Friday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- China said a resolution by the US House of Representatives calling for an end to a crackdown on protesters in Tibet is a “rude interference” in Chinese internal affairs.
- CV Therapeutics(CVTX) and Astellas Pharma won US approval for a new drug that helps doctors detect coronary artery disease by identifying areas of poor blood flow in the heart. The share soared 18.3% in after-hours trading.
- PDL BioPharma(PDLI), the developer of technology to make cancer drugs more effective, said it will spin off and separately list its biotech business, paying shareholders a special $500 million dividend. The shares surged 14.0% in extended trading.
- The yen fell against the euro as a rally in Asian stocks gave investors confidence to buy higher-yielding currencies with loans from Japan.
- UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will urge the International Monetary Fund, which a year ago said subprime mortgage defaults wouldn’t cause widespread damage, to have a greater role in policing global financial markets.
- Delta Air Lines(DAL) and its pilots agreed on a tentative contract to clear the way for a merger with Northwest Airlines(NWA) that would create the world’s largest carrier.
- Wall Street bond dealers bid for less than the $50 billion of Treasuries that the Fed offered at an auction today, a sign that strains in credit markets may be easing.
- PIMCO’s Bill Gross lifted holdings of mortgage debt in the world’s largest bond fund to the highest since 2000, while putting on the biggest bet against government debt since at least the same year.

Wall Street Journal:
- Chinese Firms Might Struggle To Keep Up Blazing Profit Growth.
- Senior Bush administration officials have reached out to reassure international trade officials and trade partners rattled by a setback to the US push for open markets, as the House of Representatives sidelined a free-trade deal with Colombia.
- Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest bank by stock-market value, has jumped into the bidding fray for National City Corp.(NCC), which is under regulatory pressure to bolster its capital or find a buyer before the troubled Midwestern lender reports first-quarter results in about 10 days.

MarketWatch.com:
- Marketwatch Forecaster of the Month. Two-time honoree David Resler of Nomura looks at the odds of recession and whether we’ll call it that. “The puzzle about the recession-question is whether or not the decline we are experiencing will last long enough,” Resler said. Resler predicts the economy will grow at a .3% rate for the first two quarters of this year. One wildcard, says Resler, is the impact of tax rebates that will start arriving in mailboxes of 130 million households next month. He predicts those rebates, which range from $300 to $600 for individuals, plus extra credits for children, will provide a significant boost to third quarter GDP. Resler sees it snapping back to a 4% pace.

CNBC.com:
- Bank Earnings Will Be Bad, But the Worst May Be Past.

BusinessWeek.com:
- Americans Don’t Love Trucks Anymore.

IBD:
- Chip Stocks Revive As Analysts Declare Cycle Near Bottom.

Forbes.com:
- Fidelity Management & Research, acts as an investment adviser to Fidelity Investment’s family of mutual funds, and is Ambac’s(ABK) largest shareholder. It disclosed in a SEC filing that it raised its stake in Ambac to 11.8% from 3.4%. It now owns 34.2 million shares.
- US Biotechs On Sale.

Politico:
- Wealthy Democrats are preparing a four-month, $40 million media campaign centered on attacks on Senator John McCain. It will be led by David Brock, the ex-conservative founder of the liberal group Media Matters.

CNNMoney.com:
- The Bush administration has urged former President Jimmy Carter not to go forward with plans to meet with the leader of Hamas, the US State Dept. said.

SmartMoney:
- Surgical-Robot Make Intuitive Surgical(ISRG) Has More Room to Operate.

c/net:
- Yahoogle? Microspace? It makes Google(GOOG) look good.

Reuters:
- Google(GOOG) using Quattrone as merger adviser: source.

Financial Times:
- Chinese consumers have been urged to boycott French goods in response to the raucous protests that accompanied the Olympic torch through Paris.
- Australia aims regulatory fire at hedge funds. Hedge fund managers who thought they had escaped blame for the credit crunch should take a look Down Under if they want to find out what politicians have in store for them. Hedge funds operating in Australia have been put on notice that a crackdown on short-selling is on the way, to deal with fears that the current rules could encourage the spreading of false and misleading rumors.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
- None of note

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.75% to +2.0% on average.
S&P 500 futures +.33%.
NASDAQ 100 futures +.34%.

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
- (GE)/.43
- (FAST)/.51

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- The Import Price Index for March is estimated to rise 2.0% versus a .2% gain in February.
- The Preliminary Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence reading for April is estimated at 69.0 versus 69.5 in March.

Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed’s Fisher speaking and (DNR) analyst meeting could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by technology and retail stocks in the region. I expect US equities to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.