Thursday, May 12, 2011

Thursday Watch


Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:

  • Portuguese Austerity May Mean Greek-Like Recession: Euro Credit. Portugal may have followed Greece into recession even before implementing austerity measures demanded for its European Union bailout that are set to further choke the economic growth needed to tame the country’s debt. Data to be released tomorrow may show the economy shrank 0.3 percent in the first quarter, economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast, matching the contraction of the previous three months. The slump may deepen as the government starts executing the spending cuts and tax increases it agreed to in return for its 78 billion-euro ($111 billion) aid package. “With the adjustment measures, the outlook for Portugal in the next few months isn’t good, particularly in terms of consumption,” said Francisco Vidal, an economist at Intermoney Valores SV SA in Madrid. Portugal is following the example of Greece, which has suffered from a deepening economic crunch as it implemented austerity plans. Greece, which received its 110-billion euro bailout a year ago, probably contracted for a sixth quarter, tomorrow’s data will show. That growing divide is reflected in the premium that investors demand to hold peripheral bonds over equivalent German debt. The spread between the yield on Portugal’s 10-year bonds and German bunds reached a euro-era record of 666 basis points on May 10 and was at 630 yesterday. For Greece the gap is at 1,239 basis points, while Irish bonds yield 756 basis points more than Germany’s. After a year of cost reductions and tax increases, Greece’s 10-year bond yields more than 15 percent, twice the rate at the time of the bailout a year ago. Portugal had raised taxes and was implementing the deepest spending cuts in more than three decades before it was forced into the rescue that will require even more aggressive reductions and revenue measures. The aid package calls for Portugal to take austerity steps that the government proposed and parliament rejected in March, leading to the collapse of Prime Minister Jose Socrates’s administration. Spending reductions for 2012 and 2013, including cuts to pensions, will amount to 3.4 percent of GDP and revenue increases will represent 1.7 percent of economic output.
  • Euro Trades Near 3-Week Low on Greece Concern. The euro traded 0.3 percent from a three-week low against the dollar on concern Greece may not receive additional aid fast enough to avoid debt restructuring. The common currency maintained its loss against most of its major counterparts after European leaders slowed Greece’s drive for extra aid, saying the debt-wracked nation must first make good on pledges to overhaul its economy. “Policy makers don’t want to signal additional aid for Greece easily, because it may have a big impact on the market,” said Junichi Ishikawa, a Tokyo-based market analyst at IG Markets Securities Ltd. “There are many euro long positions left in the market, and the debt issue is being used to reduce those bets.” “We can offer solidarity only if Greece’s stability and eagerness to reform is proven,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin. “We can get out of this difficult situation only if we properly rebuild that foundation, not just help without Greece doing anything.” The Greek two-year note yield reached a record above 26 percent yesterday as unions held their second general walkout this year, grounding flights and shutting hospitals and schools in protest against deficit reductions.
  • Kocherlakota Sees Fed Funds Rate Increase as First Step in Stimulus Exit. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Narayana Kocherlakota said he favors raising the federal funds rate as the first step in the Fed’s exit from record monetary easing. Speaking with reporters in New York today, Kocherlakota said he isn’t wedded to his strategy and “could be persuaded” to first drop the Fed’s policy of reinvesting proceeds from maturing assets into Treasury bonds, provided the change had the same effect as raising the benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point. His preferred path differs from strategies outlined by other policy makers, including Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who said last month that stopping reinvesting is “very likely” to be an early tightening step. Kocherlakota also said he favors a “more expansive” definition of “extended period” than Bernanke signaled at a press conference last month. The pledge to keep borrowing costs low for an “extended period” means to Kocherlakota that policy makers aren’t planning to raise their main interest rate for two to four meetings, he said. In prepared remarks earlier today, Kocherlakota repeated his view that the FOMC should raise the federal funds rate this year to combat an increase in inflation. “Under my baseline forecast, it would be desirable for the FOMC to raise the fed funds target interest rate by a modest amount toward the end of 2011,” he said. He said a 50 basis-point increase would be needed if a measure of consumer prices, excluding food and energy, rises by 1.5 percent in 2011. “The Fed would then be closer to its price stability mandate -- and so should ease the pressure on the monetary gas pedal,” Kocherlakota, who votes on policy this year, he told the Forecasters Club of New York.
  • Food Prices May Extend Advance, Adding to Inflationary Pressure, FAO. Food prices may extend gains, driven by higher crude oil costs, said the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization, leading to accelerating inflationary pressure from China to the U.S. “For the time being, food-price increases may continue because of high oil prices,” Hiroyuki Konuma, the FAO’s regional representative in Asia, said in an interview yesterday in Bangkok. “We’re very worried about volatile crude oil prices. There is no sign that prices will decline sharply.” Global food costs rose to near a record in April as grain costs advanced, increasing inflationary pressure from Beijing to Brasilia and spurring central banks to raise interest rates. Food-price spikes have driven 44 million people into poverty since June last year, the World Bank said, and also contributed to riots across North Africa and the Middle East that toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia. An index of 55 food commodities rose to 232.1 points last month from 231 points in March, the Rome-based FAO said in a report on May 5. The gauge climbed to an all-time high of 237.2 in February before dropping 2.6 percent in March. A further 10 million people may become impoverished if the index climbs 10 percent, the World Bank said April 16. Global food prices may rise 4.4 percent to a record 240 points by the end of the year, driven by demand for meat, oilseeds and grains used to make ethanol, William Adams, a fund manager at Zurich-based Resilience AG, which has $22.2 million of assets, said April 26. Corn has surged 79 percent in the past 12 months on speculation that more planting in the U.S., the world’s largest grower, won’t be sufficient to rebuild global stockpiles. Wheat rose 54 percent over the same period and soybeans gained 38 percent as flooding ruined crops in Canada and Australia and drought reduced harvests in Russia and Europe.
  • Oil Drops Below $100 a Barrel, Gasoline Tumbles, After U.S. Supplies Surge. Oil fell below $100 a barrel in New York and gasoline tumbled the most in more than two years after an Energy Department report showed that U.S. supplies surged and fuel demand slipped. Crude dropped 5.5 percent after the department said stockpiles jumped 3.78 million barrels to 370.3 million last week. Gasoline inventories unexpectedly increased 1.28 million barrels to 205.8 million, the first gain in 12 weeks. “We have a tremendous glut,” said Todd Horwitz, chief strategist at Adam Mesh Trading Group in New York. “The rally in commodities appears to be over. We’re going to see prices work their way lower in coming weeks.” Crude oil for June delivery fell $5.67 to settle at $98.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 29 percent from a year ago. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of 24 raw materials dropped 11 percent last week, the most since 2008, as slower growth in U.S. services and fewer German manufacturing orders stoked concern the economic recovery is faltering. Crude stockpiles climbed more than twice as much as projected last week to the highest level since May 2009, according to the department. Gasoline inventories increased the most since the first week of February. Gasoline inventories on the East Coast, known as PADD 1, surged 3.51 million barrels to 51.5 million in the seven days ended May 6, the first gain in 11 weeks. “The numbers were pretty bearish, especially for gasoline,” Schork said. “Gasoline supplies increased on the East Coast for the first time in more than two months. They had been getting dangerously low.” Consumption of the motor fuel dropped 1.3 percent to 8.83 million a day last week, the lowest level since the seven days ended February 11, the report showed. “Normally, demand rises at this time of year ahead of the summer driving season,” said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York. “Instead we’re looking at the levels associated with the winter doldrums. This is in part a response to high gasoline prices.” Refineries operated at 81.7 percent of capacity, 1.1 percentage points lower than the prior week. That’s down from 88 percent of capacity a year earlier.
  • Little Guys Are Everywhere in the New Rajaratnam World of Insider Trading. The Wall Street trader had engaged in the most widespread instance of “systemic corruption” the government had investigated. The comment, made by the office of U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani in 1987, came in the sentencing of Ivan Boesky, at the time the highest-profile defendant in what was the biggest insider-trading case the Justice Department had pursued. Prosecutors echoed those words in describing hedge-fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, who was convicted yesterday on all 14 counts of conspiracy and securities fraud after a seven-week trial and 11 days of jury deliberation. With Boesky, then one of the industry’s best-known traders, the government cracked an elite Wall Street clique that included junk-bond king Michael Milken. In contrast, Rajaratnam exploited a sprawling web of mostly lower-ranking underlings at hedge funds and technology companies in the U.S. and Asia.
  • Natural gas futures dropped for the seventh time in eight days in New York on speculation that rising production will send supplies to a record by the fall. Gas slipped 1.5% after the Energy Department said yesterday that stockpiles may climb to 3.9 trillion cubic feet by the end of October, surpassing the previous pre-winter record of 3.84 trillion. "If we start to see storage injections that match last year's levels, the market could test the three-week low below $4.15," said Gene McGillian, a broker and analyst with Tradition Energy. "We still don't have significant gas demand for cooling."
  • Taliban Raids Dim Hopes on Bin Laden Death. Taliban attacks and warnings of a stepped-up offensive following the death of Osama bin Laden may dampen U.S. hopes that the al-Qaeda leader’s death will encourage the militants to negotiate an end to the Afghanistan war. Bin Laden’s “martyrdom” will give a “new impetus” to the Taliban’s fight, the movement said May 9 in a statement on the Ansar Al-Jihad website it uses for announcements. The declaration coincided with the group’s most ambitious attacks this year, including a two-day battle in Kandahar, the country’s second-biggest city, which killed 19 people. U.S. leaders have said bin Laden’s death underscores their message to his former Taliban hosts that they should abandon violence and embrace negotiations. That’s unlikely, say analysts and former Taliban members, who point to the group’s commitment to expelling foreign forces and desire to prove that its military capability remains undiminished. “His demise might damage the Taliban’s morale, but it doesn’t mean they will stop fighting,” said Abdulhakim Mujahid, a diplomat in the Taliban’s 1996-2001 regime, who serves on President Hamid Karzai’s council seeking peace talks. “You see they are conducting dramatic operations nationwide after his death,” Mujahid said by phone in Kabul.
  • Australian Employment Unexpectedly Falls. Australian employers unexpectedly cut workers in April by the most since 2009 as hiring weakens in states less affected by the nation’s mining boom, a government report showed, sending the local currency tumbling. The number of people employed declined by 22,100, after a revised 43,300 gain in March, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. Economists in a Bloomberg News survey forecast a 17,000 increase in April, according to the median of 21 estimates.
  • Nuclear Fear Snags Loan Push by Fukushima Banks as Clients Flee Radiation.
  • Investors Shifting to Cash From Commodities. Global investors have tempered their optimism about the U.S. and world economies and plan to put more of their money in cash and less in commodities over the next six months, a Bloomberg survey found. Almost 1 in 3 of those questioned say they will hold more cash, while 30 percent intend to reduce investments in commodities, according to a quarterly Bloomberg Global poll of 1,263 investors, analysts and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers. Both results were the highest since the survey began asking the question last June. A plurality -- 40 percent -- expects oil prices to fall in the next six months, the first time respondents felt that way since the inception of this poll in July 2009. Fewer than 4 in 10 of those surveyed described the U.S. and global economies as improving, down from about 50 percent who felt that way back in January. The poll, conducted May 9-10, also found that investors’ ardor for stocks is cooling. Two in 5 intend to increase their exposure to equity markets over the next six months, down from almost 3 in 5 in the last poll in January. U.S. investors in particular have become less keen on stocks: Just 37 percent say they are increasing their exposure, down from 57 percent in the previous poll. More than half of those surveyed expect silver prices to fall further in the next six months. Sixteen percent identified commodities as one of the markets that will suffer the worst returns over the next year, more than double the proportion that said that in January. Commodities have “become a bubble, with a lot of non- specialist investors,” said Ken Welby, a salesman at KNG Securities LLP in London and a poll participant. “Demand cannot cope with the price rises that we have seen.” While the attractiveness of the U.S. is ebbing, it still comes out on top when survey participants are asked to name the best countries to invest in. Thirty-one percent cited the U.S. as among the markets that will offer the best returns over the next year, down from 37 percent in January. U.S. investors are more enthusiastic about their country than those in either Europe or Asia. Almost 2 in 5 Americans picked the U.S. as a top market. Only one-third of Asians and less than a quarter of Europeans felt that way. Brazil and China trailed the U.S. in the poll, with 1 in 4 investors citing those countries as good places to put money. Fifteen percent singled out Japan, almost double the amount that did so in January, before the country suffered a devastating earthquake and tsunami that left 24,837 dead or missing as of May 7 and cratered its stock market. More than half of those surveyed forecast that the dollar will strengthen against the euro over the next three months.
Wall Street Journal:
  • Fund Titan Found Guilty. Rajaratnam Convicted of Insider Trading; Jurors Cite Tapes: 'Just a Lot of Evidence'. Raj Rajaratnam, a billionaire hedge-fund impresario who built his fortune in the relentless cultivation of corporate contacts, was convicted Wednesday on all 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy against him in the biggest insider-trading case ever, likely accelerating an unprecedented wave of prosecutions rocking Wall Street.
  • Trial Win Adds to Momentum in Crackdown. The conviction of Raj Rajaratnam is the crest of an unprecedented wave of insider-trading cases that is expected to accelerate now that the strategy of using wiretaps against traders has proved to be a resounding success for prosecutors.
  • Bill Proposes Mortgage Shake-Up. Two lawmakers, a California Republican and a Michigan Democrat, are set to unveil legislation Thursday to replace mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with at least five private companies that would issue mortgage-backed securities with explicit federal guarantees. The measure is a compromise between conservative Republicans who have advanced bills to build a mostly private mortgage-finance system and Democrats, who say the government shouldn't abandon the mortgage market. Fannie and Freddie were taken over by the government in 2008 as rising mortgage losses wiped out thin capital cushions. Taxpayers are on the hook for $138 billion to keep the companies afloat and stabilize mortgage markets.
  • U.N. Says Iran Violated Arms Ban. Tehran has shipped conventional weapons to Syria in violation of a U.N. arms-export ban, according to a new U.N. report, which also concludes that U.N. sanctions are constraining Iran's pursuit of materiel for nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
  • SEC Investigating State Street(STT) Foreign Exchange. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating State Street Corp.'s foreign-exchange trading on behalf of pension funds in a sign that law-enforcement probes into how custody banks process tens of thousands of foreign-exchange trades are widening.
  • The Millionaire Retirees Next Door. Typical retired couples will collect $1 million or more in Social Security and Medicare. This is more than they paid in, and the cost will fall on today's workers.
MarketWatch:
  • Maverick's Ainslie Says Risk Not Properly Priced. Lee Ainslie, head of hedge fund firm Maverick Capital, said Wednesday that risk isn't being properly priced in the stock market, partly because of the Federal Reserve's latest round of government bond purchases, known as QE2.
CNBC:
  • Bernanke: Big Financial Firms Need More Regulation. Larger financial firms should face more onerous regulatory requirements to make sure they can withstand turbulence in economy or credit markets, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will say on Thursday. In a copy of his Congressional testimony obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, Bernanke said the U.S. central bank was aiming to keep international standards as consistent as possible to ensure that no big firms fall through the cracks and guarantee a level playing field. "Federal Reserve is developing more-stringent prudential standards for large banking organizations and nonbank financial firms" designated by a council of top regulators, Bernanke said in prepared remarks that did not directly touch upon the economy or monetary policy.
  • Fund Manager Steve Cohen 'Net Neutral' on US Stocks. Hedge-fund manager Steve Cohen has been "net neutral" on US equities for the past month, he'll disclose at a conference Wednesday evening, according to someone who has seen his prepared remarks.
  • US Budget Deficit to Exceed $1 Trillion Again This Year. The deficit is on pace to grow to $1.4 trillion in this budget year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That would be greater than last year's $1.29 trillion deficit and nearly match the record $1.41 trillion deficit hit in 2009. Through the first seven months of the budget year, the deficit has totaled $869.9 billion — a figure that just three years ago would have ranked as the highest ever for a full year. Soaring deficits are putting pressure on Congress and President Barack Obama to agree on a long-term plan to trim federal spending.
  • Google(GOOG) Launches Chrome PCs; Takes on Microsoft(MSFT).
Fox News:
Business Insider:
Zero Hedge:
NY Times:
  • Next Up: A Crackdown on Outside-Expert Firms. With the government securing a conviction against Raj Rajaratnam of the Galleon Group on Wednesday, federal prosecutors will shift their focus to expert networks — the intricate web of money managers, corporate executives and consultants at the center of another wave of insider trading cases.
  • Two Men Arrested in New York Terror Case. Two men who the authorities said intended to carry out a terrorist attack in New York City were arrested late Wednesday, two law enforcement officials said. Details were not immediately available, and the identities of the men were not released. A law enforcement source characterized the suspects as “homegrown,” and another said they were of North African descent.
Forbes:
CNN Money:
  • Obama Could Get His Way on Consumer Chief. A Senate Republican vow to block any nominee to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gives President Obama no choice but to appoint a head of that agency during congressional recess, a top House Democrat said Wednesday.
Examiner:
  • Skewed AP Poll Gives President Obama 60% Approval Rating. It's been said that polls can be used to prove just about any argument one wants to make. Combine that with the mainstream media's desire to see Barack Obama get re-elected, and the result is predictable. Such is the case with a new Associated Press poll released Wednesday that claims Barack Obama's approval rating is at 60 percent. There's only one problem with the poll - the sampling data is heavily skewed toward Democrats. The AP did not provide a link to the poll data, and one has to go to GfK's site to find it, but once there, one sees on page 37 that the breakdown of Democrats to Republicans is 46 - 29. With a huge 17 point difference in the smpling rate, it is no wonder Obama's numbers are so high. Moreover, those polled were listed as "adults" rather than "registered voters" or "likely voters. Is the AP "cooking the books" with its polls in order to prop up the President?
Rasmussen Reports:
Reuters:
  • AIG's(AIG) $9 Billion Offering Could Be Pulled - Sources. American International Group and the U.S. Treasury on Wednesday said they will sell around $9 billion (5.5 billion pounds) in AIG stock, but sources familiar with the situation said the Treasury would pull the sale if it can not be done profitably. AIG shares have fallen by more than a third this year, bringing the stock close to the government's $28.72-a-share break-even point. There has been speculation in recent days that the offering would have to be priced well below that in order to get done. But the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Treasury was committed to making a profit on this and future offerings and would pull the deal off the table if it could not do so.
  • Cisco(CSCO) Warns of Sales Miss, Eyes $1 Billion Savings. Cisco Systems Inc warned that it will fare worse this quarter than Wall Street had feared, and laid out plans for global job cuts as it struggles to revive growth. Shares of Cisco fell 3 percent after the world's largest networking equipment maker projected nearly flat sales growth this quarter.
  • Texas Grid Says EPA Rules Force Gas Plants to Shut.
  • Big Oil: Ending US Tax Breaks Would Up Fuel Price. The world's biggest oil companies on Wednesday launched broadsides against Democratic plans to pare back some of their cherished U.S. tax breaks, saying the measure was "un-American" and would only push up already high gasoline prices.
Financial Times:
  • Commodity Hedge Funds Upbeat After Mauling. The dramatic sell-off in commodities last week was, as Rick Boland, chief operating officer of the world’s largest commodity hedge fund, Clive Capital, said, “a five standard deviation event” – geek speak for the kind of thing that should occur once in 5,000 years. But crucially such losses – unattractive though they are – have done little, if anything, to dent managers’ confidence in the long commodities play. As Mr Hall told Astenbeck clients in a letter at the begLinkinning of the month: “Higher oil prices are not an aberration but part of a – to use a cliché – new normal.”
  • Europe Close to Compromise Deal on Swaps Ban. The prospect of Europe imposing a permanent ban on trading in “uncovered” credit default swaps on sovereign debt has receded after senior diplomats threw their weight behind a compromise on how new short-selling rules should work. Under a deal likely to be endorsed by European Union finance ministers next week, naked short-selling of cash government bonds would be banned. But EU countries would be able to ask for this bar to be lifted temporarily if liquidity in sovereign debt markets fell below certain thresholds. There would be no general ban on uncovered sovereign credit default swaps.
Telegraph:
  • Euro Meltdown Eclipses UK Travails. For the eurozone, William Hague's powerfully evocative analogy of being stuck in a burning house with no exits has never been more apposite. Having temporarily doused the blaze in Portugal, the fire brigade is now rushing back to the site of the original inferno, Greece, where fresh flames are rising. There's a strangely Alice in Wonderland quality to it all. Even though the original Greek bail-out has unambiguously failed, policymakers feel they have no option but to chuck good money after bad, knowing that a sovereign debt restructuring and/or departure from the euro would bring even worse chaos, not just to Greece, but to much of the rest of the eurozone. If Greece goes, Ireland and Portugal wouldn't be far behind, requiring massive recapitalisation of the European banking system, and the European Central Bank, which has taken vast quantities of eurozone sovereign debt as collateral against funding. The only question now is whether the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) lends a further €50bn, which buys Greece another year, or €150bn, giving it a three years before it has to return to markets. Either way, the eventual costs of restructuring are going to be ever more concentrated in the hands of the eurozone's more solvent states. The way things are going, there won't be any private sector investors left to burden share with; by the time the losses are crystallised, virtually all the debt will be owned by the EFSM and the ECB. A massive fiscal transfer from Germany and its satellites to the periphery will have taken place. And yet like some unstoppable juggernaut, the process trundles on towards its doom.
Kyodo News:
  • Komatsu Ltd. is considering scheduling four-day weeks at its Tokyo headquarters during Japan's summer to help cope with possible power shortages, citing President Kunio Noji.
China Daily:
  • Guangzhou city in southern China will require dog owners to insert microchips in their pets by the end of July to help control the large number of the animals, citing an official from the public security bureau. Violations may be fined as much as 2,000 yuan.
China Securities Journal:
  • China's room to further tighten monetary policy isn't large if the inflation situation doesn't improve, the China Securities Journal said in a commentary on its front page today. The possibility of the central bank stepping up open market operations or increasing banks' reserve requirement ratios can't be ruled out while liquidity is still ample.
Beijing:
  • Some banks in Beijing may raise mortgage down payments for first home purchases to 40% from current 30%, citing bank officials.
Shanghai Securities News:
  • China's National Development and Reform Commission has asked local governments to stop industry groups from forming agreements that create "price monopolies" as part of efforts to curb inflation. In addition to monetary and fiscal policies, China is also able to use "window guidance" to rein in consumer prices, citing an analyst.
Oriental Morning Post:
  • China may allow short-selling of 23 exchange traded funds. Investors will be allowed to borrow the funds on margin and sell them.
Evening Recommendations
Citigroup:
  • Reiterated Buy on (SYMC), raised target to $24.
  • Reiterated Buy on (INTC), target $27.
  • Reiterated Buy on (M), boosted estimates, raised target to $44.
Night Trading
  • Asian equity indices are -1.25% to -.25% on average.
  • Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 106.50 +1.5 basis points.
  • Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 114.0 unch.
  • S&P 500 futures +.01%.
  • NASDAQ 100 futures -.19%.
Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
  • (KSS)/.72
  • (NVDA)/.19
  • (CA)/.50
  • (JWN)/.67
  • (PCP)/1.91
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
  • Initial Jobless Claims are estimated to fall to 430K versus 474K the prior week.
  • Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 3700K versus 3733K prior.
  • The Producer Price Index for April is estimated to rise +.6% versus a +.7% gain in March.
  • The PPI Ex Food & Energy for April is estimated to rise +.2% versus a +.3% gain in March.
  • Advance Retail Sales for April are estimated to rise +.6% versus a +.4% gain in March.
  • Retail Sales Ex Autos & Gas for April are estimated to rise +.5% versus a +.6% gain in March.
10:00 am EST
  • Business Inventories for March are estimated to rise +.9% versus a +.5% gain in February.
Upcoming Splits
  • (ACGL) 3-for-1
Other Potential Market Movers
  • The weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, 30-Year Treasury Bond Auction, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, Barclays Chemical Conference, FBR Energy/Industrials Conference, Deutsche Bank Semi Conference, Goldman Consumer Products Symposium, (TLM) investor day, (NIHD) investor meeting and the (HAE) analyst day could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are lower, weighed down by commodity and financial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.

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