Friday, November 05, 2004

Friday Watch

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
BRK/A/748.50
BZH/5.49

Splits
None of note.

Economic Data
Unemployment Rate for October is estimated at 5.4% versus 5.4% in September.
Average Hourly Earnings for October are estimated to rise .3% versus a .2% increase in September.
Change in Non-farm Payrolls for October is estimated at 175K versus 96K in September.
Change in Manufacturing Payrolls for October is estimated at 9K versus -18K in September.
Average Weekly Hours for October is estimated at 33.8 versus 33.8 in September.
Consumer Credit for September is estimated at $7.0B versus -$2.4B in August.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on COH, DVP, SRE and Underperform on RA, NFS, NFB. Xerox(XRX) is expected to see its shares rise, boosted by growing demand for its new products, Business Week reported.

Late-Night News
Asian indices are higher on optimism from exporters in the region and falling oil prices. China, which raised interest rates for the first time in nine years on Oct. 28, signaled its readiness to allow its pegged currency to trade more freely, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported. U.S. aircraft carried out five attacks against suspected insurgent positions in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, Agence France-Presse said. Verizon Wireless agreed to buy NextWave Telecom's airwave licenses for $3 billion, Bloomberg reported. The re-election of U.S. President Bush will lead to better U.S.-China ties, the China Daily said. Crude oil futures may continue to fall on speculation that rising production will more than offset demand in coming months, a Bloomberg survey showed. As many as 500 lawyers who claim their clients were either hurt or killed after taking Merck's Vioxx drug intend to meet in Las Vegas Nov. 11 to discuss legal strategy, the NY Times reported.

Late-Night Trading
Asian Indices are unch. to +1.0% on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.10%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated unch.

BOTTOM LINE: I expect U.S. equities to open modestly higher in the morning on a better-than-expected jobs report. The uncertainty over the election likely held back job gains to an extent, however the diminishing effects from the hurricanes probably spurred job creation. The Portfolio is 125% net long heading into tomorrow. Click here to see the Presidential Election exit polls.

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