Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Homes in Unterhaching, a German town of 22,000 south of Munich, will be warmed by hot water piped from 3,300 meters underground starting in May. They’re at the leading edge of a shift toward geothermal power generation that may swell Germany’s capacity 1,000-fold within a decade.
- Crude oil is falling another .14/bbl. in NY after yesterday plunging the most in 20 months as mild US weather curbed near-record speculation by investment funds.
- US Senator Charles Grassley said a balanced US budget by 2012 is “very possible.”
- Copper futures in Shanghai fell the maximum daily limit of 4% to a six-month low on diminishing speculation by investment funds as stockpiles rise.

Wall Street Journal:
- Gains in the yuan are eroding profit margins at an increasing number of Chinese exporters, citing local business executives.

Financial Times:
- Tribune Co.(TRB) bidders interested in buying the company, which owns media outlets and the Chicago Cubs, face a deadline of mid-January to make final offers.

Financial Express:
- Verizon Communications(VZ) may enter the race to acquire Indian wireless operator Hutchison Essar Ltd.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.75% to +.75% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.04%.
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
Conference Calendar
Daily Stock Events
Macro Calls
Rasmussen Consumer/Investor Daily Indices
CNBC Guest Schedule

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (AYI)/.64
- (ARRO)/.34
- (STZ)/.60
- (LI)/.57
- (MON)/.10
- (TXI)/.55
- (GPN)/.44
- (RI)/.28
- (SGR)/.19

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 320K versus 317K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 2500K versus 2530K prior.

10:00 am EST
- Factory Orders for November are estimated to rise 1.3% versus a -4.7% decline in October.
- ISM Non-Manufacturing for December is estimated to fall to 57.0 versus a reading of 58.9 in November.
- Pending Home Sales for November are estimated to rise .8% versus a -1.7% decline in October.

10:30 am EST
- Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil drawdown of -2,000,000 barrels versus an -8,132,000 barrel decline the prior week. Gasoline supplies are expected to rise by 1,500,000 barrels versus a 2,938,000 barrel rise the prior week. Distillate inventories are estimated to rise by 850,000 barrels versus a 472,000 barrel increase the prior week. Finally, Refinery Utilization is expected to rise .2% versus a .23% increase the prior week.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mixed as gains in automakers are offsetting losses in commodity shares in the region. I expect US equities to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.

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