Wednesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Lead fell 4.1% to a five-month low on expectations Ivernia Inc., banned from exporting 3% of the world’s mined lead output, will be able to resume exports. Copper declined 1.4% after another jump in stockpiles on the LME took supplies to a nine-month high.
- Crown Ltd., Australia’s biggest casino owner, agreed to buy Cannery Casino Resorts LLC for $1.75 billion cash, gaining four venues in Nevada and Pennsylvania.
- China Bulls Get First Sight of Bear as Market Slide Hits Funds.
- China’s retail sales increased at the quickest pace in at least eight years on rising incomes, aiding government efforts to curb the economy’s dependence on exports and investment for growth.
- North African militants linked with al-Qaeda said they organized two suicide bombings in the Algerian capital that killed more than 60 people, in the nation’s worst attack since Islamist massacres in the 1990s.
- The yen fell against all 16 of the world’s most-active currencies on speculation Japanese investors are sending money overseas to purchase higher-yielding assets.

Wall Street Journal:
- Parsing the Fed: How the statement changed.
- When Swiss bank UBS AG wrote down its subprime-mortgage investments by an additional $10 billion this week, an obscure and sometimes maligned credit-market index played a key role. The index is called the ABX.

NY Times:
- China Agrees to Post US Safety Officials in Its Food Factories.

MarketWatch.com:
- Cautious Fed cuts key rate by quarter-point. Markets slide after Fed doesn’t signal whether it’s open to future rate cuts.
- Helping to spread the wealth. US asset managers could be big winners from booming sovereign funds.

BusinessWeek.com:
- Smooth Sailing for Software Stocks. S&P likes the Systems Software subindustry’s stock-price momentum and positive fundamental outlook. Among its top picks: Microsoft(MSFT) and Oracle(ORCL).

CNBC.com:
- The Federal Reserve is considering using measures in addition to interest-rate cuts to stop credit from drying up, Steve Liesman said, citing a Fed official who asked not to be named. (video) The tools might “be seeing the light of day sooner rather than later,” Liesman said the official told him.

USA Today.com:
- Gas price drops below $3 a gallon.
- More Americans own pets than ever before, and they’re spending more money to keep them healthy, according to a survey released today by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Financial Times:
- The amount of money managed by so-called quant funds has dropped by up to 40% in the past six months, as the drawbacks of the once rapidly growing strategy have been laid bare by the credit market turmoil.

London-based Times:
- The biggest shuffle of the FTSE 100 index since the days of the dot-com crash is expected tomorrow, with seven companies likely to be replaced in the quarterly rearrangement.

International Herald Tribune:
- China has banned US movies from its cinemas.

China Daily:
- Chinese tour groups will be allowed to visit the US for the first time next year under an agreement signed yesterday in Beijing.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (T), target $47.
- Reiterated Buy on (HPQ), target $60.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -2.25% to -.75% on average.
S&P 500 futures +.25%.
NASDAQ 100 futures +.36%.

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
- (ADCT)/.22
- (MATK)/.20
- (CKR)/.13

Upcoming Splits
- (XTO) 5-for-4
- (DNR) 2-for-1

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- The Trade Deficit for October is estimated to widen to -$57.4 billion versus -$56.5 billion in September.
- The Import Price Index for November is estimated to rise 2.0% versus a 1.8% gain in October.

2:00 pm EST
- The Monthly Budget Deficit for November is estimated to widen to -$95.0 billion from -$73.0 billion in October.

Other Potential Market Movers
- The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications report, weekly EIA energy inventory data, (BDC) investor day, (SUN) analyst meeting, (YUM) analyst conference, (LII) analyst meeting, (MALL) analyst meeting, (ISV) analyst meeting, (DHR) analyst meeting, CIBC Virtualization Conference and Wedbush Morgan California Dreamin’ Conference could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are lower, weighed down by commodity and financial stocks in the region. I expect US equities to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.