BETWEEN THE HEDGES: Tuesday Watch

Monday, April 16, 2007

Tuesday Watch

Posted by Gary .....at 8:28 PM

Late-Night Headlines

Bloomberg:

- The world’s largest shopping center looks almost deserted on a recent afternoon. While schoolchildren ride the sidewinder and roller coaster, there are few shoppers and fewer tenants at South China Mall in central Dongguan, a city of 6 million north of Hong Kong. “They did this mall all wrong,” says Stephen Liu, a Hong Kong businessman visiting clients in Dongguan who came by to see the place for himself. “They never found out if there were enough people to fill it. All the Chinese in this town are factory workers, they can’t afford to shop here.”

- Australian investment funds, flush with record inflows of cash, are increasing their overseas stock holdings as local shares become costlier.

- Senator Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the collapse of hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC suggests the need for more Congressional oversight of natural-gas markets regulation.

- The rising number of foreclosures among subprime mortgage borrowers would be slowed if banks postpone increases in interest rates written into adjustable-rate loans or offer fixed-rate loans, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said today.

- Obese teens who undergo stomach surgery to promote weight loss will be the focus of a government-funded study to determine whether the procedure is appropriate.

- Valero Energy(VLO), the largest US refiner, said it is gearing up to resume production at its “fire-damaged” refinery near Sunray, Texas. A crude unit and reformer are running again and the refinery is processing crude, Bill Day, a spokesman for the San Antonio-based company, said today. “We are still in the process of re-commissioning the refinery, and this process may take several days, but we still expect to achieve 85,000 barrels per day of throughput by the end of this month,” Day said. Unusually low refinery output across the country has been the main reason for the recent surge in gas prices.

- Crude oil was little changed in NY after stalling yesterday on signs increased refinery production will slow a decline in US fuel stockpiles.

Wall Street Journal:

- Intelsat Ltd., the world’s largest commercial satellite operator, may be sold by its private equity owners. Apollo Management, MDP Global Investors Ltd., Apax Partners and Permira Advisers may seek an equity value of up to $6 billion for the company they bought in August 2004 for $3 billion.

Financial Times:

- The number of foreign students applying to US graduate schools has increased for a second consecutive year, rising 8%, citing a survey by the Council of Graduate Schools. The current increase is mostly driven by a rise in applicants from India and China.

Calgary Herald:

- A $353.2 million biodiesel plant backed by buyout firms the Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings LLC will be built near Innisfail, Alberta.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations

Citigroup:

- Reiterated Buy on (UNM), raised target to $30.

- Google(GOOG) continued to gain query share in March. Share increased 20 basis points month-over-month to a record high 48.3% of the US market. This market share gain continues a very consistent trend for Google(GOOG) and highlights a potential gating factor to Yahoo!’s(YHOO) attempts to gain search revenue share.

- Reiterated Buy on (MCO), raised target to $80.

Night Trading

Asian Indices are -.25% to +.25% on average.

S&P 500 indicated -.08%.

NASDAQ 100 indicated -.05%.

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