today and behind only PTC among S&P 500 constituents. Though the social media giant missed revenue estimates for the first quarter, it reported better-than-expected earnings and daily average users while issuing improved expense guidance for the full year.

Qualcomm ( QCOM ) is the second best Nasdaq performer Thursday, up over 8% after reporting record revenues for its fiscal second quarter. The chipmaker also issued better-than-expected revenue guidance for the full year.


The Federal Open Market Committee meets next Tuesday and Wednesday, May 3 and May 4, when it is widely expected to raise its target rate by 50 basis points.

Whatever rate increase is announced next week will only be the first of many expected this year, with even the most dovish central bankers conceding that the Fed will have to be more aggressive than it’s been in decades.


Crude oil futures continue to trade strongly, with Brent crude up 1.9% to $107.32 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate up 2.6% to $104.70 as of 1:45pm.

Shell, the world’s leading oil trader, announced tightening of its restrictions on purchasing Russian oil, and Germany declared that it would no longer stand in the way of a full Russian oil embargo by the European Union.


As we examine stock options data provided by Tradier API, we find it notable that iron condors have increased in popularity for the third week in a row compared to other strategies. Iron condors, which are most profitable when the underlying securities or indexes settle in a narrow range, were the second most common strategy seen by Tradier last week.

Among single stock options, familiar names lead the bull list with Apple ( AAPL ) and Tesla ( TSLA ) at the top. 

Apple reports fiscal Q2 earnings today after the close, with the street looking for $94 billion in revenue and earnings of $1.42 per share. Tesla shares have had a rough April, down 23% from their peak on April 4 through Wednesday’s close, coinciding with founder Elon Musk’s Twitter bid.

Bear traders were active in two online names: computer retailer Newegg Commerce ( NEGG ) and residential real estate broker Opendoor Technologies ( OPEN ).

Newegg stock has fallen sharply from its November highs, down 68% through Wednesday. The stock has been a popular topic on the Reddit boards for months but appears to be out of the spotlight now.

Questions persist about the long-term viability of Opendoor’s business model in what remains a high-touch business of buying and selling homes. Investors have had little to cheer about Opendoor since the company went public via SPAC merger in 2000.

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Source: Equities News

Mentioned in this Article
Newegg Commerce Inc
Opendoor Technologies Inc
Qualcomm, Inc.
PTC Inc
Apple Inc.
Tesla Inc
Facebook Inc - Class A