Wednesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- McDonald’s Corp.(MCD), which sold its first hamburger 52 years ago, says it now sells more chicken than Kentucky Fried Chicken.
- The queue of ships waiting to load coal at Newcastle, Australia, the world’s largest coal-export harbor, may fall 50% by June, according to the Hunter Valley Coal Chain Logistics Team.

Reuters:
- International Business Machines(IBM) agreed to sell and support Red Hat’s(RHAT) Linux software on large corporate computers.

Economic Times:
- ONGC Videsh Ltd. and a group of other Indian state-run companies have discovered oil and gas in Iran. The Farsi field may have as much as 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1 billion barrels of oil.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (URBN), target $30.
- Reiterated Buy on (CVS), target $43.
- Reiterated Buy on (HPQ), target $55.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are unch. to +.50% on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.03%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated -.14%.

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
- (AZPN)/.15
- (B)/.40
- (BRL)/.61
- (CGX)/1.03
- (CXR)/.13
- (DTV)/.30
- (EIX)/.65
- (FLS)/.56
- (FWLT)/.73
- (FTO)/.77
- (GMKT)/.12
- (HGSI)/-.42
- (IO)/.03
- (LM)/1.17
- (MGAM)/-.05
- (NWS/A)/.28
- (ONXX)/-.44
- (PEIX)/.02
- (PCP)/1.27
- (SINA)/.18
- (STN)/.59
- (TK)/1.07
- (TXU)/1.13

Upcoming Splits
- (ATR) 2-for-1
- (VOLV) 5-for-1
- (TCK) 2-for-1

Economic Releases
10:30 am EST
- Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil build of 875,000 barrels versus a 1,169,000 barrel increase the prior week. Gasoline supplies are estimated to rise by 150,000 barrels versus a -1,115,000 barrel drawdown the prior week. Distillate inventories are expected to rise by 450,000 barrels versus a -198,000 barrel decline the prior week. Finally, refinery utilization is expected to rise by 1.0% versus a .46% increase the prior week.

2:15 pm EST
- The FOMC is expected to keep the benchmark fed funds rate at 5.25%.

Other Potential Market Movers
- The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications report, (TXN) financial analyst meeting, (NT) investor technology day, Robert Baird Growth Stock Conference, Bear Stearns Global Transportation Conference, UBS Global Generic/Specialty Pharma Conference, Goldman Consumer Products Symposium, BIO Intl. Convention, Piper Jaffray Semi/Communications Conference, AG Edwards Lodging/Leisure Symposium and Bank of America Basic/Industrials Conference could also impact trading today.

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