Wednesday Watch

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
ANN/.65
CKEC/.39
CPWR/.09
DIS/.21

Splits
YHOO 2-for-1

Economic Data
Trade Balance for March estimated at -$43.0B versus -$42.1B in February.
Import Price Index for April estimated +.4% versus +.9% in March.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on CIT and MET. GS reiterated Underperform on SYMC and VRSN. Citi SmithBarney reiterated Buy on CSCO, saying they increased estimates on a strong quarter, strong order growth, upbeat conference call and solid guidance.

Late-Night News
Asian indices are higher on strength in U.S. technology shares and strong regional earnings reports. Goldman Sachs said it expects copper, nickel and aluminum prices to rise by the third quarter because base metal supplies haven't kept pace with expanding demand, Reuters reported. GE may buying Boeing Capital's commercial finance portfolio for about $2 billion, the Financial Times said. Google could be worth close to $50 billion, the Telegraph said, citing Marianne Wolk, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial. Massive Inc. has developed a system to insert and track advertisements in video games, the Wall Street Journal reported. Johnson & Johnson next year will be first in the U.S. to offer artificial spinal disks for the treatment of severe back pain, and Medtronic will follow in 2007, Dow Jones reported. Hewlett-Packard and Dell are embroiled in a price war that has cut profits on PC sales to razor-thin margins, the Wall Street Journal reported. About 90% of Gap's 3,000 contracted factories in 50 countries failed to meet the company's own standards for worker conditions, the Wall Street Journal said. Sony unveiled its first hand-held game player and lowered the price of its PlayStation 2 console as it tries to take a bigger share of the global video-game market. Ford is counting on the gasoline-electric version of its Escape sport-utility vehicle to win new customers, Bloomberg reported. The Bush administration imposed new sanctions on Syria, including a ban on all U.S. exports except food and medicine, citing Syria's continued support for terrorism and actions hindering the U.S. effort in Iraq, Bloomberg reported.

Late-Night Trading
Asian Indices +.50% to +2.0%.
S&P 500 indicated +.03%.
NASDAQ indicated +.04%.

BOTTOM LINE: I expect U.S. stocks to continue to rally from oversold levels tomorrow as Cisco beat 3Q estimates and raised 4Q guidance after the close today. Strength in Asia should help as well. The Portfolio had a very good day today and is now 125% net long.