Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- The yen traded near a three-month low against the US dollar on speculation signs of weakening growth in Japan will keep the Bank of Japan from lifting borrowing costs at a faster pace this year.
- Acxiom Corp.(ACXM), a provider of computer and database services, agreed to be acquired by buyout firms Sliver Lack Partners and ValueAct Capital Partners LP for about $2.24 billion in cash.
- Sony Corp.(SNE) shares rose to a five-year high after CEO Howard Stringer said he’ll make good on a promise to lift profitability to 1999 levels.
- Japan’s economy, the world’s second-largest, cooled in the first quarter as companies cut spending. Gross domestic product grew at an annual 2.4% rate in the three months ended March 31, the Cabinet Office said.
- South Korea’s won is poised to reverse its gains versus the US dollar this year as more people buy overseas property and offshore borrowing by local lenders dwindles, the central bank’s top currency official said. South Korea’s currency is “highly overvalued” and has “more room to drop than rise,” Ahn Byung Chan, director general of the Bank of Korea’s international bureau, said in an interview.
- General Motors(GM) and bus-maker New Flyer Industries may sell 500 hybrid buses to Washington state’s King County, the home of Seattle, under a five-year contract valued at as much as $500 million.
- Copper futures tumbled 4.8% in Shanghai on concern that China, the world’s biggest consumer of the metal, may be oversupplied.
- China’s spending on factories and real estate grew 25.5% in the first four months of 2007 from a year earlier, suggesting the central bank may need to raise interest rates to cool investment.
- The Hong Kong dollar may fall to the lowest since 1989 in the next three months because investors will borrow in the currency to fund purchases of higher-yielding securities elsewhere, said Standard Chartered Plc.

Reuters:
- Japan’s Trade Minister Akira Amari said the economy isn’t robust enough to cope with higher interest rates.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (GOOG), target $600.
- Reiterated Buy on (EBAY), target $41.
- Reiterated Buy on (PETM), target $36.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +.50% to +1.0% on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.05%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated -.08%.

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
- (GYMB)/.64
- (INTU)/1.07
- (JCP)/1.03
- (KSS)/.63
- (MRVL)/.08
- (NTES)/.29
- (JWN)/.57

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 315K versus 297K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 2518K versus 2555K prior.

10:00 am EST
- Leading Indicators for April are estimated unch. versus a .1% increase in March.

12:00 pm EST
- The Philly Fed for May is estimated to rise to 3.5 versus a reading of .2 in April.

Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed’s Moskow speaking, Fed’s Bernanke speaking, former Fed Chairman Greenspan speaking, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, CSFB Insurance Forum, BMO Capital Agriculture and Protein Conference, Goldman Sachs Basic Materials Conference, Bank of America Smid Cap Conference, Deutsche Bank Tech Conference and Kaufman Brothers Nex-Gen Infrastructure Tech/Services Conference could also impact trading today.

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