Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Europe’s carbon-emissions trading program, meant to reduce pollution, is a “failure” as too many permits were given out for free, the UK’s Channel 4 News said, citing European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.
- Express Scripts(ESRX), vying with CVS Corp.(CVS) to buy Caremark RX(CMX), said it improved its offer with an added cash bonus.
- The New York Stock Exchange(NYX) plans to increase its capacity to handle orders by more than 60% to prevent computer slowdowns similar to those that last week forced some brokers to rely on pen and paper to complete transactions.
- 3M(MMM) sued companies including Sony Corp.(SNE), Lenovo Group Inc. and Matsushita Industrial Electric, accusing them of infringing patents for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
- Fremont General(FMT) was ordered to halt making subprime loans that borrowers can’t repay and to correct deficiencies in its commercial real-estate lending.
- Apple Inc.(AAPL) may introduce a new notebook this year that will save data on flash memory chips instead of a hard drive.
- India’s government is planning to charge tax on dividend income earned by individuals.
- The yen erased gains against the euro on speculation European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will raise borrowing costs today and signal higher interest rates are still needed.
- PetroChina Co. and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., the nation’s two biggest oil companies, may double their production of natural gas and crude in Xinjiang by 2010, the province’s governor said. Production by PetroChina and Sinopec may reach the equivalent of 50 million tons of oil a year.

Wall Street Journal:
- Long layovers, missed flights and other travel problems are expected to result from the US moving to daylight-saving time three weeks earlier than usual.
- International Business Machines(IBM) plans to provide free and comprehensive financial advice to its 127,000 US employees.

AP:
- Saudi Arabia may build an oil refinery in the Dominican Republic to expand its access to the US fuel market, citing the Saudi’s embassy spokesman in Washington. A new Caribbean refinery would allow access to the US market, while avoiding environmental impact studies needed to build a refinery there.

London-based Times:
- Procter & Gamble(PG) may team up with private equity firms to pursue acquisitions, citing the CFO.

Seoul Economic Daily:
- South Korea has signed a non-binding agreement with the local government of the Kurdish town of Irbil, located in northern Iraq, to develop about 10 oil fields in the area.

Commercial Times:
- AU Optronics Corp.(AUO) sees signs of “recovery” in the display-panel industry after almost four months of “inventory correction,” citing company Executive VP Hui Hsiung. The recovery may be “V-shaped” if companies continue to carefully control their inventories, Hsiung said.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citgroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (SBUX), target $45.
- Raised (MNST) to Buy, target raised to $60.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +.50% to +1.25% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.21%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.20%.

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
- (ANH)/-.04
- (BWS)/.63
- (CMN)/.14
- (COO)/.54
- (COST)/.66
- (GGC)/-.58
- (HOV)/-.76
- (KFY)/.32
- (MTZ)/.14
- (NSM)/.20
- (NEW)/-.74
- (TTWO)/-.26
- (TECD)/.60
- (URBN)/.21
- (VTS)/1.30
- (WIND)/.11

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 331K versus 338K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 2564K versus 2640K prior.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are higher, boosted by utility and metal 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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