Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Bank of America Corp.(BAC), the nation’s biggest lender, will repay $45 billion of U.S. government bailout funds, helping free the bank from curbs on executive pay that have hampered its search for a new leader. The bank will repay the Troubled Asset Relief Program using $26.2 billion of “excess liquidity” and $18.8 billion from the sale of securities, according to a statement. The firm plans to increase equity by $4 billion through asset sales, and will issue $1.7 billion of restricted stock instead of year-end bonuses to some employees.
Wall Street Journal:
- Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc.(GS)—known for its outsize profits and unapologetically handsome pay packages to go with them—has begun meeting with major investors in an effort to ward off an investor backlash over its record compensation pool. The private discussions are a first for Goldman, several shareholders said, as the Wall Street firm finds its self on the defensive over its pay, where employees are on track to earn an average of more than $700,000 apiece this year. The meetings are expected to last several more weeks and come as shareholders are filing proposals aimed at restricting pay at Goldman. Winning shareholder support for its compensation-and-benefit pool is critical for Goldman executives. While the public uproar over pay has hurt the firm's reputation, shareholders are the actual owners of the firm and the only ones with voting power to change the compensation structure. As a result, Goldman executives have been extremely focused on shareholder feedback. During these meetings, Goldman also has been asking investors how they make voting decisions on shareholder proposals, according to people who heard the conversations. Some investors say the questions suggest Goldman is developing a strategy to navigate any shareholder proposals aimed at reining in pay.
- With DVD sales waning and digital distribution not taking hold, entrepreneurs are offering Hollywood studios alterative solutions. The latest is a Web site called Movieclips.com. Users of the site, launching Wednesday, can find clips from more than 1,200 films, ranging from classics like "The Wizard of Oz" to the latest "Twilight" sequel. The Movieclips site allows fans to rent or purchase films from retailers after browsing clips; it also offers ways to share clips on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. In a rare move, all six major Hollywood studios, including Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., have agreed to license content to the site, perhaps hoping to boost DVD sales by sharing promotional content like clips.
- The National Institutes of Health approved 13 human embryonic stem-cell lines for use in federally funded research, a move that cheered investors in the politically charged field. The NIH announcement follows President Barack Obama's decision in March to lift restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. President George W. Bush had allowed such funding but limited it to 21 stem-cell lines already in place as of August 2001, saying he didn't want a federal incentive for more embryos to be destroyed.
- Within hours of the announcement, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers and candidates began seeking to distance themselves from the president, denouncing the cost of sending more troops, the corruption of the Afghan government, and the lack of emphasis on attacking al Qaeda in Pakistan, rather than simply stabilizing Afghanistan. The liberal activist group MoveOn.org distributed an "emergency petition" Wednesday, saying that Congress "must push the Obama administration to outline firm benchmarks and a binding timeline to bring all of our troops home from Afghanistan as soon as possible."
IBD:
- They're cheering for the government's stimulus package at Cerner (CERN). The $19 billion in federal stimulus funds to motivate hospitals and doctors to convert to electronic medical record-keeping means more business for the developer and vendor of health care data-keeping software and systems.
The Detroit News:
- Michigan has lost $1.9 billion in economic activity and $2.5 billion in home equity value in three years because of population declines in 63 of its 83 counties, according to a Michigan State University study.
The Business Insider:
- Anderson Cooper is fading in the ratings. The respected CNN anchor has seen his numbers slip significantly through the past year. His 10 p.m. show, "Anderson Cooper 360," has declined 62% in total viewers and 70% in adults 25-54 from November 2008, according to Nielsen figures.
Financial Times:
- The number of European companies defaulting on their debts is set to continue to run at more than twice the historic average rate until 2011, with up to 75 companies with junk credit ratings at risk of default. Standard & Poor’s said on Wednesday that while the annual default rate is likely to have peaked at 13.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2009, the slow pace of economic recovery is likely to be insufficient to save many highly leveraged and poorly performing companies. They are forecasting the default rate to be between 8.7 to 11.1 per cent next year, with 55 to 75 western European companies with sub-investment grade credit ratings at risk of default in 2010. The forecast from Standard & Poor’s is the first time the rating agency has given such a precise projection for 2010. It would mark 2010 as the third worst year on record if these defaults materialized, behind 2009 and 2002.
- CME Group(CME), the world’s biggest futures exchange, is nearing a breakthrough deal with some of the world’s biggest banks to clear credit default swaps, according to people close to the negotiations. An agreement with some banks could be announced on Thursday, capping more than a year of discussions.
Globe and Mail:
Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (WPI), target $48.
- Rated (BDX) Buy, target $85.
Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.50% to +1.0% on average.
Asia Ex-Japan Inv Grade CDS Index 110.50 unch.
S&P 500 futures +.24%.
NASDAQ 100 futures +.28%.
Morning Preview
BNO Breaking Global News of Note
Yahoo Most Popular Biz Stories
MarketWatch Pre-market Commentary
US AM Market Call
NASDAQ 100 Pre-Market Indicator/Heat Map
Pre-market Stock Quote/Chart
WSJ Intl Markets Performance
Commodity Futures
IBD New America
Economic Preview/Calendar
Earnings Calendar
Who’s Speaking?
Upgrades/Downgrades
Politico Headlines
Rasmussen Reports Polling
Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (ARST)/.13
- (CPWM)/-1.09
- (NOVL)/.07
- (DLM)/.21
- (TOL)/-.44
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Final 3Q Non-farm Productivity is estimated to rise +8.5% versus a prior estimate of a +9.5% gain.
- Final 3Q Unit Labor Costs are estimated to fall -4.1% versus a prior estimate of a -5.2% decline.
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 480K versus 466K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 5400K versus 5423K prior.
10:00 am EST
- ISM Non-Manufacturing for November is estimated to rise to 51.5 versus 50.6 in October.
Upcoming Splits
- None of note
Other Potential Market Movers
- Fed Chairman Bernanke's Senate confirmation hearings, Fed's Rosengren speaking, Treasury's Barr speaking, retail same-store-sales, ECB rate decision, weekly natural gas inventories, (FE) analyst meeting, (PRX) analyst meeting, (PFG) analyst conference, Jeffries Energy Summit, JPMorgan SMid Cap Conference, CSFB Aerospace/Defense Conference, (ATHN) analyst meeting, (GPRO) analyst meeting and the CSFB Tech Conference could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by automaker and technology shares 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment