Thursday Watch

Evening Recommendations
Citigroup:

• Reiterated Buy on (AAPL), target $350.

Morgan Stanley:

• Reiterated Overweight on (NFLX).
• Reiterated Overweight on (AAPL), target $346.
  

Stifel Nicolaus:

• Rated (ZMH) Buy, target $58.
  
• Rated (NUVA) Buy, target $37.

Night Trading

• Asian equity indices are +.50% to +1.0% on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 127.0 -6.0 basis points.
  
• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 120.50 -5.75 basis points.
  
• S&P 500 futures -.43%.
  
• NASDAQ 100 futures -.34%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (DLM)/.26
• (COO)/.71
• (HRB)/-.41
• (ULTA)/.20
• (TTWO)/-.08

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

• Final 2Q Non-farm Productivity is estimated at -1.9% versus a prior estimate of a -.9% decline.
• Final 2Q Unit Labor Costs are estimated at +1.2% versus a prior estimate of a +.2% gain.
• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 475K versus 473K the prior week.
• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 4450K versus 4456K prior.
  

10:00 am EST

• Factory Orders for July are estimated to rise +.2% versus a -1.2% decline in June.
• Pending Home Sales for July are estimated to fall -1.0% versus a -2.6% decline in June.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• Bernanke's testimony before the Crisis Inquiry Commission, the Fed's Rosengren speaking, Fed's Pianalto speaking and the ICSC Chain Store Sales report for August could also impact trading today.
  

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