Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Wednesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- The US dollar will recover against the euro next year as the world’s biggest economy will prove resilient, said Joe Prendergast at CSFB.
- Users of mobile phones, whose antennae send radio waves into the human brain, are no more likely to get cancer than people who don’t use mobile phones, according to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
- The five permanent members of the UN Security Council narrowed their differences over imposing sanctions on Iran and will now ask their UN ambassadors to hammer out a resolution, the French Foreign Ministry said.
- Yahoo!(YHOO) CEO Terry Semel will reorganize the company into three groups to stem a slide in the stock price and win back users and advertisers lost to Google(GOOG).
- Australia’s economy grew .3% in the third quarter, its slowest pace in three years, as business spending and farm output dropped.
- China wants to get half of its energy needs from “new and alternative” sources by 2050, a Chinese official said, as the nation seeks to diversify from a reliance on coal and crude.

Wall Street Journal:
- The conditions that have spurred this year’s historic surge in mergers and acquisitions will likely continue into next year, citing Piero Novelli, UBS AG’s co-head of global M&A.

Financial Times:
- OAO Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company, will invest $20 billion to become one of the world’s largest oil firms by the end of the decade, citing CEO Bogdanchikov.

AFP:
- Traces of radioactive Polonium-210 were found at London soccer team Arsenal’s stadium during a probe into the death of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko. An unidentified agency spokeswoman was quoted as saying “minute quantities” of the substance that were “barely detectable” were uncovered at Emirates Stadium and that there was no risk to public health.

China Daily:
- Chinese corn prices are surging as production of grain-based fuels including ethanol increases, citing analysts.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.75% to +.50% on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.02%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated -.03%.

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
Conference Calendar
Daily Stock Events
Macro Calls
Rasmussen Consumer/Investor Daily Indices
CNBC Guest Schedule

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (JW/A)/.47
- (KFY)/.31
- (NCS)/1.34
- (OSI)/.32
- (NX)/1.05
- (VTS)/.47

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
10:30 am EST
- Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil build of 500,000 barrels versus a 360,000 barrel drawdown the prior week. Gasoline supplies are expected to rise 956,000 barrels versus a 589,000 barrel decline the prior week. Distillate supplies are estimated to fall 850,000 barrels versus a 1,002,000 barrel decline the prior week. Finally, Refinery Utilization is expected to rise .9% versus a .99% increase the prior week.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by commodity shares in the region. I expect US equities to open modestly lower and to rally into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.

No comments: