Tuesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Australia, the world’s sixth-largest exporter, may almost double output of the grain as farmers boost plantings to a record to benefit from higher prices.
- Intel Corp.(INTC), the world’s biggest maker of semiconductors, cut its first-quarter profit forecast after an industry glut in flash-memory chips hurt efforts to expand in that market. The stock fell .44 to $19.57 in after-hours trading.
- The Bush administration will release within weeks proposals that address deficiencies in the regulation and functioning of US financial markets, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said.
- Colombia’s police chief alleged Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez helped fund Latin America’s biggest guerrilla group and has ties to the rebels going back more than 15 years.
- Australia’s central bank increased its benchmark interest rate for the second time in four weeks and said there are signs the highest borrowing costs in 12 years are prompting consumers and businesses to temper spending.
- The cost to protect Asia-Pacific corporate bonds from default fell after HSBC Holdings Plc said its earnings from lending in emerging markets like China and India offset other losses. The Markit iTraxx index of credit default swaps tied to 20 high-risk, high-yield borrowers in Asia outside Japan fell 10 basis points to 595 basis points, according to ICAP Plc.

Wall Street Journal:
- Goldman Sachs(GS) Is Close To Making Investment In Futures Exchange.
- Clinton Aims to Push Beyond Ohio and Texas.
- In separate lawsuits filed in a New York federal court, a $58-million-asset hedge fund alleges that Citigroup Inc. and Wachovia Corp., respectively, improperly required the fund to pay out more money from insurance derivatives contracts known as "credit default swaps" amid a steep decline in the value of mortgage-backed bonds.

MarketWatch.com:
- Sony Corp.(SNE) and Samsung Electronics will jointly invest an additional $5 billion to expand LCD panel production at their joint venture in South Korea.

CNBC.com:
- The Transportation Department said Monday that surface-transportation trade between the US and Canada and Mexico rose 4.9% to $797.3 billion for all of 2007.

NY Times:
- The increase over the last decade in the amount of cash, as a percent of total assets, for the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has been steep. One study shows that the average cash ratio doubled from 1998 to 2004 and the median ratio more than tripled, while debt levels fell. According to S.& P., the total cash held by companies in its industrial index exceeded $600 billion in February, up from about $203 billion in 1998.

BusinessWeek.com:
- Chavez Picks a New Fight, with Colombia.
- CEO Guide to Widgets. The customizable bits of software on Facebook and other social networking sites are the latest trend in viral marketing.
- IBM’s(IBM) director of R&D is shifting the tech giant’s focus – and making a few enormous bets.

CNNMoney.com:
- Top 20 Most Admired Companies.
- Hope Now: We’ve helped 1 million home owners. Hope Now, the foreclosure prevention coalition put together with the Bush administration’s support, claims dramatic success in helping at-risk mortgage borrowers stay in their homes.

Portfolio.com:
- Internal rifts widen at the New York Times as the news organization faces a re-energized rival.

AP:
- The FBI is investigating whether the torching of three multimillion-dollar model homes in the Seattle area was the work of eco-terrorists. A spray-painted sign near the homes said “Built Green? Nope, Black,” with the initials for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group. Explosive devices were also found in the houses.

Reuters:
- Cisco Systems(CSCO) on Monday unveiled a new router that helps phone companies and large businesses handle growing Internet traffic faster, and said it won a deal to supply Japanese phone provider NTT Corp’s next-generation network.
- Alaska's political climate, with the state hiking oil taxes and asserting claims against oil companies, is discouraging investment needed to offset the decline in oil production as Alaska fields age, the head of BP's Alaska unit said on Monday.
- Top-20 selling vehicles in US through February.

Financial Times:
- Ambac Financial Group(ABK), the US bond insurer, will not divide its operations as the company completes a recapitalization.
- Wal-Mart(WMT), one of the biggest corporate charitable donors in the US, is overhauling how it gives its money to ensure philanthropic efforts are more closely linked to its brand positioning.
- GE(GE) gains from EADS contract win. General Electric is to earn at least $5 billion over the next two decades from providing jet engines to the European-led consortium that beat Boeing(BA) in the race for a $35 billion contract for US Air Force refueling tankers.
- Big hedge funds tighten grip. The top 350 hedge funds control almost half the industry, a new study shows.

TimesOnline:
- Concerns about Chinese restrictions on foreign financial news providers escalated into a trade dispute yesterday when the European Union and the US filed a joint formal complaint at the World Trade Organization. The row centers on Beijing’s decision two years ago to require companies such as Reuters, Dow Jones and Bloomberg to distribute their information through a branch of Xinhua, the state news agency, rather than deal directly with their clients, such as banks.

Shanghai Securities News:
- China may allow investors to sell individual stocks short this year, citing Fan Fuchun, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Fan also said the regulator is “actively putting effort” into introducing stock index futures and preparing for allowing red-chip companies to sell yuan-denominated shares.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (PLCE), target $33.
- Reiterated Buy (MCHP), target $38.

Pacific Growth:
- Rated (VMW) Buy.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -1.0% to unch. on average.
S&P 500 futures -.05%.
NASDAQ 100 futures -.30%.

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
- (TECD)/.90
- (JTX)/.98
- (KCP)/.14
- (CHS)/-.15
- (AES)/.32
- (WCG)/1.62
- (SPLS)/.47

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
- None of note

Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed’s Bernanke speaking, Fed’s Fisher speaking, Fed’s Mishkin speaking, weekly retail sales reports, (EAC) analyst meeting, (JAH) analyst meeting, (ARRS) analyst meeting, (RTIX) analyst dinner, (OMTR) analyst meeting, CSFB Under Followed Opportunities Conference, Bear Stearns Retail/Restaurants/Consumer Conference, Citigroup Global Property Conference, Morgan Stanley Tech Conference and Merrill Lynch Global Auto Conference could also impact trading today.

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