Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Wednesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Paul Wolfowitz, President Bush's nominee to lead the World Bank, gained support from European Union nations including the Netherlands and Italy.
- The US 10-year T-note is rising in Asia for the first day in four on optimism a US government report on consumer prices tomorrow will ease concern inflation in quickening.
- Japanese exports rose at the slowest pace in more than a year in February as shipments of electronic equipment slumped, signaling the nation may not be able to rely on overseas demand to drive a recovery from recession.
- Crude oil is falling for a second day in NY on concern the Fed will accelerated the pace of US interest rate increases, slowing global economic growth and demand for fuel.
- The Fed's two-edged message -- that while inflation risks are rising, it needn't yet step up the pace of interest rate increases -- may reflect disagreements among policy makers that will be clarified in coming weeks, economists and former Fed officials said.

The NY Times:
- Borders Group, Piney Bowes and other companies are offering special discounts and employee programs as a way to attract older workers.

Financial Times:
- Hedge fund managers worldwide earned as much as $45 billion more than US mutual funds.

London-based Times:
- Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc, a British hotelier, plans to sell the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles for as much as $500 million.

Beijing Morning Post:
- China's film industry will grow 140% and be worth $12 billion by 2007, up from $5 billion in 2004.

China Business News:
- GE Energy plans to spend about $100 million to acquire Shanghai-based Xinhua Control Engineering Co. to gain access to the Chinese company's technology.

Korea Economic Daily:
- BHP Billiton is asking Japanese steelmakers to pay double for its iron ore this year, more than Brazil's Cia. Vale do Rio Doce's 71.5% increase.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Goldman Sachs:
- Reiterated Outperform on AMGN.
- Reiterated Attractive view of Hospital sector.

Banc of America:
- Reiterated Sell on BDY, target $8.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -1.25% to unch. on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.09%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated -.27%.

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/EPS Estimate
DRI/.51
FINL/.56
GME/.69
MLS/.49

Splits
ATVI 4-for-3
BZH 3-for-1
IIVI 2-for-1

Economic Releases
8:30 EST:
- The Consumer Price Index for February is estimated to rise .3% versus a .1% gain in January.
- The CPI Ex Food & Energy for February is estimated to rise .2% versus a .2% increase in January.

10:00 EST:
- Existing Home Sales for February are estimated to fall to 6.7M versus 6.8M in January.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower as commodity and exporter shares in the region decline on worries over slowing global demand. I expect US equities to open modestly lower in the morning on a slightly higher-than-expected CPI report. A significantly higher-than-expected report would lead to a larger morning decline. Again, I will key on the bond market for the direction of equities. I plan to increase market exposure into any morning losses using tight stops. The Portfolio is 25% net long heading into tomorrow.

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