Thursday Watch

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -.25% to +.50% on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 70.25 +1.0 basis point. 
• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 12.0 -.75 basis point.
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 75.30 +.04%.
• FTSE 100 futures -.86%.
• S&P 500 futures -.23%.
• NASDAQ 100 futures -.08%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (ALXN)/1.27
• (BWA)/1.01
• (GOOS)/.47
• (CAH)/1.16
• (CBG)/.92
• (CVS)/1.88
• (GT)/.78
• (HBI)/.52
• (K)/.96
• (MAS)/.43
• (PTEN)/-.08
• (PENN)/.17
• (PM)/1.35
• (REN)/4.60
• (SEE)/.57
• (SNA)/2.66
• (TWTR)/.14
• (TSN)/1.49
• (VIAB)/.95
• (WWE)/.19
• (YUM)/.80
• (ATVI)/.93
• (AIG)/.75
• (EXPE)/1.15
• (HIG)/.78
• (MHK)/3.32
• (NWSA)/.19
• (NVDA)/1.32
• (OSTK)/.03
• (SKX)/.13
• (ZG)/.19

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 232K versus 230K the prior week.
• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 1940K versus 1953K the prior week.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Fed's Kashkari speaking, Fed's George speaking, Govt funding deadline, China Trade report, $16B 30Y T-Note auction, WASDE crop report, Bloomberg Economic Survey for Feb., weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, 4Q Mortgage Delinquencies/Foreclosures reports, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, (BKE)/(LB) sales update and the (DNKN) analyst day could also impact trading today.

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