Monday Watch

Weekend Headlines
Bloomberg:
- The euro had its biggest weekly decline in three months as traders speculated the European Central Bank will slow the pace of its interest-rate increases, after lifting borrowing costs last week for the sixth time in a year.
- OPEC is considering its second production cut in three months to prevent a price drop early next year. “They are stuck between the price, which is pretty good, and this issue about stockpiles, which they find too high and are still building,” said Frederic Lasserre, head of commodities economic research at Societe Generale SA in Paris. Global oil consumption will decline 2 million bpd in the second quarter from the first, according to the IEA.
- The UK government will introduce new standards in computer games to help protect children from Internet pedophiles, Home Secretary John Reid said.
- BHP Billiton(BHP) may accept a 13% cut in hard coking coal prices form April as supplies increase and steelmakers slow the pace of capacity expansion.
- Libya’s oil reserves, the largest in Africa, will increase by 7.6 billion barrels, or about 20%, in five years, as a result of stepped up exploration and better maintenance of existing oilfields, a Libyan oil official said.

Wall Street Journal:
- News Corp.’s(NWS) Fox, Viacom Inc.(VIA), CBS Corp.(CBS) and General Electric’s(GE) NBC Universal are in talks to create a video Web site to compete with Google’s(GOOG) YouTube.
- Goldman Sachs Group(GS) plans to hire 17 traders from Amaranth Advisors, the hedge fund that collapsed in September with more than $6.6 billion of losses.
- Exxon Mobil(XOM) gained approval to join Vietnam Oil & Gas, known as PetroVietnam, to explore for oil and gas in three offshore areas.

NY Times:
- Iraqi officials are close to a deal on a national oil law that would give the central government the power to distribute current and future oil reserves to regions based on their population. The measure could help solve a highly divisive issue that has consistently blocked efforts to reconcile the country’s feuding ethnic and sectarian factions.
- United Parcel Service(UPS) Chairman and CEO Michael Eskew said the delivery service may enjoy its biggest Christmas season ever, because Thanksgiving was early, leading to more shopping days before the holiday.
- Microsoft(MSFT) has turned its attention to new online services to boost the unit after failing to attract consumers with such software “wizardry” as the company’s three-dimensional map service.
- Hundreds of Iraqis have lobbied Prime Minister Nuri al-Malifi’s office to be the executioner for former dictator Saddam Hussein, whose death sentence is still being reviewed.
- To regain ground in an intensifying turf war, Verizon Communications(VZ) is spending $20 billion nationwide to build a state-of-the-art fiber optic network that can carry not just four phone lines and speedy broadband connections, but also hundreds of television channels per household.
- The SEC will propose Sarbanes-Oxley revisions for small businesses on Dec. 13.

Philadelphia Inquirer:
- Pinnacle Entertainment(PNK) is talking to Colony Capital about buying one of its Atlantic City resorts.

Star-Ledger of Newark:
- About 88% of New Jersey businesses expect to report profit increases of at least 5% in 2007, citing its own poll of 60 companies in the state.

Washington Post:
- Congress passed an overhaul of the rules governing the US fishing industry designed to prevent depletion of ocean fisheries.

San Francisco Chronicle:
- Incoming US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her top priority is to immediately end the war in Iraq.

AP:
- US Representative William Jefferson of Louisiana, the target of a federal bribery probe, defeated his Democratic opponent in a run-off election yesterday. The FBI earlier this year found $90,000 in what it called bribe money in Jefferson’s freezer.

Investment Dealer’s Digest:
- The new Goldman Sachs(GS) index, Absolute Return Tracker, or ART, is a beta product. It uses an algorithm and simulates investments in five assets classes: equities, debt, commodities, fixed income and volatility. The index will have 6% volatility.

Times:
- More than 20 hedge funds a year will probably collapse after the demise of Amaranth Advisors LLC in September. The number of failures, equating to an estimated .3% of the 8,000 hedge funds worldwide, is quite small and investors still have confidence in hedge funds.

Sunday Telegraph:
- Smith & Nephew Plc, Europe’s biggest maker of orthopedic products, will this week offer to buy US competitor Biomet(BMET) for more than $9.8 billion.

Sunday Morning Post:
- China has banned a biography of Yao Lifa, who supports grass-roots democracy, two months after it was published, citing Xia Bei, the editor of the book.

Yomiuri:
- Japan will extend by two years tax reductions for purchases of new gasoline-electric hybrid cars, citing a decision by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s tax panel.

Asahi:
- Hitachi Ltd., Japan’s second-biggest plasma television maker, may double its forecast for plasma TV shipments to 1.6 million units for the year ending March 31, 2008.

Xinhua News Agency:
- China will give priority to reining in investment growth and to boosting domestic consumption next year. The Chinese government also plans to adjust the economic structure by cutting energy consumption and pollution.

Weekend Recommendations
Barron's:
- Made positive comments on (MEL), (MDT), (NT), (ACL) and (INTU).
- Made negative comments on (GHS).

Citigroup:
- Intel(INTC) is positioned to meet the mid-point of their guidance with inventories lower.

Night Trading
Asian indices are unch. to +.75% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.06%
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.11%.

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Rasmussen Consumer/Investor Daily Indices
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Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
- (ALOG)/.10
- (MTN)/-.86
- (OHI)/.17

Upcoming Splits
- (EMR) 2-for-1
- (EZPW) 3-for-1
- (RES) 3-for-2

Economic Releases
10:00 am EST
- Wholesale Inventories for October are estimated to rise .6% versus a .9% gain in September.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian Indices are higher, boosted by automaker and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the week.