Wednesday Watch

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -.50% to +.50% on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 113.5 -1.25 basis points.
• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 32.0 -.75 basis point.
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 70.79 unch. 
• S&P 500 futures +.05%. 
• NASDAQ 100 futures +.24%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (MO)/.67
• (ANTM)/1.67
• (ADP)/,81
• (AVY)/.93
• (BAX)/.52
• (IR)/.92
• (JCI)/.52
• (MDC)/.67
• (PBI)/.57
• (TUP)/1.37
• (ALL)/1.60
• (CRUS)/1.62
• (FB)/1.31
• (IAC)/.95
• (LSTR)/.87
• (LM)/.65
• (MET)/1.34
• (OI)/.48
• (RGLD)/.38
• (SYMC)/.28
• (TSCO)/.91
• (WFT)/-.33 

Economic Releases 
8:15 am EST

• The ADP Employment Change for January is estimated to rise to 168K versus 153K in December.

9:45 am EST

• Final Markit US Manufacturing PMI for January is estimated at 55.1 versus a prior estimate of 55.1.
  

10:00 am EST

• ISM Manufacturing for January is estimated to rise to 55.0 versus 54.7 in December.
• ISM Prices Paid for January is estimated at 65.5 versus 65.5 in December.
• Construction Spending MoM for December is estimated to rise +.2% versus a +.9% gain in November.   

10:30 am EST

• Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil inventory build of +2,550,090 barrels versus a +2,840,000 barrel gain the prior week.  Gasoline supplies are estimated to rise by +1,363,640 barrels versus a +6,796,000 barrel gain the prior week. Distillate supplies are estimated to fall by -336,000 barrels versus a +76,000 barrel gain the prior week. Finally, Refinery Utilization is estimated to fall -.11% versus a -2.4% decline prior.
  

2:00 pm EST

• The FOMC is expected to leave the benchmark Fed Funds rate at .5-.75%.

Afternoon:

• Total Vehicle Sales for January are estimated to fall to 17.5M versus 18.29M in December.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Eurozone PMI report, weekly MBA mortgage applications report and the (F) sales conference call could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE:  Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by commodity and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.