Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Wednesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Man Group Plc, the world's largest publicly traded hedge fund manager, may report its smallest full-year earnings increase since 2000 after a decline in performance-related fees.

Wall Street Journal:
- The number of US millionaire households rose 21% last year, reaching an all-time record 7.5 million due to gains in stocks, real estate and other investments.

Financial Times:
- American International Group attorneys are examining whether the world's largest insurer can lay claim to $16 billion worth of company stock owned by Starr International.

Commercial Times:
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing may see its wafer shipments rise 17% in the third quarter form the second quarter, more than the originally expected 15%.

Seoul Economic Daily:
- Samsung Electronics may invest $15 billion in its non-memory chip business.

Shanghai Daily:
- DuPont plans to more than double its investment in China by 2010.

China Daily:
- China may face more "safeguard" measures imposed by other members of the World Trade Organization to limit imports of Chinese textiles.

Kyodo News:
- China issued a strong warning to the North Korean government not to test a nuclear weapon.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Goldman Sachs:
- Reiterated Outperform on TAP.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -1.0% to unch. on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.23%.
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)
Global Commentary
Asian Indices
European Indices
Top 20 Business Stories
In Play
Bond Ticker
Daily Stock Events
Macro Calls
Rasmussen Consumer/Investor Daily Indices
CNBC Guest Schedule

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
CWTR/.11
DLTR/.26
MIK/.29
WIND/.02

Splits
UGI 2-for-1

Economic Releases
8:30 EST
- Durable Goods Orders for April are estimated to rise 1.3% versus a 2.3% decline in March.
- Durables Ex Transportation for April are estimated to rise 1.0% versus a .5% decline in March.

10:00 EST
- New Home Sales for April are estimated to fall to 1328K versus 1431K in March.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are lower amid worries over US Fed comments and rising energy prices. I expect US equities to open modestly lower. However, stocks may gain later in the day on better-than-expected economic reports, short-covering and lower energy prices. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.

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