Thursday Watch

Night Trading 

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

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 97.50 unch. 

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 21.0 +.25 basis point.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 72.24 -.01%. 

• S&P 500 futures +.28%. 

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.20%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (ACN)/1.30

• (CMC)/.12

• (CAG)/.44

• (SCHL)/-.25

• (GME)/2.29

• (KBH)/.14

• (MU)/.86

• (OXM)/.92

• (RH)/.05

• (SCVL)/.04

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST 

• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 240K versus 241K the prior week.

• Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 2040K versus 2030K prior.  

10:00 am EST

• New Home Sales for February are estimated to rise to 565K versus 555K in January.

11:00 am EST

• Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Activity for March is estimated at 14.0 versus 14.0 in February.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The House vote on AHCA, Fed's Yellen speaking, Fed's Kaplan speaking, Fed's Kashkari speaking, UK Retail Sales report, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index and the (CIEN) annual meeting could also impact trading today.

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