Wednesday Watch

Night Trading

• Asian equity indices are -.25% to +.50% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 110.0 -1.5 basis points.

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 84.25 +1.0 basis point.

• FTSE-100 futures +.03%.

• S&P 500 futures -.05%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.01%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (CRI)/.85
• (NRG)/-.12
• (AES)/.30
• (LAMR)/.10
• (JOY)/1.14
• (ITT)/.38
• (TGT)/1.48
• (TJX)/.81
• (JCP)/-.24
• (LTD)/1.74
• (RGR)/.82
• (MYL)/.64
• (MNST)/.41
• (CECO)/-.33
• (CPRT)/.36
• (DLTR)/.99   

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

• Durable Goods Orders for January are estimated to fall -4.7% versus a +4.6% gain in December.
• Durables Ex Transports for January are estimated to rise +.2% versus a +1.3% gain in December.
• Cap Goods Orders Nondef Ex Air for January are estimated to fall -1.3% versus a +.3% gain in December.

10:00 am EST

• Pending Home Sales for January are estimated to rise +1.8% versus a -4.3% decline in December. 

10:30 am EST

• Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil inventory build of +2,500,000 barrels versus a +4,143,000 barrel gain the prior week. Gasoline supplies are estimated to fall by -1,000,000 barrels versus a -2,884,000 barrel decline the prior week. Distillate inventories are estimated to fall by -1,550,000 barrels versus a -2,277,000 barrel decline the prior week. Finally, Refinery Utilization is estimated to rise +.2% versus a -.9% decline the prior week.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Fed's Bernanke addressing House, UK GDP, weekly MBA mortgage applications report, German consumer confidence, (CSTR) analyst day, (AAPL) annual meeting, BofA Merrill Ag Conference, Keefe Bruyette Woods Bank Conference and the KeyBanc Consumer Conference could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by mining and consumer shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.