Friday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Gold Is a Bad Hedge, Questionable Investment: Michael R. Sesit.
- Research In Motion(RIMM), maker of the BlackBerry e-mail phone, said second-quarter profit more than doubled and gave a forecast that beat analysts’ estimates as new products fended off a challenge from Apple’s(AAPL) iPhone.

Wall Street Journal:
- Federal Prosecutors Launch Probe of Bear Stearns(BSC) Funds.
- The biggest banking deal ever is likely to conclude today, resulting in the dismemberment of one of Europe’s largest banks.

MarketWatch.com:
- Nasdaq launches ETF market.

NY Times:
- Microsoft(MSFT) Rolls Out Personal Health Records.

USA Today.com:
- Rates on 30-year mortgages fall.

Financial Times:
- Alcatel-Lucent(ALA) looks set to lose business with AT&T(T) to its arch-rival in a fresh blow to the troubled Franco-American telecoms equipment maker.

Reuters:
- Google Inc.(GOOG), the world’s most popular Internet search engine, said it’s catching up with Baidu.com(BIDU) in China thanks to partnerships with local Internet companies.
- More than half a million toys ranging from key chains to Winnie the Pooh bookmarks and Baby Einstein color blocks are being recalled because of excessive lead, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said.
- Short interest on the NYSE resumed its rise at the end of September, increasing by .3%, the exchange said.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Business Week:
- Sotheby’s(BID) shares could rise 16% in a year. Rommel Dionisio of Wedbush Morgan Securities said investing in the auction company is a way to profit from the trend of rising wealth.
- Polycom Inc.(PLCM), a maker of video-conferencing systems, is trading below its value and could rise by more than 50% within six months to a year.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.50% to +.75% on average.
S&P 500 futures -.10%.
NASDAQ 100 futures +.02%.

Morning Preview
US AM Market Call
NASDAQ 100 Pre-Market Indicator/Heat Map
Pre-market Commentary
Pre-market Stock Quote/Chart
Before the Bell CNBC Video(bottom right)
Global Commentary
WSJ Intl Markets Performance
Commodity Movers
Top 25 Stories
Top 20 Business Stories
Today in IBD
In Play
Bond Ticker
Economic Preview/Calendar
Daily Stock Events
Macro Calls
Upgrades/Downgrades
Rasmussen Business/Economy Polling
CNBC Guest Schedule

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- None of note

Upcoming Splits
- (PCAR) 3-for-2
- (RUSHA) 3-for-2

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- The Change in Non-farm Payrolls for September is estimated at 100K versus -4K in August.
- The Unemployment Rate for September is estimated to rise to 4.7% versus 4.6% in August.
- Average Hourly Earnings for September are estimated to rise .3% versus a .3% gain in August.

3:00 pm EST:
- Consumer Credit for August is estimated to rise to $9.5 billion versus $7.5billion in July.

Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed’s Kohn speaking, Fed’s Warsh speaking and the Infectious Diseases Society of America Conference could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by commodity and financial 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.