Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Lithium use will rise 4% a year through 2010 as more of the metal is used in rechargeable batteries for cell phones and electric cars made by companies such as Toyota Motor(TM).
- Apple Computer(AAPL) will pay Creative Technology $100 million to end a legal dispute over technology for handheld music devices, including Apple’s iPod.
- Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said he wants to be a member of ImClone Systems’(IMCL) board and that the biotechnology company’s chairman, David M. Kies, shouldn’t be re-elected.

Financial Times:
- McGraw Hill’s Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Corp. and Morningstar Inc. are among ratings companies beginning to develop credit and risk ratings on hedge funds and their managers.
- Las Vegas Sands(LVS) is spending $100 million expanding the capacity of its Macau casino by 50%.

AP:
- George Mason Univ. eliminated the SAT examination and other standardized tests as an admission requirement for some high school seniors.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Smith Barney:
- Reiterated Buy on (DELL), target $25.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -1.25% to -.50% on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.10%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated -.08%.

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
- (FRED)/.09
- (GCO)/.21
- (HRL)/.42
- (JTX)/-.36
- (MCDTA)/.03
- (PDCO)/.32
- (NX)/1.13
- (TTC)/.86
- (WSM)/.23

Upcoming Splits
- (CAJ) 3-for-2

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Durable Goods Orders for July are estimated to fall .5% versus a 2.9% gain in June.
- Durables Ex Transportation for July are estimated to rise .3% versus a 1.1% gain in June.
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 315K versus 312K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 2490K versus 2507K prior.

10:00 am EST
- New Home Sales for July are estimated to fall to 1100K versus 1131K in June.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are lower, weighed down by commodity and technology stocks in the region. I expect US equities to open lower and to rally into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.

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