Thursday Watch

Night Trading

• Asian equity indices are unch. to +.75% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 129.50 +1.5 basis points.

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 100.25 +2.0 basis points.

• FTSE-100 futures +.19%.

• S&P 500 futures +.36%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures  +.40%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (GCO)/2.18

• (DG)/1.01

• (ULTA)/1.07

• (ARO)/-.31

• (ZUMZ)/.61

• (PLUG)/-.07

• (CWTR)/-.82

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

• Retail Sales Advance for February are estimated to rise +.2% versus a -.4% decline in January.

• Retail Sales Ex Auto for February are estimated to rise +.1% versus unch. in January.

• Retail Sales Ex Auto and Gas for February are estimated to rise +.2% versus a -.2% decline in January.

• Initial Jobless Claims are estimated to rise to 330K versus 323K the prior week.

• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 2903K versus 2907K prior.

• The Import Price Index for February is estimated to rise +.5% versus a +.1% gain in January.

10:00 am EST

• Business Inventories for January are estimated to rise +.4% versus a +.5% gain in December.

2:00 pm EST

• The monthly budget deficit for February is estimated at -$195.0B versus -$203.5B in January.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Fed's Powell speaking, Stanley Fischer nomination hearing, China retail sales/industrial production, BoJ Minutes, 30Y $13B auction, Bloomberg March US Economic Survey, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, (UTX) investor meeting, (DYN) investor day, (OMG) investor day, (TXN) capital mgmt strategy update and the (PPG) investor day could also impact trading today.

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