Tuesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- BHP Billiton(BHP), the world’s biggest mining company, said third-quarter copper, iron ore and nickel output rose. Copper output surged 22%, iron ore output gained 8% and nickel production rose 14%.
- Former Apple Inc.(AAPL) CFO Fred Anderson agreed to pay $2.5 million to resolve SEC claims over backdated stock option grants to Apple executives approved by CEO Jobs.
- North Korea is an “enormous” threat to Japan and must be closely watched to see that it fulfills its pledge to shut down its nuclear weapons program, Japanese national security adviser Yuriko Koike said.
- Valero Energy(VLO), the largest US oil refiner, said it’s cutting gasoline output 71% at its St. Charles refinery in Norco, Louisiana, after a “mechanical failure” idled the plant’s fluid catalytic cracking unit. The plant will lose 60,000 barrels a day of gasoline production. The “outage” is expected to last 14 days.
- Australia’s consumer prices rose less than expected in the first quarter, sending the currency tumbling as traders reduced bets the central bank will increase interest rates next week.

Wall Street Journal:
- China is set to become the world’s top greenhouse gasses emitter this year, surpassing the US, citing the International Energy Agency. The IEA, which advises developed countries on energy policy, had previously forecast China to surpass the US by 2010. China’s growing carbon-dioxide emissions are expected to exceed any reductions from Europe, the US and Japan. If left unchecked, its emissions are forecast to double that of all the member countries in the OECD, which includes Europe, the US, Canada, South Korea and Japan.

AP:
- US Representative Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat running for president, will tomorrow start impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney.

Financial Times:
- A majority of companies in the UK, Australia, US, France and Germany reported experiencing leaks of sensitive data during the last 12 months, citing a survey by Datamonitor Plc and McAfee Inc.
- The leading 25 hedge fund managers together earned $15 billion, citing an annual industry survey by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine. Three managers – Renaissance Technologies’ James Simons, Citadel Investment Group’s Ken Griffin and ESL Investments’ Eddie Lampert – earned in excess of $1 billion.
- JetBlue Airways Corp.(JBLU) may introduce an in-flight text messaging service to boost revenue, citing CEO David Neeleman.
- Russia’s sustained financial growth over the past seven years, fuelled mostly by credit from foreign markets, is nearing its limits, citing Barclays Capital Chairman Hans-Joerg Rudloff. The Russian market’s current growth is not “sustainable” and the “boom” will come to a “painful end in the near future,” Rudloff said at the Russian Economic Forum in London.

Xinhua News Agency:
- China’s President Hu Jintao and other senior officials called for Web sites to produce “healthy” Internet material to promote social stability. China aims to foster a “healthy online culture” and prevent “decadent” material from being disseminated over the Internet.

Hong Kong Economic Journal:
- China Life Insurance Co. plans to sell a stake of as much s 19.9% to Citigroup(C).

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Upgraded (SNDK) to Buy, target $52.
- Reiterated Buy on (ESRX), target raised to $110.

CSFB:
- Reiterated Buy on (ESRX), target raised to $106.

Morgan Stanley:
- Reiterated Overweight on (TGT), target $64.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.50% to unch. on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.02%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.16%.

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
- (ACE)/1.76
- (AFL)/.79
- (AKS)/.45
- (ACV)/.20
- (AMZN)/.20
- (T)/.61
- (AVY)/.82
- (BJS)/.72
- (EAT)/.48
- (BNI)/1.10
- (CDWC)/.85
- (CAKE)/.25
- (CME)/3.60
- (COH)/.38
- (CYMI)/.66
- (DLX)/.53
- (ESV)/1.51
- (ETH)/.55
- (FRX)/.71
- (HTCH)/.09
- (ILMN)/.08
- (JEC)/.51
- (JBLU)/-.18
- (LXK)/1.02
- (LMT)/1.37
- (MHP)/.30
- (MWRK)/.40
- (NOC)/1.14
- (OXY)/.90
- (OMC)/1.05
- (PNRA)/.46
- (PNR)/.39
- (RDN)/1.40
- (COL)/.79
- (RUTH)/.28
- (SLM)/.75
- (SUNW)/.01
- (TLAB)/.05
- (X)/1.87
- (VFC)/1.12
- (WAT)/.53
- (WEBX)/.39
- (WHR)/1.13

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
10:00 am EST
- Consumer Confidence for April is estimated to fall to 105.0 versus a reading of 107.2 in March.
- Existing Home Sales for March are estimated to fall to 6.4M versus 6.69M in February.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by technology and automaker stocks 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.