Thursday Watch

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -.75% to unch. on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 95.25 +2.25 basis points.
• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 27.50 +.5 basis point
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 70.72 -.02%. 
• S&P 500 futures +.05%. 
• NASDAQ 100 futures +.02%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (SPLS)/.25
• (SIG)/4.01
• (SHLD)/-2.85
• (IGT)/.52
• (PRTY)/.74
• (SSYS)/.05 
• (ULTA)/2.13
• (PAY)/.20
• (ZUMZ)/.67

Economic Releases

7:30 am EST

• Challenger Job Cuts YoY for February. 

8:30 am EST

• Import Price Index MoM for February is estimated to rise +.1% versus a +.4% gain in January. 
• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 238K versus 223K the prior week.
• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 2062K versus 2066K prior.  

12:00 pm EST 

• The Household Change in Net Worth for 4Q.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The ECB rate decision, WASDE crop report, $12B 30Y T-Bond auction, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report and the Susquehanna Semi/Storage/Tech Conference could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE:  Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by energy and technology 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.