Friday, October 28, 2005

Friday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Japan’s consumer prices fell in September for a fourth month, suggesting more than seven years of deflation lingers and the central bank won’t end its policy of flooding the economy with cash anytime soon.
- Japan’s households spent less for the fourth month in five in September, signaling that the pace of consumer spending in the world’s second-largest economy may slow in the third quarter of the year.
- Japan’s industrial production rose less than expected as rising fuel prices heightened concern among manufacturers that export demand by slow, signaling the pace of growth in the world’s second-largest economy may ebb.
- Microsoft threatened to pull its Windows operating system from South Korea if antitrust regulators order the company to remove programming for instant message and movie player services.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Goldman Sachs:
- Reiterated Outperform on LLL, CRL, KLAC, IMCL, CFC, GP and HMA.
- Reiterated Underperform on UST, MRO, CAN, UHS and CTL.

Business Week:
- The shares of Advanta Corp.(ADVNA), the No. 3 issuer of credit cards to small businesses, may rise as much as 27% because it may be a takeover target.
- The shares of USG Corp.(USG), the No. 1 maker of gypsum wallboard, may decline on asbestos liabilities.
- Southwest Airlines may rise to $22 a share, or 42%, within a year because it has used financial instruments known as hedges to limit the effect of price variations on some of its fuel through 2009.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -1.50% to -.50% on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.07%.
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
APC/2.89
ADM/.33
AVP/.29
BHI/.67
BMY/.33
CHKP/.31
CVX/1.90
COCO/.07
OSTK/-.51

Upcoming Splits
- GPN 2-for-1

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Advance 3Q GDP is estimated to rise 3.6% versus a 3.3% gain in 2Q.
- Advance 3Q GDP Price Index is estimated to rise 2.8% versus a 2.6% rise in 2Q.
- Advance 3Q Personal Consumption is estimated to rise 3.3% versus a 3.4% gain in 2Q.
- Advance 3Q Employment Cost Index is estimated to rise .8% versus a .7% gain in 2Q.

9:45 am EST
- Final Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence for October is estimated to rise to 76.0 from a prior estimate of 75.4.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are lower on worries over slowing growth in the US and Japan. I expect US equities to open lower and to rise modestly later in the day. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.

No comments: