Friday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- The International Monetary Fund(IMF) needs to shore up its finances or risk undermining its credibility with the countries it’s meant to help, according to credit rating agency S&P.

Wall Street Journal:
- Executives of Citigroup(C) say the giant bank has secured funding through year end for the $80 billion in structured investment vehicles it manages after selling $20 billion in assets since the midsummer credit crunch.

MarketWatch.com:
- Google wields its murky mobile plans in plain sight.

CNNMoney.com:
- Private equity firms may have lost their line of cheap financing, but don’t count them out yet.

Reuters:
- Web search leader Google Inc.(GOOG) reported on Thursday a 46% rise in profits that topped analysts’ expectations, as revenues grew 57% and comfortably outpaced expense growth, reassuring investors.

USA Today.com:
- Wal-Mart whacks prices to get holiday shoppers going.

Financial Times:
- Microsoft’s Xbox 360 recorded its best month of the year in September, with 528,000 consoles sold in the US on the back of the success of its Halo 3 video game, NPD, the market research firm, reported on Thursday.

Globe and Mail:
- Global bull market has legs, BCA’s Barnes says.

Economic Daily News:
- Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc., the world’s biggest chip packager and tester, expects sale to rise at least 20% next year, outperforming the global semiconductor industry’s 10% growth, citing Chairman Chang.

Nikkei:
- Japan’s government will lower its evaluation of consumer spending for the first time in 11 months in its October economic report.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (FCS), target $26.
- Reiterated Buy on (DST), target raised to $106.
- Reiterated Buy on (HSY), target $51.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.75% to +.25% on average.
S&P 500 futures -.32%.
NASDAQ 100 futures -.39%.

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
- (MMM)/1.28
- (AT)/.75
- (ACI)/.28
- (BSX)/.09
- (HOG)/1.05
- (HON)/.82
- (MCD)/.83
- (OSTK)/-.37
- (SLB)/1.06
- (FITB)/.69
- (WB)/1.04
- (XRX)/.26
- (CAT)/1.42

Upcoming Splits
- (DCR) 3-for-1
- (UCR) 3-for-1

Economic Releases
- None of note

Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed’s Bernanke speaking and the Fed’s Poole speaking could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by 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.