Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- The euro fell to a six-week low against the US dollar before a meeting today at which traders expect the European Central Bank will keep rates unchanged while signaling concern that economic growth is slowing.
- The US should maintain its current biofuels policy because it’s a bridge to second-generation fuels that won’t rely on food crops, according to cellulosic ethanol producers. “Now isn’t the time to waffle,” Verenium Corp. CEO Carlos Riva said. “We’re right on the doorstep of deployment. We’ve taken a space-race approach to it.” US ethanol production climbed to a high of 518,000 barrels a day in February. There are 147 ethanol distilleries in the US, with the capacity to produce about 8.5 billion gallons of the fuel annually. “This is paving the way for cellulosic fuel,” said Steen Riisgaard, CEO of Novozymes A/S, the world’s biggest maker of enzymes to make biofuel. Development of grain-based ethanol “infrastructure is necessary for cellulosic ethanol to take off.”
- David Leaver, senior trader at Gain Capital Group’s Forex.com sees the US dollar rising to $1.40 versus the euro. (video)
- President Bush will ask Saudi Arabia to increase oil production when he visits Riyadh, the Saudi capital, next week. Bush asked the Saudis to increase oil production when he last visited Saudi Arabia in January. Oil prices have climbed 31% since that appeal.
- Google Inc.(GOOG), owner of the most popular Internet search engine, is considering running illustrated advertisements alongside the results of Web queries for pictures, moving beyond its text-based ad business.
- Advanced Micro Devices(AMD) plans to sell semiconductors with six processors built into one piece of silicon, part of an effort to wrest sales away from Intel(INTC).
- India Expands Ban on Trading of Food Futures to Curb Inflation.
- New Zealand’s employment fell by the most in 19 years in the first quarter as plunging business confidence prompted companies to fire workers, adding to signs economic growth has stalled.
- The yuan fell the most in more than a week on speculation China’s economic growth will slow as demand for its exports wane.

Wall Street Journal:
- About a dozen of the nation’s largest oil companies agreed to settle litigation with 153 public water providers in 17 states that sued over groundwater contaminated by the gasoline additive MTBE.
- Clinton Vows to Press Ahead As Obama Camp Maps Strategy.
- The White House’s top economist said he’s confident the US economy hasn’t dipped into recession, and expressed optimism that stimulus checks could bolster growth in the current quarter, earlier than expected. NBER says a recession is marked by a significant decline in economic activity, lasting more than a few months and seen in real gross domestic product, real income, employment, industrial production and wholesale-retail sales. “I would be very surprised if the NBER, looking back at this period, would date this as a recession,” Mr. Lazear said.

MarketWatch.com:
- The US wind power industry remains on tract to continue its record run in 2008 after the sector installed 1,400 megawatts of new generating capacity in the three months ended March 21. The new wind power plans installed in the first quarter of this year produce enough electricity to serve the equivalent of 400,000 homes.
- In its partnership unveiled Wednesday with Sprint Nextel(S) on a next-generation wireless network, Google Inc.(GOOG) has tapped yet another route to ensure itself a prominent place in the mobile-Internet marketplace.

NY Times:
- Wave of Lawsuits Over Losses Could Hit a Wall. Finding someone to sue over losses in the mortgage market and the credit crisis is easy. Winning in court, lawyers say, will be hard.

BusinessWeek.com:
- Chip Equipment: Hitting Bottom? After a year of suffering, and a sharp decline for the year, makers of semiconductor equipment are gearing up for a new spending cycle in 2009.
- What’s Right with Biofuels. Recent hand-wringing about the costs associated with ethanol and other biofuels overlooks the urgency of finding alternatives to petroleum.

CNNMoney.com:
- 10 fastest growing real estate markets.

SmartMoney:
- Top 5: Strong Housing Markets.

Portfolio.com:
- Here is some good, old fashioned irrational exuberance: I don’t think travel this summer will be as arduous or as infuriating as it was last year.

USA Today.com:
- As fuel prices rise, some speedometer needles fall.

Reuters:
- InterContinental Hotels Group, the world’s largest hotelier, wants to hire almost 50,000 people in the United States over the next three to five years.

Financial Times:
- EU trade chief hits at Democrat hopefuls. Peter Mandelson, European trade commissioner, has said the protectionist stances taken by the US presidential candidates risk taking the world trading system back by decades. Mr. Mandelson said: “It is irresponsible to be pretending to people you can erect new protection, new tariff barriers around your economy in this 21^st century global age and still succeed in sustaining peoples’ living standards and jobs. It is a mirage and they know it.”
- The US and Europe now have a united desire to see the dollar strengthen against the euro, senior officials told the Financial Times.
- The chairman and CEO of BlackRock(BLK), the US asset manager, has donated $10 million to one of the world’s leading business schools to foster better understanding between the academic and financial worlds in the wake of the credit squeeze.

The Guardian:
- Burma death toll could reach 100,000.

South China Morning Post:
- Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels Ltd., owner of the luxury Peninsula chain, expects business in Asia to be hurt by the global economic slowdown, citing Chairman Michael Kadoorie.

Shanghai Securities:
- China should watch for a possible large-scale exit of so-called “hot money,” which may impose “huge downward pressure” on the yuan, citing a researcher a the commerce industry. Capital outflows from China may be triggered by the collapse of the US subprime mortgage market and as overseas investors sell local assets after returns peak, citing Mei Xinyu, who works at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (MCCC), target $11.
- Reiterated Buy on (GME), target $66.
- Reiterated Buy on (AMT), target $51.
- Reiterated Buy on (MFE), target $42.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -1.0% to +.50% on average.
S&P 500 futures +.18%.
NASDAQ 100 futures +.24%.

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
- (FIG)/.14
- (ENER)/-.05
- (MIC)/.62
- (OMG)/1.95
- (PDX)/.68
- (DYN)/.04
- (NDAQ)/.49
- (AMSC)/-.11
- (CELG)/.34
- (CPKI)/.07
- (VRSN)/.20
- (SGMS)/.23
- (ATVI)/.05
- (AIG)/-.21
- (MIR)/.66
- (PCLN)/.59
- (GLBC)/-1.15
- (NVDA)/.38
- (EP)/.30
- (BRL)/.78
- (MYL)/.08
- (CVC)/.02

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Initial Jobless Claims for this week are estimated to fall to 370K versus 380K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 3020K versus 3019K prior.

10:00 am EST
- Wholesale Inventories for March are estimated to rise .5% versus a 1.1% increase in February.

Other Potential Market Movers
- The ICSC chain store sales, (SYK) analyst meeting, (ASF) analyst day, (ASYT) analyst day, (TXN) analyst meeting, (MTSN) analyst meeting, Needham Internet Conference, DA Davidson Financial Services Conference, Bank of America Basics/Industrials Conference, Merrill Lynch Technology Conference and Merrill Lynch Global Industries Conference could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by financial and mining shares 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.