PRE MARKET LOOK

Markets set to open way lower on the heels of the swine flu outbreak- I think we have seen this movie before- SARS and Bird Flu- selling into the flu breakout wasn't very profitable then and I doubt it is the way to go today.

ES futures down 16;

NQ down 21;

YM down 138;

if you think the EMA 20 is a good place to buy the dip - SPX 841 is the spot for now;

GM trying to get the bondholders to swap out for equity and dumping Pontiac brand leaving them with Buick, Saturn, Chevrolet and GMAC-

Other stuff:

More from Bloomberg on the insider selling;

Smart Money and the twitterers;

World stocks - lower;

The battle continues between the two losers- Thain and Lewis;

GS right back at it;

Grading the NFL draft;

Finally some tidbits from MER:

Spain's unemployment rate just hit crisis levels of 17.4% (up from 13.9% a year ago) as the level of joblessness crossed over the four-million mark. But there was good news in Italy where consumer confidence bounced in April to a 16-month high (104.9 in April from 99.8 in March). And, Germany's consumer confidence index in April held at 2.5 (consensus was 2.3). UK mortgage approvals, however, suffered a 6.9% setback in March, snuffing out a three-month recovery.

Gold gets some Chinese support: Well, this time it was a case of the news making the market, as bullion surged to a three-week high on the report that China's gold reserves had risen 454 metric tons since 2003 to 1,054 tons (76% more than the country had previously reported!). China is now the world's fifth largest holder of the yellow metal.

Two factors underpinning the equity market: First, on the fundamental front, 60% of companies reporting thus far for 1Q have beaten expectations versus 55% for 4Q (see Kopin Tan on page M5 of Barron's). And on the technical front, short-covering remains a primary source of support -- short interest on the NYSE dropped 2.9% in the second half of April and by 5.8% on the Nasdaq.

Finally- how long before the guy in the picture hits the unemployment stats.