Thursday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:     

• Asian Stocks Set to Gain; 10-Year Yield Eyes 3.1%.  

• Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day.

• Mueller Turns His Focus to Longtime Trump Adviser Roger Stone.

• Venture Capitalists Fret Over U.S. Bill Targeting Chinese Investors.

Wall Street Journal:

• European Firms Start Pulling Back From Iran.

• Venezuela’s Creditors Are Cutting Its Crude-Oil Lifeline.

MarketWatch.com:

• Here are Morgan Stanley’s(MS) 30 top stock picks.

Fox News:

• Mueller will follow DOJ guidelines saying sitting president can’t be indicted, Giuliani says.

CNBC:    

• Cisco(CSCO) drops despite earnings beat.

• Here are the stocks the top-performing hedge funds are buying — including Chipotle.

• After-hours buzz: CSCO, JACK & more.   

• Ford to resume production of popular F-Series pickup.

• Small-cap stocks quietly rise to new all-time high.

• These humanoid robots will make you question reality.

Zero Hedge:      

• Mueller Tells Trump Team He Won't Indict President: Giuliani.

• "Operation Crossfire Hurricane": FBI Sent Strzok On Secret Mission To London Before Election.

• The Trump-volution Explained In 4 Macro Charts.

• Broke Illinois Pension System Leaves Every Resident With $11,000 Of Debt.

• Senate Votes To Save Net Neutrality.

• Peter Navarro "Who Behaved Erratically And Unprofessionally", To Be Excluded From China Talks.

• Dollar Drops, Yields Pop As Small Caps Squeeze To New Record High.

Business Insider:

• Preakness Stakes 2018: Post positions and opening odds for the second leg of the Triple Crown.

• What's happening in the bond market could be pointing to a stock rally ahead.

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -.25% to +.75% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 76.0 unch. 

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 13.0 +.75 basis point.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 71.71 -.02%.

• FTSE 100 futures +.03%.

• S&P 500 futures +.04%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.04%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate 
Before the Open:

• (DDS)/2.77

• (TK)/-.08

• (PLCE)/2.21

• (WMT)/1.12

After the Close:

• (AMAT)/1.15

• (JWN)/.45

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

• Initial Jobless Claims for last week is estimated to rise to 215K versus 211K the prior week.

• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 1780K versus 1790K prior. 

• The Philly Fed Business Outlook Index for May is estimated to fall to 21.0 versus 23.2 in April.

 10:00 am EST

• The Leading Index for April is estimated to rise +.4% versus a +.3% gain in March.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Fed's Kashkari speaking, Australia Unemployment report, Bloomberg Economic Expectations Index for May, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index and the (ZEN) analyst day could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE:  Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by technology and commodity 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.