Sunday, April 11, 2004

Monday Watch

Earnings Announcements
Company/Estimate
GCI/1.00
NYT/.36
NVLS/.10
TSCO/.05
SMSC/.16
MDC/1.51
IFIN/.45

Splits
FOSL 3-for-2

Economic Data
None of note.

Weekend Recommendations
Forbes on Fox had guests that were mixed on SU and BHP. Bulls and Bears had guests that were positive on SIMG, GS, IDTI, DIS, MECA and mixed on SLM, AA, GG and IACI. Cashin' In had guests that were positive on NUS, IJS, LLTC, UPL, SIRI, EBAY, mixed on FRED and negative on TYC. Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street had guests that were positive on EWJ, ACGL, HDI, ISLE, MRX, ZBRA, AAPL, SUNW, AMTD, G, APA and ATH. Wall St. Week w/Fortune had guests that were positive on MCD, TYC, IPG, BHI, BJS, SLB, SM, SPN and BLD. Business Week says NOK's recent shortfall is an anomaly in the booming cell-phone market. Business Week says improving ad market will help VIA. Finally, Business Week has a negative article on MSFT, saying slowing sales, late products and antitrust suits continue to plague the stock. Money manager's told Barron's they were positive on stocks and reducing cash, favorites include AL, WNC, DOW, HPQ, TYC and CHB. Barron's had positive columns on BIIB and COMS. Barron's had a negative article on ODSY. Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on PH and FD. GS says gulf-coast gaming trends better-than-expected. GS reiterated Underperform on MAY. GS views DELL as one of most attractive technology opportunities, likes EMC and LXK too.

Weekend News
Electronic News has an interesting article on recent research from In-Stat/MDR on the broadband market. France may sell about 100 tons of its central bank's gold reserves in the next few months, Le Parisien reported. Sony's motion-picture unit bought the rights to make a movie of the book written by former White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke, the NY Times reported. Democrats and a few Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives favor an increase in U.S. fuel taxes that is opposed by President Bush, the Washington Post reported. Public-safety officials in the U.S. expect a difficult wildfire season later this year because of drought, higher temperatures and millions of dead trees, the LA Times reported. Soaring plywood prices may crimp future profits of homebuilders, the NT Times reported. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to give President Bush a written commitment next week that Israel will withdraw from the Gaza Strip, Agence France-Presse said. Samsung, Honda and Toyota are among foreign companies that are spending billions of dollars to build or expand U.S. operations, helping local economies, the NY Times reported. Travelers from Asia's growing middle class are expected to boost tourism revenue around the world by 600% within 10 years, Newsweek reported. The U.S. economy, with help from China, is spurring the first simultaneous acceleration of growth in Europe and Asia in 20 years, Bloomberg reported.

Late-Night Trading
Asian indices are unch. to +2.00% on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.12%.
NASDAQ indicated -.07%.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week. I expect U.S. stocks to rise tomorrow as the situation in Iraq improved slightly and no terrorist attacks occurred over the religious holidays. I will look to add market exposure on any unexpected weakness in the morning.

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