Friday, January 21, 2005

Friday Watch

Late-Night News
Asian indices are mixed as strength in China is being offset by weakness in Japan. Intel Corp. pared its list of customers in Taiwan after changing its organizational structure to focus on its biggest computer clients on the island, the Commercial Times reported. EBay's China unit, Ebay Eachnet, had transactions valued at 740 million yuan in the fourth quarter, compared with 690 million in the previous three months, the China Daily reported. Archipelago Holdings, which operates the Archipelago Exchange stock-trading network, may buy Reuters Group Plc's Instinet Group for as much as $3 billion, the Financial Times said. America West Airlines will stop operating nonstop flights in three transcontinental markets, the Wall Street Journal reported. Motorola will introduce more versions of its Razr-brand mobile phone handsets, including a candy bar-shaped model later this year, Business Week reported. Mobile-phone users in China sent 217.7 billion text messages last year, up 59% from 2003, Xinhua News Agency reported. F5 Networks CEO McAdam told CNBC that his company's revenue is outpacing market growth as the maker of Internet traffic-management products takes business from competitors, Bloomberg reported. Wipro Ltd., India's third-largest software services exporter, said fiscal third-quarter profit rose 61% as it added new clients, Bloomberg said. Crude oil futures are rising for the first time in four days amid expectations colder weather in the US Northeast will raise demand for heating fuel, Bloomberg reported. Wall Street's biggest bond-trading firms expect the 10-year T-Note's yield to rise this year to 5%, Bloomberg reported. Two years after introducing the "Clear Skies" legislation, only to see it languish in Congress, President Bush is preparing to issue executive orders to implement many of the changes by March, Bloomberg reported.

Late Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on STZ, BC, ACS, KLAC and Underperform on ELX, T. Shares of Arbitron Inc.(ARB), which compiles radio ratings for broadcasters, may rise on speculation the company could become the target of a takeover, Business Week reported. Schlumberger Ltd.'s(SLB) stock may benefit from increased spending on oil exploration, Business Week reported.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.50%. to +1.0% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.06%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.10%.

Morning Preview
US AM Market Call
Pre-market Commentary
Before the Bell Video(bottom right)
NASDAQ 100 Pre-Market Heatmap
Asian Indices
European Indices
Top 20 Business Stories
In Play
Bond Ticker
Analyst Actions
Macro Calls
CNBC Guest Schedule

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
AT/.83
FO/1.21
GE//.49
WY/1.15

Splits
None of note.

Economic Data
Preliminary Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence for January estimated at 97.5 versus 97.1 in December.

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US equities to open mixed-to-higher in the morning on a bounce after today's sell-off. However, stocks will likely weaken later in the day on continuing worries over slowing global growth, terrorism and earnings. The Portfolio is 25% net long heading into tomorrow.

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