Asian indices are mostly higher, led by semiconductor shares in the region, after Intel said first quarter sales will be at the high end of its forecast. Nippon Steel Corp. will increase the price of steel sold to Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and other electrical appliance makers my more than $96 a metric ton, the Japan Metal Daily reported. Investment banks worldwide earned $25 billion, or about an eighth of their total revenue, from hedge funds, the Financial Times reported. Thyra Zerhusen, manager of the ABN Amro Mid Cap Fund, topped Standard & Poor's/Business Week's 2005 list of the best mutual-fund managers, Bloomberg said. The British Broadcasting Corp. has announced 1,730 job losses in its first round of cut to save $683 million, the Guardian said. MCI Inc. is still considering whether to favor a takeover offer from Verizon Communications over rival Qwest Communications, the Financial Times reported. Eurochambres, a pan-European business organization, said that it found in a study that "it will take the European Union until 2056 to reach US productivity rates" per person employed, and then only if EU productivity growth exceeds "that of the US by .5% per year," the Financial Times reported. The study also said unemployment in the EU is similar to the 70s in the US, the paper also said. 76% of China's reserves were in US dollars last year, down from 82% in 2003, Lehman Brothers said in an analysis yesterday. Posco, South Korea's largest steelmaker, will raise domestic prices for its steel products to a record, to cover rising raw material costs and narrow a price gap with imports from Japan, Bloomberg reported. China's inflation accelerated to 2.9% in the first two months of the year, gathering pace for the first time since July as fuel prices rose, Bloomberg said. Crude oil prices in NY are more likely to fall than rise as US inventories are higher than a year ago and OPEC may refrain from cutting production, a Bloomberg survey showed.
Late Recommendations
- Goldman Sachs: Reiterated Outperform on NSM, INTC, PETC, TAP, TPX, MSFT and MMM.
- Banc of America: Upgraded LPNT to Buy, target $47. Upgraded TRI to Buy, target $51.
- Business Week: Shares of HealthTronics(HTRN), the largest provider of urological services, could almost double to $20 in a year, citing an unidentified hedge fund manager that owns almost 5% of the stock.
Night Trading
Asian Indices are unch. to +.75% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.02%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.26%.
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
Rasmussen Consumer/Investor Daily Indices
CNBC Guest Schedule
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
EIX/.22
RDEN/.55
FLML/.31
GMRK/.13
Splits
None of note
Economic Data
The Trade Balance for January is estimated to rise to -$56.8B versus -.56.4B in December.
BOTTOM LINE: I expect US equities to open modestly higher in the morning on strength in technology shares and further weakness in energy prices. Gains could accelerate later in the day on a decline in long-term interest rates. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into tomorrow.
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