Day Leads at The Masters;Mountain Lion Roams LA Suburb

At The Masters,the first of the four major golf tournaments of the year,Australian Jason Day topped the leader board with his second round six under par 68.Day,25,is twenty first on the PGA money list.He has three top ten finishes so far this year and came in second at the 2011 Masters.
Also of note on the venerable Augusta National course in Georgia,53-year old Fred Couples was tied for second place with another Aussie,Marc Leishman,and German Bernhard Langer,55,was in contention as well,leading the field in driving accuracy at 89.3%.Couples and Langer mostly play on the Champions Tour these days,the PGA's tour for older pros.
The top twelve:
Jason Day AUS -6
Marc Leishman AUS -5
Fred Couples USA -5
Jim Furyk USA -4
Brandt Snedeker USA -4
Angel Cabrera ARG -4
David Lynn ENG -3
Lee Westwood ENG -3
Justin Rose ENG -3
KJ Choi KOR -3
Tiger Woods USA -3
Bernhard Langer GER -2
A mountain lion prowled the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale,California Friday for several hours.The 120 pound big wildcat explored several residences,leaping over fences.No one was injured in the city of 191,719,which lies east of LA,adjacent to the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest.
Resident John Yankosky said he observed the mountain lion looking at him and his dog Max through his sliding glass door.
The same neighbourhood was recently visited by a black bear.
The mountain lion was subdued by Fish and Wildlife officers with three tranquilizer darts.It fell asleep on a patio,but they had to remove portions of decking to extract the healthy,tawny male.The neighbours watched as he was taken back to the mountains,where he was released.The lion was uninjured during the incident.
In rare instances,mountain lions have attacked and killed or injured people and pets in California.

Frost Leads Toshiba Classic;Early Wildfire Scorches Colorado

South African David Frost shot an excellent,bogey-free eight under par 63 Friday to top the leader board at the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club,California.Second in the Champions Tour event was the ever-popular Fred Couples,who has 15 career wins on the PGA Tour,with his seven under par 64.Couples appears in several TV commercials.
German Bernhard Langer,who currently leads the Charles Schwab Cup race after three events,made a strong comeback after firing off two eagles,one of them at the eighteenth hole,to bring himself within three strokes of the lead with a four under par 67.
I played well at the end of last year-solid golf,Langer said.Today was a continuation of that-plus I had a bit of luck here and there as well.I just tried to judge the distance right at the eighteenth.
Tom Watson finished the first round at one under par.
A small early season wildfire is scorching an area of difficult terrain near Fort Collins,Colorado.About 40 residents of the Buckhorn Canyon area,which is some 13 miles west of Horsetooth Reservoir,were evacuated from the 25 acre blaze in 50 mile an hour winds.No injuries were reported.
Meanwhile,another wildfire broke out near Peyton,northwest of Colorado Springs.Residents there were advised to evacuate as well,but the fire was 75% contained,the Colorado Springs Gazette said.
Arizona officials are concerned that the cold,wet winter has resulted in overgrown grasses that will ignite in the hot,dry summer ahead.There could be a bad fire season from April-June,The Weather Channel reported.
Toshiba Corp.(TOSBF)

Mickelson Moves Up;Market Slips

Stocks suffered their worst fall of the year this week,with the S&P 500 Index dropping 0.74% on fears about Spain's debt problem and the Federal Reserve's reluctance to provide further aid to the market.For the year,however,the S&P is still up an impressive 11.17%.
The CBOE VIX Volatility Index rose 7.74% on the week.
At The Masters golf tournament in Augusta,Georgia,Phil Mickelson,41,continued to progress,shooting a second round two under par 68 after Thursday's initial struggles had yielded only a 74.Mickelson's round was second only to 52 year-old Fred Couples' 67.Couples and Jason Dufner shared the top of the leaderboard at five under heading into Easter weekend.
Tiger Woods cursed as he shot a poor second round 75 at the majestic Augusta National course famous for its pine trees.It is the first of the year's four major tournaments.
The S&P futures fell a modest 3.48 on Friday in response to the Labor Department's disappointing employment report showing a March jobs gain well below expectations.Bond index futures rose in price.
Next week,earnings season gets underway with Alcoa reporting its Q1 results.
Alcoa(AA)

Market Has Excellent Week

The stock market excelled this week,with all industry groups coming out ahead as Europe was relatively quiet and Google reported strong quarterly results.For the week,the Dow was up 4.88,while the NASDAQ surged 7.60 and the S&P added 5.98%.On the year,however,the broadly based S&P remains down 2.63.Volume was light this week,showing a lack of conviction behind the good numbers.
Excelling on the PGA Champion's Tour of senior golf pros this year is American Tom Lehman,who tops the Charles Schwab Cup point standings.Lehman has three wins and 11 top ten finishes so far this season,which ends in three weeks in San Francisco.This week,the Tour is at the AT&T Championship at TPC San Antonio's Canyon Course.Fred Couples and Steve Lowery led the field with first round seven under par 65s on a hot,dry Friday.
Next week's financial calendar bulges with data and blue chip earnings.The Empire State and Philly Fed reports,together with housing data and earnings submissions by IBM,Goldman Sachs,Apple,Intel and American Express,will keep the analysts busy all week.
The S&P futures climbed a substantial 21.30 Friday evening,while longer maturity bond index futures declined.
Google(GOOG)

Tiger's Good Round,Western Weather

Tiger Woods is showing consistency at The Masters,a tradition-steeped tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.Woods played intently on Friday,finishing with a strong 2nd round seven under par 66.He was tied for 3rd place with South Korean K.J. Choi.Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy was dominant at -10,while Australian Jason Day tied a tournament record for the lowest 2nd round score for a first-timer at Augusta,shooting an eight under 64.Also of note,Fred Couples,51,is in contention with his 2nd round five under 68.
Weather conditions will be hot and humid for the remainder of the tournament.To the west,storms are taking many forms,from apple-sized hail in Butler County,Kansas to a heavy snow forecast in Flagstaff,Arizona.There may be wind gusts up to 75 mph in the Southern Plains,and a 50,000 acre brush fire raged in North Texas.
Stocks did not rage this week,with the S&P down slightly for the week,pressured by soaring oil prices.Gold closed at a record high 1474.10 an ounce Friday.The S&P futures were down a modest 4.70 Friday evening,and bond interest rate futures also dropped.Shaping trading next week will be the start of earnings season as Alcoa reports on Monday,JP Morgan Chase on Wednesday,Google on Thursday and Bank of America on Friday.
Alcoa(AA),JP Morgan Chase(JPM),Google(GOOG),Bank of America(BAC)
Update:Rory McIlroy continues to decisively top the leader board with a four stroke lead heading into Sunday's final round.Tiger Woods and Fred Couples are still in contention,along with Jason Day and former Masters champion Angel Cabrera of Argentina.Phil Mickelson is a mathematical long shot for his fourth green jacket at the tournament.

I-80 Clogged,Fred Couples Shocked

While I-80 was clogged with holiday skiers seeking the powder snow falling on California's Sierra Nevada range,Fred Couples,51,was smoothly leading a PGA Tour event he has done well at over the past decade,with several top ten finishes to his name.Couples finished the second round of the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades with an eight under 66.Two other Americans,Spencer Levin and J.B. Holmes,shared second with Australian John Senden at -6.
Couples,who plays on the Champions Tour as well,said he was shocked to be in first place,but thought his familiarity with the course gave him an edge.A fan favorite,he's been playing there for several decades now.
The stock market cruised along as well this week,unruffled by spreading unrest in the Arab world,scoring its third straight weekly gain.The S&P closed up 1.04 for the week,while the Dow rose 0.96 and the NASDAQ edged up 0.87.
Next week will see a number of retailers reporting their Q4 earnings.The S&P futures were hopeful about that,gaining 4.60 on Friday evening.The ten year Treasury futures were slightly down in price.