Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, one day after losing the Texas and Ohio primaries, signaled he would fight back more aggressively against attacks from rival Hillary Clinton.
- President Bush gave his formal endorsement to John McCain today as the man who will lead their party into the November general election.
- Iraq, holder of the world’s third-largest crude oil reserves, is in “advanced” negotiations with international companies to develop five oil fields.
- Thornburg Mortgage(TMA) Gets Default Notice, Stock Falls.

MarketWatch.com:
- Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer says the devices out there are a sign of “unprecedented demand” and aren’t bad for the company.
- Contrarians getting more cheerful. Recent events make them believe the stock market’s Jan. 22 low won’t be broken.

CNBC.com:
- Ambac Financial’s(ABK) $1 billion common stock offering, aimed at raising capital to maintain the bond insurer’s AAA rating, is “fully subscribed.”

NY Times:
- The world appears to be on the verge of a boom in a little-known but promising typoe fo solar power.

BusinessWeek.com:
- The On Point Group LLC announced today the addition of three top level speakers to its Investor & Hedge Fund Risk Summit, taking place on March 12^th and 13^th at the 3 West Club in New York City.
- Apple(AAPL) Goes Corporate. Jobs & Co. have a union between the consumer-friendly iPhone and Corporate America in mind.
- Costco(COST) and BJ’s(BJ) post solid sales growth even as other merchants falter. How have these big-box behemoths sidestepped the retail slowdown?

IBD:
- Adobe(ADBE) Betting On Its Abilities In Rich Internet Applications.
- ‘Mainframe Renaissance’ Sparks Growth Revival For BMC(BMC).

CNNMoney.com:
- Lawmakers take aim at CEO compensation.
- Intel(INTC): It’s not as bad as it looks.

SmartMoney:
- Tax Season Should Favor Intuit’s(INTU) Stock.

USA Today.com:
- Goldman(GS) bandwagon draws Wall Streeters.
- Mortgage applications up as rates plunge below 6%.
- Audi, other automakers want more US production.

Cambridge Energy Research:
- Yergin: Renewables Moving Toward Competitive Role in Energy Markets.

Reuters:
- Fed must act to stem crisis, Pianalto says.
- Terrible returns equal tiny inflows for hedge funds.

AP:
- The world’s largest wind-turbine maker officially opened its first US manufacturing plant Wednesday on Colorado’s northern plains, where it expects to produce blades for 600 turbines a year.

Financial Times:
- Hedge fund fears push up Libor rates.
- Hunter among hedge funds is now the hunted.
- Washington attacked OPEC on Wednesday for its refusal to increase oil production on Wednesday after an unexpected drop in US crude oil inventories pushed prices to a record high.

TimesOnline:
- Citic seeks bigger stake in Bear Stearns(BSC) after share price drops.
- Yahoo!(YHOO) sidesteps Microsoft(MSFT) coup attempt by switching shareholders’ deadline.
- Premier Wen Jiabao pledges to fight inflation gripping China.

International Herald Tribune:
- Israel test “suicide bomber-resistant” buses in Jerusalem, frequent bus attack target.

AFP:
- Nissan Motor Co. will release an electric vehicle in the US in 2010, two years before the automaker’s previously announced target, citing Nissan’s CEO.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Upgraded (FLR) to Buy, target $190.50.
- Maintained Buy on (XOM), target $110.
- Upgraded (MDR) to Buy, target $78.50.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +1.25% to +2.25% on average.
S&P 500 futures +.43%.
NASDAQ 100 futures +.58%.

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
Upgrades/Downgrades
Rasmussen Business/Economy Polling
CNBC Guest Schedule

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (JOYG)/.62
- (URBN)/.29
- (BBI)/.19
- (NSM)/.25
- (ZQK)/-.10
- (COO)/.46
- (CPRT)/.40
- (MRVL)/.11
- (KFY)/.36

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Initial Jobless Claims for this week are estimated to fall to 360K versus 373K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 2810K versus 2807K prior.

10:00 am EST
- Pending Home Sales for January are estimated to fall 1.0% versus a 1.5% increase in December.

1:30 pm EST
- ICSC Chain Store Sales for February are estimated to rise .6% versus a .5% gain in January.

Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed’s Poole speaking, Fed’s Rosengren speaking, weekly EIA natural gas inventory data, (SD) analyst meeting, (BNI) analyst meeting, (IBM) investor briefing, IT investor day, (JNPR) analyst meeting, (LMNX) investor day, (HRS) analyst meeting, Bear Stearns Retail/Restaurants/Consumer Conference, UBS Energy Conference and UBS Engineering/Construction Conference could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are sharply higher, boosted by commodity and automaker stocks in the region. I expect US equities to open modestly higher and to maintain gains into the afternoon. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.