Thursday, April 06, 2006

Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Nissan Motor, two years after rushing 200 engineers from Japan to fix problems at its newest US auto plant, says it has redoubled efforts to improve vehicle quality.
- The US House approved a measure aimed at banning multimillion-dollar contributions by wealthy supporters to independent political groups.
- City Council members approved a package of land use changes for the NY Yankees to build a new $800 million stadium in the South Bronx, across the street from where they’ve played baseball since 1923.
- Three New Jersey boys planning a “Columbine-like massacre” with a list of 25 students and teachers they were targeting have been locked up in Camden County Detention Center.

Wall Street Journal Asia:
- China’s three biggest personal computer makers have agreed to ship their products with Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

Reuters:
- Boeing(BA), Microsoft Corp.(MSFT), Motorola(MOT) and other US companies may sell $15 billion of products to China this month.

Financial Times:
- Prudential Plc’s former CEO Bloomer will join US hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management LP as an adviser.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
- None of note

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +.25% to +1.0% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.02%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated -.01%.

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
- (AM)/.46
- (CKR)/.18
- (STZ)/.36
- (PIR)/.01
- (RAD)/.02
- (SOSA)/.16
- (TEX)/.81

Upcoming Splits
- (NVDA) 2-for-1
- (RY) 2-for-1

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 305K versus 302K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated at 2483K versus 2483K prior.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are higher, boosted by exporting stocks in the region after a US report showed a strong service sector. I expect US equities to open modestly higher and to maintain gains throughout the day. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.

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