Monday, April 17, 2006

Tuesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Berkshire Hathaway(BRK/A) agreed to buy Russell Corp.(RML) for almost $600 million in cash to add to its apparel businesses.
- Calpine Corp. said it will take more than $7 billion in charges to reduce the value of its assets as it restructures under bankruptcy protection.
- Lenovo Group Ltd., China’s largest PC maker, will buy $1.2 billion of Microsoft’s Windows software over the next year as part of efforts to curb piracy of the world’s most popular operating system software.

Financial Times:
- Amazon.com(AMZN) is selling grocery products and will offer delivery to become the leading one-stop Internet site in the US, citing the company.
- Goldman Sachs(GS) CEO Paulson warned executives to stop using the firm’s money to back unsolicited bids because they risk damaging relationships with corporate clients.

London-based Times:
- Google(GOOG) may today say it will start an online travel Web site to rival Expedia(EXPE) and Sabre Holdings’(TSG) Travelocity.com.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Raymond James:
- Raised CACI to Outperform, target $74.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.50% to +.50% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.07%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.06%.

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
- (ALL)/1.66
- (AMGN)/.89
- (ASO)/.51
- (BSX)/.46
- (BCR)/.79
- (CYMI)/.42
- (DJ)/.15
- (DHI)/1.11
- (RE)/3.06
- (FITB)/.64
- (FCX)/.88
- (GILD)/.53
- (IBM)/1.05
- (JNJ)/.98
- (KEY)/.69
- (LLTC)/.38
- (MAT)/.00
- (MEL)/.49
- (MER)/.32
- (MOT)/.29
- (BTU)/.44
- (STX)/.52
- (STT)/.77
- (TER)/.20
- (TXN)/.32
- (UNH)/.64
- (USB)/.62
- (WM)/.90
- (WFC)/1.20
- (YHOO)/.11

Upcoming Splits
- (CB) 2-for-1

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- The Producer Price Index for March is estimated to rise .4% versus a 1.4% decline in February.
- The PPI Ex Food & Energy for March is estimated to rise .2% versus a .3% rise in February.
- Housing Starts for March are estimated to fall to 2030K versus 2120K in February.
- Building Permits for March are estimated to fall to 2100K versus 2179K in February.

2:00 pm EST
- Minutes of March. 28th FOMC Meeting.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by commodity and financial stocks in the region. I expect US equities to open modestly higher and to trade modestly lower into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 25% net long heading into the day.

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