Asian indices are mostly lower as gains in Australia are more than offset by losses in Korea and Hong Kong. InterContinental Hotels Group Plc may sell $1.9 billion worth of UK hotel assets to Lehman Brothers Holdings, the London-based Times said. US venture capitalists raised $17.6 billion from investors in 2004, exceeding the combined amount raised in the previous two years, the Financial Times said. China will add 43 million metric tons of new steel production capacity this year, the Shanghai Securities News reported. Motorola bought a stake in researcher T3G Technologies to help the company commercialize China's high-speed third-generation wireless service, the Beijing Times reported. Libya will offer 40 oil permits in March to attract companies that didn't receive licenses in last week's oil exploration auction, the Financial Times said. Time Warner's Warner Bros. International Cinemas has teamed up with a fourth partner in China to tap the growing market for movie entertainment, Xinhua News Agency said. General Motors, which may be forced to buy the 90% of Fiat Auto it doesn't already own, will settle with Fiat SpA to avoid a legal fight that would hurt both auto companies, Bloomberg reported. A court-appointed law professor filed a plan that would allow investors who lost money due to biased Wall Street research to share a $433 million settlement early next year, Bloomberg said. Vietnam should allow political and religious figures to express their views, the US State Department said after Vietnam announced an amnesty for prisoners, Bloomberg reported. Citigroup CEO Prince is withdrawing from insurance underwriting, seven years after his predecessor, Sanford Weill, said it was crucial to creating the world's largest financial-services firm, Bloomberg said. The Pentagon plans to assign as many as 10,000 US combat troops to Iraqi military units to serve as instructors and advisers in an effort to speed up and improve their training, said Lieutenant General Petraeus, the top US commander training Iraqi troops. Iraq plans to invest $3 billion in its oil industry this year to boost production by as much as 45% to 2.9 million barrels a day by Dec. 31, Al-Hayat reported. China may ease the yuan's fixed-exchange rate to the dollar by the end of June and manage the currency against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, Lehman Brothers' senior economist said.
Late Recommendations
Goldman Sachs: Reiterated Outperform on WAG, DO, RIG and CL. Reiterated Underperform on ATI, AVB and CVH.
Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.75% to unch. on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.05%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated -.03%.
Morning Preview
US AM Market Call
NASDAQ 100 Pre-Market Indicator/Heat Map
Pre-market Commentary
Before the Bell CNBC Video(bottom right)
Asian Indices
European Indices
Top 20 Business Stories
In Play
Bond Ticker
Analyst Actions
Macro Calls
CNBC Guest Schedule
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
AVP/.61
BJS/.55
BSX/.48
CME/1.69
CB/1.97
EMR/.69
GP/.49
GOOG/.77
HCA/.66
IR/1.22
LLL/1.01
MXIM/.41
MBI/1.34
MGG/.44
MNST/.19
OSI/.57
RCL/-.03
THQI/1.15
TYC/.42
YUM/.72
Splits
None of note.
Economic Data
-Construction Spending for December is estimated to rise .5% versus a .4% decline in November.
-ISM Manufacturing for January is estimated to fall to 57.0 versus a reading of 57.3 in December.
-ISM Prices Paid for January is estimated to fall to 71.5 versus a reading of 72.0 in December.
-Total Vehicle Sales for January are estimated to fall to 16.2M versus sales of 18.4M in December.
-Domestic Vehicle Sales for January are estimated to fall to 13.1M versus sales of 14.7M in December.
BOTTOM LINE: I expect US equities to open mixed-to-lower on worries over slowing growth. However, stocks may rise later in the day on falling energy prices, more optimism, short-covering, declining long-term interest rates and strong earnings reports. The Portfolio is 125% net long heading into tomorrow.
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