Thursday, July 29, 2004

Thursday Watch

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
ADPT/.04
AET/1.66
APCC/.19
BZH/4.06
BHI/.31
BMY/.39
CMX/.30
CNXT/.02
COX/.11
XOM/.88
GP/.92
G/.41
IM/.15
IRF/.51
KLAC/.45
LIZ/.43
MGAM/.33
NOC/.75
PTEN/.14
THQI/.11

Splits
None of note.

Economic Data
2Q Employment Cost Index estimated +.9% versus +1.1% in 1Q.
Initial Jobless Claims for last week estimated at 340K versus 339K prior week.
Continuing Claims estimated at 2875K versus 2797K prior.
Help Wanted Index for June estimated at 40 versus 39 in May.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on PFGC, ROH, AFL, MUR, PPL, SBC and NFX. Goldman Sachs reiterated Underperform on ACAI and JDSU.

Late-Night News
Asian indices are mostly lower on weakness in technology shares. Goldman Sachs won approval from the Chinese government to start a local investment banking venture, becoming the first overseas firm allowed to arrange bond and stock sales through a business it controls, the Financial Times reported. Siemens AG, Germany's biggest engineering company, set internal targets to increase U.S. sales by up to $2.5 billion in a 30 months strategy, the Financial Times said. ATI Technologies will increase computer-chip orders at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and United Microelectronics on expectations of sales growth in the second half of this year, the Commercial Times reported. China is willing to risk damage to its economic growth and the failure of the 2008 Beijing Olympics if it needs to take action to prevent Taiwan from declaring its independence, China Daily reported. Time Warner's International Cinemas teamed up with a third partner in China to tap the growing market for movie entertainment, Oriental Morning Post reported. Cooper Companies, which makes surgical instruments, agreed to purchase Ocular Sciences for about $1.2 billion to become the world's third-largest maker of contact lenses, Bloomberg said.

Late-Night Trading
Asian Indices are -1.25% to unch. on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.15%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated -.07%

BOTTOM LINE: I expect U.S. stocks to open modestly lower in the morning on weakness in Asia and anti-business political rhetoric. I continue to believe the major indices are in the midst of an oversold tradable rally. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into tomorrow.

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