Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Wednesday Watch

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
BSC/2.23
BBY/.33
JBL/.26
KBH/2.10

Splits
APPB 3-for-2
DVA 3-for-2
HSY 2-for-1

Economic Data
Housing Starts for May estimated at 1950K versus 1969K in April.
Building Permits for May estimated at 1970K versus 2006K in April.
Industrial Production for May estimated +.8% versus +.8% in April.
Capacity Utilization for May estimated at 77.5% versus 76.9% in April.
Fed's Beige Book

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on IGT, SLB, AMGN, CVD and DNA.

Late-Night News
Asian indices are higher on strength in Japan as investor optimism increased following a fall in U.S. interest rates. China's prices are under control and the country is capable of avoiding "severe" inflation, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing a report by the National Bureau of Statistics. IBM and Microsoft have given support to moves to compel companies to count stock options as expenses that reduce earnings, the Financial Times reported. Iran plans to start an oil-trading market for OPEC and Middle-East producers, the Guardian reported. Nortel and Nokia may get an order worth $881 million form Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., the Business Line reported. Mandalay Resort Group's board accepted MGM Mirage's $71/share takeover bid, the Wall Street Journal reported. K2 will pay about $200 million for three ski brands in a push to compete with large apparel companies like Nike and Adidas, the Wall Street Journal reported. China's central bank said it won't yield to pressure from trading partners to stop fixing the value of the yuan to the dollar, Bloomberg reported.

Late-Night Trading
Asian Indices -.50% to +1.50% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.07%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.07%.

BOTTOM LINE: I expect U.S. stocks to open modestly higher tomorrow on a better-than-expected industrial production report, strength in Asia and strong corporate earnings reports. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into tomorrow.

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